Techies' Dance

[Brian Moore]

Meg was in a show at her high school recently and because there is no photography allowed from the audience I could only grab a couple of shots after the show while the tech kids cleaned-up the stage.

I was testing a film I had never shot before: Lomography 800 ASA. I like what it did.

I used my Oly XA3 for these shots. For the first shot below I steadied the camera upon a seat back; for the second I steadied it upon a small railing, which was actually round in cross-section (you can see it in the first fotie, actually), so keeping the camera steady was a challenge.


The Maestro (He's one of the adult stage hands.)

Maestro by brian-moore, on Flickr

Etherial Techies

Stage Crew Dance by brian-moore, on Flickr

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Brian for me these are wonderful and it is in these situations when photography is not approved, the appropriate harmless shot can allow a parent, relative for the future a bit of history. My eldest used to be in productions where photography was allowed, but none came out as well as these. Yes they are blurred but the composition really works along with the colours which are superb. It is a letter box type of image composition with so much going on and available for interpretation.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I like them too, though if I were you Brian I'd get my Doc to check for Parkinson's disease!

 

[Brian Moore]

Brian for me these are wonderful and it is in these situations when photography is not approved, the appropriate harmless shot can allow a parent, relative for the future a bit of history. My eldest used to be in productions where photography was allowed, but none came out as well as these. Yes they are blurred but the composition really works along with the colours which are superb. It is a letter box type of image composition with so much going on and available for interpretation.

Thanks very much, Julian. A couple of years ago I saw a fotie by the famed photographer Brassai. It was taken backstage at the Follies Bergere in the 30s. He took the shot from a catwalk above everyone. Its a marvelous fotie. At the time my wife and I were involved in a local production of The Nutcracker. (We portrayed "Party Parents" in the opening scene.) Brassai's fotie inspired me. I thought, I'm going to take a camera backstage and see what I get. So that began, for me, a kind of photographic documentary theme of backstage shots during performances as well as rehearsal shots. I posted a few here on RPF from time-to-time. Last year's Nutcracker--Dec 2012--my wife and I elected not to participate because our daughter was no longer involved. I missed it a lot, though, for one thing due to energy you get caught up in with the kids as well as friendship with our fellow Party Parent friends--it was a great carry-on--but also because my opportunity to take backstage shots went away. (In a way I'm glad though,...since one or two of the parent-helpers noticed me taking shots after a year or two and decided they should do so also, but they were very crass and insensitive about it, using P&S cameras with flash, or shooting onto the stage from too close in the wings and so on. Sillyness.) I always tried to keep it low profile. My Canon T50--the first camera I used backstage--makes a noise when the film advances, which I considered too loud at some moments, so for the next week I left it at home and shot with my Yashica Electro 35 GSN. Silent! Then I started using my Oly XA and because it's so small it did the business even better (although the lens is slower than the Yash) because it fit easily into the pockets of my tuxedo. I shot all film, though, so I am a photographic dinosaur. But it was a wonderful lark while it lasted. Too much info I'm sure. But thanks again, Julian. I appreciate your comments very much.

- - - Updated - - -

I like them too, though if I were you Brian I'd get my Doc to check for Parkinson's disease!

Thanks, Rob. Everything smooths out when I have a wee dram.

 

[Rense Haveman]

Love them too!

 

[Brian Moore]

Love them too!

Thank you, Rense.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Loving those cones of illumination from the lighting, and the fluid blur of the people

The lighting makes me think that B&W would also be very effective

So is the Holga film really their on, or a rebadged big brand?

 

[Brian Moore]

Loving those cones of illumination from the lighting, and the fluid blur of the people

The lighting makes me think that B&W would also be very effective

So is the Holga film really their on, or a rebadged big brand?

Thanks, Chris. As soon as I saw the negs I was instantly attracted to those light cones--couldn't wait to see what they really looked like.

Holga film? I screwed up in my description. It's not Holga film. It's Lomography film. (I'll go back in a moment and edit that part of the description from my original post.) Who makes it? Not sure. Doesn't appear to be Fuji,...the rebate doesn't have the tell-tale Fuji stripes. I have to compare the negs to some of my Kodak negs to see if there are any similarities of wording or numbering on the rebate. (Or maybe I could just go to Google and find out. I'll try that.)

 

[Pete Askew]

Excellent Brian. And they do have a kind of choreographed look to them, especially the second with the longer streaks. Worthing hanging on for.

 

[Brian Moore]

Thanks Pete. "Hanging on" is quite apropos, given that I was hanging onto the camera to prevent shake as much as possible. Thanks again, Pete!