My daughter, Nyusha, getting one of her first meals. She’s a few hours old here, we’re still in the delivery room.

Another shot from the same Fedorov-Volkov show in Elbo Room, this time of Volkov alone with his double bass.

Leonid Fedorov and Vladimir Volkov perform in San Francisco’s Elbow Room last week.

Over the years, a significant portion of my social life had to do with modern Russian music. I would go to pretty much all the shows, would know and hang out with a lot of the people, I was part of the “scene”. I don’t do that so much anymore.

Fedorov, however, is an exception. Whenever he’s around (be it solo, as part of Auktyon, together with Volkov, whatever) I come to listen. Sometimes I also take pictures.

Alex Zuzin, lead singer of the local band “Modorass” preforms at their inaugural album-release fundraiser at Retox SF. When I was asked to take pictures at the concert, I did two things: I duct-taped an old Vivitar flash to the ceiling and shot wirelessly using my digital canon for most of the concert. I also loaded a roll of Neopan 1600 into my Olympus OM-4 and did what I could with available light.

As you’d expect, the pictures turned out very very different. I will be posting some of the digital ones in a few days. I still haven’t made up my mind as to which ones I like better. Apples to oranges.