My First Camera

I’ve suspected for a long time that I was born with a camera in hand. Going through old family scrapbooks has more or less proven the point. Here’s me at 6 years old holding my first camera, a Thanksgiving gift in 1946. (When I first saw this picture, I remembered this as a trick squirt gun, until Mom’s album had these “first pictures.”)

And here’s proof that I was behind the camera: a shot of my backyard pals complete with my own silhouette, a situation I try to avoid in theater photography.

And then the family, my Dad acting silly, which he rarely did, and Mom in her neat organized self. The high fence of real chain link shielded us from my grade school next door.

Here are two of my playmates, Keith and Mike, and a shot of Roddy across the street making faces at me. The other goof with this picture: it’s a double exposure of this last image. The other exposure was probably an indoor shot at home.

Aladdin in Napa Valley

Shooting a show that has continuous action is a challenge. In a little over an hour, Aladdin at the Napa Valley College’s Performing Arts Center moves right along, as any show directed for kids should do. It had me changing lenses and making camera adjustments the whole time. At once, I wanted to catch the scenic design and lighting effects, and the dance numbers...

24mm,  1/250 sec, f/5.6,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2,  ISO: 1600.

34mm,  1/200 sec, f/4,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2 1/3,  ISO: 2500.

62mm,  1/1250 sec, f/2.8,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 2/3,  ISO: 2500.

 

as well as the close-ups and medium shots of the performers. 

200mm,  1/500 sec, f/4,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2/3,  ISO: 3200.

 

For the shot above, I caught the action with sufficient depth of field, but below, in low light, I didn’t increase the ISO and f-stop, so the lamp is out of focus.

200mm,  1/125 sec, f/2.8,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 2/3,  ISO: 1600.

The light looked bright enough for an ISO of 1600, but the action was so fast and continuous that I had to increase it to 2500 and above, as in these two medium shots.

120mm,  1/500 sec, f/5,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2,  ISO: 2500.

150mm,  1/320 sec, f/4,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2/3,  ISO: 3200.

I was so busy making adjustments, I failed to see the flying carpet until the last few seconds before disappearing behind the turrets.

70mm,  1/25 sec, f/2.8,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2/3,  ISO: 2000.

A wide-angle setting and a quick run back in the house let me capture every member of the cast in the curtain call.
It's a great show. Bring your kids, or the kid in you. It runs through Oct 17th.

Shooting Anon(ymous)-ly

The Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) production of Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka used an array of image projections to add to the visual experience. Here’s the opening scene with rear projection display setting the mood.

25mm,  1/13 sec, f/5.6,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2 1/3,  ISO: 1600.

The light level for most of this productions were fairly low, so I used higher ISOs than usual. In this scene, the rear projection is in focus with a wide depth of field, risking action blur with the slow shutter (1/13 sec.). I cropped this image to the screen edges to maximized its impact.

63mm,  1/30 sec, f/5.6,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 1/3,  ISO: 3200.

Caught the evil sweatshop owner with an appropriate projection.

65mm,  1/160 sec, f/4,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -2 1/3,  ISO: 2000.

And here, Celeste included both the background and foreground to re-enforce the sweatshop atmosphere.

75mm,  1/160 sec, f/4,  Mode: Program,  Metering: Multi-segment,  Exp comp: -1 1/3,  ISO: 1250.

Front projection was effectively used to bring objects to the stage, such as this dumpster.

The front projector was wrangled from the orchestra pit by one of the lighting crew.

Here the projector gives a meaty texture to two members of the chorus in the butcher’s shop.

Costume, lighting, and staging images were taken for the show’s designers.

In this full-sized image, I cropped out a square to show two of the actors.

24-70mm @ 35mm,  1/80 sec, f/8,  Mode: Av,  Metering: Evaluative,  Exp comp: -1,  ISO: 3200.

The crop has sufficient clarity to qualify for a production image, ...

but cropping it further shows the effect of noise on the image edges due to the 3200 ISO and slight pixelation.

But you can’t beat the telephoto lens for good, crisp close-ups, like this one Celeste took.

We had almost 200 images in the final collection, most of which were of the dress rehearsals, but 29 of were for the designers, and 19 outtakes for fun. After turning in our work, some were posted in the theater lobby to illustrate some of the production’s creative processes.

The Luther Burbank Theater lobby.

A display of costume design and production results.