Capturing a Duet.

The Warriors' Duet

 This shoot turned out exactly as I imagined it would. Sometimes you'll go into a shoot with something specific in mind and end up discovering something completely different. It's good to be open to that sort of process because rigidity is bad for creatives.

It's best to be fluid to get where you need to be.

This time however, I knew how I wanted this to look and ,with a little bit of direction, I was able to get it in less time than any of us had planned for.  When my dear friend Katie asked if I had time to come grab a couple of shots at the rehearsal for a play my friends’ company was producing for the San Diego Fringe Festival I knew that I didn't want them to look like just plain shots of a rehearsal space. How to go about that was a bit of a mystery initially... I don’t like going into shoots blind so I read the press release for the piece, and a single word stuck with me. “Enchanting” is how they described a relationship the story showcases . I knew that the photos had to reflect that

Form.

So I chose a single overhead light-source from a giant diffuser as my tool and went to work. I watched the piece once to get an idea of where the actors would be and to keep an eye out for any movements or moments that would be particularly striking in this light. After that I set up my light-source and took some snaps of a second run-through. The images were good...but not great. They were missing a certain punch.  So I asked the actors if they could play the whole thing tighter and just get directly under the light as much as possible while still being true to the movement of the piece. The resulting images, even just looking on the back of the camera, were exactly as I imagined them.

I didn't want the viewer to be distracted by the objects in the background, so I really needed the light to make these wonderful actors jump right out of the image. It's always a pleasure to work with people who know how to take direction...which is why i'll never turn down a shoot with actual actors involved :)

Ragnarok!

Ask any photographer out there and they will probably tell you about what influences their art. If you do this you will also find that a lot of people are motivated by at least a few very different things and draw on different experiences when creating their images.

I'm motivated by many things...including cookies.

Theater has been a large part of my life since I was 15; as I look at that number I realize that means it has been a part of me for almost half my life... whoa. Theatre students hear the word images over and over again throughout the course of their study. Directors talk about creating "stage pictures" or specific moments that are meant to be noticed by the audience. While we'd like you to believe that these are crafted on purpose they are often the result of a happy accident.

Right now I am in a play about LARPers. For the uninitiated you can find out a lot of info at the production company's website on what LARPing is all about. I can't speak to the specific intent of the director, but the image below is a good example of a stage picture.

Could be a poster for a love triangle movie.

You've got the protagonist downstage center, his best friend upstage right, and the girl that's "coming between them" downstage left. In this simple frozen moment you can see how oblivious he is to this as well as his friend's disdain with just a dash of her scheming. This aspect of theatre has taught me that when creating images little touches can go a long way towards conveying your intent clearly.

That being said, go see Ragnarok at the Tenth Avenue Theatre in downtown San Diego for the next two weeks. All pertinent information is available at the company's website in the above link. I'll leave you with one more image to entice you to see the rest for yourself...

Dodge!