Newer tried my hand at theatre photography until yesterday when I was invited to the dress rehearsal of the local Driffield Musical Theatre's production of The Pajama Game. Well it was worth a try so along I went, was given free rein to take what I want from wherever I fancied.
The advantage of theatre over a rock gig (which I have tried before) is the quantity and consistency of the light. Also unlike portraiture, the actors are in charge of the pose and expression and you only capture and record what is there. I thought burst shooting at 6 frames a second would capture "the moment" but in practice the poses are held for quite a long time and you can capture them quite easily. If you miss one there will be another along in a moment!!
I would encourage you to have a go, it is fun and you can easily obtain super pictures.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Pajama Game
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Dog walking
I thought that I had a produced the best possible from this shot. I partially cloned in ripples on the burnt out circle bottom left, removed all annoying rocks, seaweed etc, gradient colour burnt the edges and put it in a competition. The judge whom I respected gave it 19 saying that it would have got a 20 apart from the dark sand patch below and left of the walkers as this was much too dark and heavy and took the eye away. It has now been cloned out and the picture does look better.
Moral: sometimes you need someone else's eyes to see your picture to see it for the best!
finishing the derby
Unfortunately I missed a good shot on the winner so the second placed had to do! I have subsequently removed the base of the monopod hanging down from the armpit by use of photoshop cloning.
Position position position
The day I ttok this picture I spent about 20 minutes walking the top of Horse Dale until I was in just the right position for the green strip at the bottom of the dale to be continuous but slowly narrow as it wound its way into the distance. the stopper at the top of the picture prevents the eye from leaving the shot whilst I gradient colour burned the corners to hold the eye on the parts I wanted it to follow.
Monday, 7 November 2011
fireworks
I love taking pictures of fireworks, it's a shame that it usually only comes around once a year. My formula is to to put the focus to manual and set it to infinity (there isn't time or anything for the camera to focus on). Initially I set the exposure to manual and then the time to 1 second and the aperture to f8. After taking few shots I review what I have taken, If the firework is too bright I change the aperture f16 to saturate the colours. If the firework size is too small I increase the time, if it is too large I reduce the time. I am then free to to concentrate on when the next firework is due to explode by the trail of the rocket going up. i take hundreds of shots to get a few good ones as it free!
Friday, 4 November 2011
Kilham Morning
However the next morning I knew it would be another misty morning with a good sunrise so it was off at 7 am to go over to Kilham (fog hollow) to make up for yesterday's missed opportunity. Of the pictures taken this was one of the best with the church above the mist and the soft morning light creating layers in the landscape. I sent it in to the local television programme Look North where it was chosen as the picture of the day.
Misty morning 3
I had to go to work today on such a stunning morning. I could have stopped a dozen times to take photos but that would have made me an hour late so I restricted it to this one scene.