At the end of May 2016, I visited the medieval festival called Rotenstein. The festival is held in a beautifully preserved medieval keep in Small Carpathians called Červený kameň, or Rotenstein in German. Visitors could enjoy lots of shows, including short plays inspired by medieval tales, workshops, falconry shows and jousting tournaments. This was my second visit of the festival and although the program was nice, I think it wasn’t as smooth and well organized compared to last year.
In mid-May 2016, I shot the semifinals and finals of ITF Empire Slovak Open, the largest women’s tennis tournament in Slovakia. This ITF tourmanet with the prize money of 100 000 Dollars serves as the International women’s championship of Slovakia. Katerina Siniakova won the singles, defeating Anastasia Sevastova in a three set battle. In doubles, the talented Slovak junior Tereza Mihalikova claimed the title with her team-mate Anna Kalinskaya. They defeated the higher-ranked duo Anastasia Sevastova and Evgenyia Rodina in two sets.
In April 2016, I visited Florence for the first time along with some of my friends. The goal was to get to know the city, that is often labeled as the birthplace of Renaissance. Since it was my first visit, I concentrated on the most famous landmarks, such as Santa Maria del Fiore, Basilica di Santa Croce, Palazzo Vecchio, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti and its gardens and more. Despite many beautiful buildings, I found Florence to be a little less “visually rich” compared to Venice. Hopefully I’ll be able to return soon to explore less known places away from the main tourist paths.
On May 5th, I had the opportunity to photograph Hans Zimmer, world renowned Oscar winning movie sountrack composer, during his live performance in Bratislava. His body of work includes the music to films like The Lion King, for which he won an Oscar, Gladiator, Thin Red Line, Crimson Tide, The Da Vinci Code, The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar and Inception. The show itself was outstanding. Hans communicated with the audience a lot, explaining what pieces he and his large band/choir/orchestra would perform next. Unfortunately, we accredited photographers, were only allowed to photograph the first song. It’s a shame, because there were many beautiful moments during the concert, that would look excellent on photographs. Nevertheless, the show was amazing and I’m glad I had a chance to see it.
