/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/<p><strong>Lens-Artists Challenge # 340: Portraits</strong></p><p>This may sound like an invention, but it’s not. Last Saturday, after lunch, I was quietly relaxing and my thoughts turned to the possible subject of the next Lens-Artists Challenge, which this week is being hosted by Ritva. As usual, I was wondering what mischief I could have with the subject, and I thought, ‘well, just so long as it’s not portraits, I’ll be fine.’</p><p>A couple of hours later, I checked my WordPress reader and noticed that Ritva had posted her theme for the week, and my heart sank. <a href="https://sillarit.com/2025/03/15/lens-artists-challenge-340-portraits/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Portraits</a>. ‘This week, you have the opportunity to capture the essence and personality of your subjects’, says Ritva. ‘I’m not looking for professional results, but I hope you have fun trying to get the portrait to tell a story.’ Well that’s alright then, because I’m just not good with people. Check out my photos and you’ll be hard pressed to find people in them, well not recognisable anyhow, so I was feeling a bit stuck.</p><p>Then I remembered that ‘back in the day’ I used to have great a great time travelling around the region going to the annual village festivals and photographing the bands who performed there. These bands would play a genre of music known as <em>pimba</em>, which is best described as an upbeat form of folk music, often with lewd lyrics, though much of that is lost on me. </p><p>The bands mostly comprise of two or more lead singers with accompanying musicians and dancers, and often the performances are hugely professional, with portable stages built into lorries and excellent light shows. Mostly the villages feature local bands, but occasionally national pimba stars like Quim Barreiros would turn up. Nowadays, I tend not to go to the festivals, but a few years ago I was a regular visitor, and it was great practise for concert photography.</p><p>I also used to cover a local heavy metal festival, Vagos Open Air (latterly Vagos Metalfest) for a Canadian heavy metal website, Metal Rules. These used to be excellent festivals, though it was suspended for a couple of years during the Pandemic and is only just getting back on its feet again. Nowadays I don’t get to the Festival since it coincides with our summer holidays, but I do miss those heavy metal weekends. If you want to see some reports, they can be found <a href="https://www.metal-rules.com/2015/09/06/vagos-open-air-portugal/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.metal-rules.com/2016/09/06/vagos-open-air-day-one-by-keith-devereux/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.metal-rules.com/2016/09/06/vagos-open-air-day-two-by-keith-devereux/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://www.metal-rules.com/2018/10/05/vagos-metal-fest-report-by-keith-devereux/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found <a href="https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">here</a>, and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag ‘Lens-Artists’.</p><p>If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="u-url mention" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/@keithdevereux.wordpress.com" target="_blank">@<span>keithdevereux.wordpress.com</span></a>. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.</p><p></p><p><span></span></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/challenge/" target="_blank">#Challenge</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/concertphotography-2/" target="_blank">#ConcertPhotography</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/festival-2/" target="_blank">#Festival</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/lensartists/" target="_blank">#LensArtists</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/livemusic-2/" target="_blank">#LiveMusic</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/livemusicphoto-2/" target="_blank">#LiveMusicPhoto</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/metal-2/" target="_blank">#Metal</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/musicphotography-2/" target="_blank">#MusicPhotography</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/pimba-2/" target="_blank">#Pimba</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/portraits-2/" target="_blank">#Portraits</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/tag/lens-artists/" target="_blank">#LensArtists</a></p>