“I Am _______”

"Xanadu" at ArtsWest

This year I decided to take on a couple of photographic challenges. I figured they’d push me to stretch my photography in ways I might not otherwise. In addition to shooting a photo a day — 366 photos in total thanks to the Leap Year — I’m doing a weekly post for Focus52.

Focus52 provides a weekly theme and gives you seven days to shoot photos to share with other participants. This week the suggested theme was “I am ________.”

I am primarily a photojournalist but one of my passions and creative outlets is theater photography. Theater photography provides a challenging opportunity to capture beautiful images. Although you will occasionally pose photos, theater companies generally want photos shot using stage lighting with actors running a scene. This means capturing action without using strobes. This pushes you into using high ISOs and a lot of manual control over the exposure.

With that in mind, I thought I’d share a few photos all shot very recently. You can click individual thumbnails to view high-resolution photos.

"All Through The Night" at ArtsWest

The first photos here are for two different productions for the same theater.

ArtsWest in West Seattle provides a regular season of theatrical entertainment but in addition also has an excellent educational program. The first photo above was shot for the poster for this summer’s Apprenticeship Program production of “Xanadu.” This was one of the fairly rare occasions where we posed photos and used a backdrop and flash in addition to stage lighting. “Xanadu” will open June 27, 2012 with 14 performances during a three week run.

The next photo is more typical of a shoot at ArtWest. One of the things I love about working with them is that they schedule a dedicated “photocall” for each production where I have an hour or so with the actors and the set to simply make photos. I work with their artistic director who puts together a “shot list” of the scenes they want to focus on and then I shoot away while the actors run through the scenes. I have the flexibility to move around the space, have them backup and re-run sections and generally capture exactly what I want.

"Shades of Green" at Theatre 9/12

This photo from Seattle premiere of “All Through The Night” is an example of a shot that not only features the actors, but also shows off the lighting and set. “All Through The Night” runs January 18 through February 12, 2012.

Next up is a photo made for Theatre 9/12. This Seattle-based company focuses on professional actor development. Right now they are deep in the throws of rehearsal for the world premier of “Shades of Green” by award-winning local playwright Charles Waxberg.

This too was a posed photo which will be used for online publicity among other things. Successful theaters in modern times are learning to leverage online news and social media. Digital photos like this one will be used on web sites, Facebook, Twitter and other outlets to help promote the show.

The focus here is purely on the actors and attempts to set an emotional tone for the viewer despite they fact they know nothing at all about the show. I like this think this one works, but I admit I’m biased! “Shades of Green” will run January 27 through February 19, 2012.

Finally, wrapping up this week with a photo from Redwood Theatre in Redmond, WA. This community theater is one of the first places I ever shot theatrical photography. They still bring me in from time to time to capture scenes from their productions so they must like me!

This shot from “Never Too Late” is an example of something a little different. This is an unpolished look at the raw, behind-the-scenes rehearsal process. Theaters will frequently have me capture photos of this nature to provide material for their historical archives. It also gives potential theater-goers a glimpse behind the stage at the work that goes into mounting a production.

In cases like this, I will normally schedule two shoots with the theater. The first early in the process to capture rehearsal stills and a second during a dress rehearsal just before they open to make photos of the finished results.

Hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about theater photography and seeing a few photos from my most recent photo shoots!

"Never Too Late" at Redwood Theatre