Experiencing Jade Kholy live was a surprise, not just because of her talent, but because of the way she turns a small stage into a space where every note feels alive. From the very first moment, I knew I wasn’t just photographing a concert; I was photographing a force.
With my Canon 5D Mark III, along with the 70–300mm and Praktica 135mm, I went into full hunter mode, chasing moments rather than poses. The light was minimal, harsh, unpredictable… but that’s exactly what makes concert photography both a challenge and a pleasure. You push the ISO, embrace the noise, adapt to the chaos, and trust your eye to do what technique alone can’t.
The 70–300mm allowed me to get close to Jade without breaking the magic. It compresses the background, cleans the scene, and leaves her voice floating in a thin line of light. The grain that appears in the shadows isn’t a flaw, it’s the texture of the night, the fingerprint of a real environment.
The Praktica 135mm, on the other hand, helped me chase soul. That old, imperfect lens forces you to stop obsessing over sharpness and focus on emotion instead. Its soft bokeh, uneven contrast, and delicate transitions between shadow and light turn Jade into a figure that feels dreamlike, or like a memory that refuses to fade.
In one of the most intimate shots, Jade sings with her eyes closed, leaning into the microphone. There’s no performance there; only surrender. Her expression, her breathing, the posture of her body… that’s when I understood that concert photography isn’t about capturing “the moment,” but the emotional state behind it.
In other shots, with the full band behind her, the scene shifts. The sound feels wider. The musicians lift, push, and support her, and Jade moves among them with a confidence that speaks of experience and truth. She’s not just singing; she’s interpreting, vibrating, leading.
Photographing this concert was an act of intuition more than technique. Sometimes the light doesn’t help. Sometimes the focus slips. Sometimes the subject moves too fast. But when everything aligns; the voice, the gesture, the shadow, the click; you’re left with a real fragment of what happened there.
These photos are exactly that: my way of saying that, for one night, music had a face, a body, and a heartbeat… and her name was Jade Kholy.
