"The pictures you make are like a connect-the-dots game that becomes the line of your life, as real and vibrant as the lines on your face and hands. We tell stories with our pictures. In turn, our pictures tell our story - what we did, and how well or poorly we did it, and very significantly, if we stuck with it." - Joe McNally
A Most Magical Week
This past week I was blessed with an invitation to photograph a Santa Margarita Catholic High School choir on its nine-day, three city performance tour in Italy. I say "a" Santa Margarita choir intentionally; these performers were a collection of singers from a variety of ensembles at the school who, prior to the rehearsal period, had never performed together. And while we all anticipated a wonderful experience in the three principal cities we visited, Rome, Florence, and Venice, I (for one) left Italy at the end of the tour with profound gratitude for the opportunity to experience not only the sights, tastes, and rich history of Italy, but more importantly, the talent and growth of this amazing group of kids, led by Director Francisco Calvo.
But since this is a photography blog, we need to move to that subject.... My goals for this assignment were three-fold: first, to capture the performances in the incredible locations on the tour; second, to provide some additional context for the trip along the lines of traditional travel photography; and third, to produce sufficiently good work to populate the pages of a book. Going in, I anticipated two big challenges. First was the expectation of low light in the churches where the group would perform. This would require high ISOs, wide-open apertures, and slow shutter speeds. Without the encumbrance (and benefit) of a monopod, it was going to be a hand-holding high-wire act. Second, the need to be a part of the group, on the group's schedule, meant that photographing these magical locations would usually occur during the least attractive periods of the day - high midday sun, stark contrasts, and large crowds. No deserted early morning streets. No early evening, soft light. Not much time to contemplate and compose thoughtful, creative images. For the most part, this was going to be "run and gun" street shooting.
Our first stop was Rome. On our first full day of the tour, the group was scheduled to sing the Mass at St. Peter's Basillica. Now think about that for a moment. First-ever public performance for this choir. First day after transcontinental travel. Performing after a cattle-pen tour of the crowded Vatican Museums in 90+ degree temp, ending in a flash-mob rendition of "Locus Iste" in the Sistine Chapel (a story for another place and time!). Performing at the very pinnacle of the Catholic faith, and the pressure of that opportunity. And the result? To my eyes and ears, perfection. Right there and then, I realized we were in for a magical week.
Here are a few views of St. Peter's.
After dinner, we paused in front of St. Peter's Square to capture a night view of the Basillica and the illuminated windows of the Pope's residence.
The next day, we visited ancient Rome, including the Colosseum and the Roman Fora. For me, the most impressive sight was the Pantheon.
At the end of the day, the choir performed its first concert at Sant' Agnese in Agone, a beautiful round church topped by a marvelous domed ceiling.
Prior to each performance, the choir did a brief placement and sound check. Except for St. Peter's, each of these sound checks were done prior to the choir changing into their concert wardrobe. With light levels relatively higher, and no restriction on location, I decided to use these opportunities for some individual portraits of the performers. The goal and challenge here was to hit that moment where facial expression was meaningful, and background elements (including other performers) would add to the image of the principal subject.
Taking a group shot at these remarkable places of worship became not so much a portrait of the group, but rather having the group simply be an element of the larger scene itself.
St. Agnese was the first performance where we saw posters advertising our presence. As the tour progressed, the number of visitors in the audience grew.
Our next stop was Orvieto, a beautiful hilltop town in Umbria. The Duomo there was off limits to photography, but a climb to the top of the Torre del Moro gave me sweeping views of the Umbrian countryside. More compelling for me, though, was this view of the rooftops of Orvieto.
Next stop, Florence and a concert at the beautiful Cenacolo di Santa Croce. Below, a scene in front of the Uffizi Galleries, where costumed "performers" pose for tourists in hopes of a tip.
The downstream backside of the Ponte Vecchio. The "interior" of this famous bridge across the River Arno is a collection of jewelry stores.
In the Cenacolo.
In the audience for awhile during our concert was another high school choir from Minnesota, who stopped in prior to their own performance at another location. Later that evening, we found this same choir in our restaurant. They expressed appreciation for our performance, and treated us to a song from their repertoire. I thought for a moment that we'd have a "Battle of the Choirs", but we were ready to eat...
Our next and final stop was the incredible city of Venice, where the choir performed at the Chiesa (church) di San Moise, just off St. Mark's Square. Prior to the concert, we walked the streets of Venice, which gave me my best closeups, including this mask and some beautiful scallops at an open-air fish market.
Several of us experienced "gondola gridlock".
Sound check at San Moise:
For the seniors on the choir, this would be their final performance as members of Santa Margarita Catholic High School. Two members, Alex and Kelly, asked me if I could take their picture together for the last time. I told them, "I just did".
Just prior to the beginning of the performance at San Moise, I looked at the floor of the church, and saw a real problem in the making. A shaft of blazing light from the rear window of the church was making its way from the audience and approaching the front of the church; it would hit the right side of the choir during the performance, making a shot of the entire group under one light condition impossible. You can see the problem below. In technical terms, if the exposure for the front of the church was f/2.8, this shaft of nuclear light was f/22. Shooting a live performance under these conditions is simply not possible.
Now what??
When faced with a circumstance like this, you take what the light gives you. Forget the big shot and expose for the light. You might get something good, even from sunlight that is essentially coming upward, bounced from the floor.
As conditions deteriorated, and the performers on the right side of the choir were hit by blinding sun and couldn't even see the Director, I settled in for some tight portraits. These kids are absolutely nuked by the sun; but when properly exposed, their faces become angelic and their cohorts are underexposed to blackness.
At the conclusion of the performance, this shaft of light had migrated upwards, leaving the group in beautiful light for a final image of their final performance together.
We left San Moise and made our way back to St. Mark's Square and our boat ride back to the hotel. A passing squall during the afternoon had cleared the air of the humid conditions, leaving the waterfront bathed in the early evening light that I had hoped for all week.
A final dinner together, topped off by the presentation of a cake.
I'm still culling, sorting, and editing images for posting on the website and populating the book I've promised. But I couldn't wait til then to post these initial impressions while my thoughts (though jet-lagged) are still relatively fresh.
My thanks, once again, to Francisco Calvo and Santa Margarita Catholic High School for the opportunity to experience and record this marvelous choir together, and to Michael Whang, Ray and Alissa Medina, our tour guide Francesca Scasso, our bus driver Emilio, and the parents of these amazing kids who traveled together with us. I'll never, ever forget this.
The Bash
This past weekend I had the privilege of photographing the annual KSBR Birthday Bash held each year at Oso Viejo Park in Mission Viejo. The Bash is KSBR's primary fundraising event each year, a celebration of smooth jazz in a tremendous setting. KSBR is the public radio station of Saddleback College, and is staffed by a dedicated and fun bunch of folks. I've been fortunate to get to know these people, and in turn, to gain access to several of the station's productions. The Bash is the capstone of the musical year, at least for me.
There's not much to share in terms of photographic technique in these images, but I want to share what, to me, are some of the best, and why I've chosen them. First and foremost is the photo above, with Mindi Abair and Dave Koz in a sax duet covering "Just the Two of Us". It was a magical moment and I was in the right place at the right time to the left of the stage to capture Mindi's joy and Dave's kinda devilish expression. Right after the set, I showed Mindi and Dave this photo, which is now featured on both of their Facebook fan pages, as well as KSBR's event page, with about 800 "likes" altogether. A couple of days ago, I brought a disc of photos to the station, and ran into David Hopley, a brilliant, generous, and understated photographer who knows just about everyone in the jazz community. He brought in his own disc to the station, along with two absolutely amazing 16x20 prints he made, including a crazy good shot from a different vantage point about five seconds before or after my shot above.
Sometimes you can get cool images away from the performance stage. Before the show started, KSBR DJ's Bob Goodman and Kevin Melvin were broadcasting from a tent in the park. A shot of both in the frame didn't quite work for me, but individual portraits of these two guys doing their thing worked very well. This is Kevin:
It's also good to get some crowd shots, or to isolate some folks enjoying the moment, like this couple:
Of course, one of the standard goals for music performance photographers is to capture energy and movement in the performance. Rock concerts are obviously target-rich environments, but a jazz concert can also deliver high energy as these two consecutive frames from the Mindi Abair - Dave Koz set reveal:
And, if you hurry, you can get it from three different angles, this one from the right side:
Most of my images were captured up close; sometimes almost too close. This is Vincent Ingala.
Once again, Mindi Abair, comin' right at ya:
Blake Aaron:
Greg Vail:
Chris Standring:
Derek Bordeaux:
I don't usually go for the "up the nostrils" shot, but this one of Derek Bordeaux works for me. Derek's a joyful man, and this shot captures him perfectly:
When night falls, and the light gets interesting, you can go for a different feel. I like to isolate performers and go for mood and expression. This is one of my favorite artists, who also acts as the Bash's emcee, flugelhorn virtuoso Tony Guerrero (this time with the trumpet):
A perennial favorite is trumpet legend Greg Adams (this time with the flugelhorn). Rather than leave him floating in black space, I decided to support the base of the photo and provide some depth by including these out of focus lights in the frame:
One of the delights of the Bash this year was the appearance of Tom Schuman, keyboardist with Spyrogyra. Here are three consecutive frames, each with its own expression and mood. Which one do you like best? For me, for some reason, it's the last one.
The Bash ends with a big jam with everyone joining in. Unfortunately, this year, the frontal lighting of the stage wasn't bright enough to illuminate the entire field evenly, but from my position, I framed up the farewell wave from featured vocalists Darryl Walker and Derek Bordeaux, with final "thanks" from Tony Guerrero.
Lots of folks thought this might have been the best Bash ever. I don't know about that, but I do know this; I had a most amazing day and am continually grateful for the access that KSBR and the City of Mission Viejo have given me to these fantastic and giving musicians who donate their time and talent to the Bash every year. Can't wait 'til next year!
Leaving Las Vegas
This past weekend, I accompanied my wife Karen to Las Vegas, the site of the annual International Council of Shopping Centers gabfest. It was her first ICSC conference; I had been there a few times during my tenure at the City of West Covina several years ago (15, but who's counting?). So while she was hobnobbing with brokers, mall developers, retailers, and other associated types, I decided to give myself a photographic assignment to put my free time to some productive use.
What I should have realized was that it was going to be hot during the day; not just hot, but DAMN HOT, like 105 degrees hot. But never mind. My first foray was to the world-famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, home of the hit television show "Pawn Stars". Little did I know that they'd be filming that day for the show, so there I was, along with about a hundred other knuckleheads standing on the Las Vegas Blvd. sidewalk (beneath the blessed array of misters installed along the roofline) waiting an hour for an opportunity to get into the shop and then what, see Chumlee? I did see the store's owner, Rick Harrison, who had just about enough taping for one day. After ten minutes of posing for B-roll, he left, muttering, "I'm done." My thoughts exactly. I mean, what was I thinking? So that was an hour of my life I'll never get back. No photos either; they were prohibited during filming.
So, when it's that hot outside, what better place to try to stay cool, and maybe get some cool shots, than the interior of Hoover Dam? This engineering wonder of the world, built for about $50 million between 1931 and 1935, fits like a cork on the bottle of Black Canyon, holding back a gazillion acre-feet of 53-degree Colorado River water. There's no need for AC down there. Okay, off I go.
So everyone who's ever been to Vegas has probably been to Hoover Dam. Nothing new there, right? And everyone who's ever been there has had a camera around his or her neck. So what's my strategy for bringing back images that are at least marginally interesting? Especially when I can't be there during the pre-dawn or post-sunset "golden hours" of magical desert light? The answer in two words: Tonal Contrast. Despite the really stark contrast of light and shadow in all of these images, whether caused by harsh direct sun, or interior lighting within the dam or power plant, the lit areas of the RAW files, straight out of the camera, are pretty flat. Colors are muted, and detail is difficult to discern. So right off the bat, in Lightroom, I jacked the contrast. I pulled down the luminosity of the sky. I added fill to the shadow areas to bring out some detail lost in there. In the interior shots, I tried my best to render color temperature something close to what it looks like to the naked eye. Then it's off to Photoshop. No difficult processing there; noise reduction via Nik Dfine 2.0, and the magic of Nik's Tonal Contrast filter in Color Efex Pro 4, dialed individually to taste. Every image in this post got a hit of Tonal Contrast except for the bronze sculpture of the High Scaler above. Then sharpening via Nik Sharpener Pro, and I'm done.
My good friend Ralph Nordstrom, a fabulous fine art landscape photographer, would have been a lot more careful and selective with these images (if he'd have taken any of them at all), and undoubtedly would have produced a superior end product. But my goal was to approach the top, but not go over the top, in terms of contrasty processing. There are two HDR images here, each one a combination of three exposures over a six stop dynamic range. The rest were finished as described above.
This is simply a corner of the multi-story parking structure built into the canyon wall on the Nevada side. The architects of the new Visitors Center have done a great job integrating the Center into the site. The color palette reflects the canyon walls, while the generous use of art deco motifs continue the commitment to visitors that was designed into the construction of Hoover Dam back in the '30s.
These two images of the intake towers, especially the second one (one of the Arizona towers), show how low the current water level of Lake Mead is, about 100 feet below the high water mark. You can see the "bathtub ring" in both images, as well as the Arizona spillway that would divert overflow water during peak times. In recent years, the water level in Lake Mead has actually been rising, but apparently not this year, which was particularly dry in the Colorado River Basin.
Before going into the Visitors Center for the dam tour, I walked along the top of the dam to get a few images of the dam face, the power plant below, and the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge in the background. This bridge, completed in 2010 at a cost of $240 million (nearly five times the cost of Hoover Dam), serves as a bypass for US 93, which used to gridlock when traffic was forced to cross over the top of the dam. That route was picturesque, but often painfully slow. This is one of two HDR images in this gallery.
Not the place to drop your lens cap....
The exterior images were captured with my Canon 24-105 mm f/4.0 glass. Once inside, I switched to my Sigma 12-24 wide angle optic. The first stop on the dam tour is this view of one of the 40-foot tunnels containing a 30-foot penstock (a fancy word for a big-ass pipe) carrying water from the Nevada intake tower to one of the massive turbines of the power plant below. This shot is from a viewing window; on the right is a reflection of our tour guide. This was mixed lighting at its worst, a combination of fluorescent and tungsten yuck. There's no way to render this exactly as my eye saw it, so this is somewhat a "forensic" shot. You can see what it is, but that's about it. Impressive engineering, yes; artistic, not so much.
Here's the power plant on the Nevada side. This is the second HDR image in this gallery. Does it work, or is it another forensic shot? The verdict: forensic. But the full range of detail is there, such as it is.
This is an interior view of the corridor leading into the dam itself. As mentioned above, the engineers and designers of the dam knew that visitors would be coming to Hoover Dam for years to come, so the visitors' experience was designed into the structure of the dam itself. Corridors were paved with terrazzo, and the decorative floor treatments were designed to reflect southwest motifs. Metalwork, including doors, light fixtures, and other trim, was cast from aluminum in the prevailing art deco style. This shot, at 12 mm, shows the distortion typical of ultra-wide lenses. I didn't have a tripod or the time to frame this shot as accurately as I would have liked, so there's some angular distortion that couldn't be avoided. All of these interior frames were handheld at about 1/8 second at ISO 1600. I used whatever I could to steady and brace myself for these long exposures. Here, I'm sitting on the floor, using my knees as a makeshift tripod.
The next part of the tour takes you into a couple of the interior corridors of the dam. There are two miles of these corridors winding their way through the dam. Built for inspection purposes, they provide interesting compositional opportunities for photography. Then you learn how inspections were and continue to be done, and you realize just how amazing this structure really is. At this gate, the tour makes a right turn into a low-ceiling tunnel leading to a window on the dam face itself.
This view of the tunnel reveals the conversion of tungsten lighting in the ceiling to daylight, something the human eye does automatically. The digital camera needs blue to convert the warm tungsten flavor of the ceiling light, so the exterior sunlight at the far end of the tunnel picks up the same blue conversion.
Midway down the tunnel you come to a vertical shaft that reaches down to the bottom of the dam. There are a few lights down there, but most have burned out, leaving this one. You cannot cross this shaft without walking on the steel grate. If you're skittish about heights, this is kind of a gut-check. But the end of the tunnel leads to this view of the Colorado, Black Canyon, and the Bridge. This view is from about one-third of the way up from the bottom of the dam to the top.
Back into the corridors, the tour takes you to a very long, steep descent, or if things get too shaky, a steep ascent to the top. This view is actually looking downward at about a 60 degree slope.
Speaking of "shaky", Hoover Dam is built to withstand an 8.3 magnitude earthquake, but it is also said to be 70% overbuilt above that standard. A seismograph sits just a few feet away from this escape shaft. Hopefully, the access door at the top isn't locked from the outside!
Back on top. Still at 12mm, but angular distortion is minimized due to placement of critical elements in the center of the frame, except for the Hoover Dam plaque, where I wanted a bit of angular distortion. But back to the dam face, from the corner of the dam on the Nevada side, and you get this:
and this:
Plenty of angular distortion here, but I still like these frames.
After leaving Hoover Dam and the Visitors Center, I took a walk up to the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge (the bridge is named after a former governor of Nevada and Pat Tillman, the NFL player-turned Army Ranger killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire). This bridge rises 840 feet above the Colorado River, 1500 feet downstream from the dam. It is the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. Here are some views from the bridge back to Hoover Dam.
All in all, a fun way to spend part of a day in the desert.
The Spring Dance Concert
The Santa Margarita Catholic High School Dance Department recently concluded its four-performance Spring Dance Concert last Saturday night. Each night featured 27 or 28 dances from the Department's Beginning Dance class through the Dance Team. The Concert was held in The Dome, the prefab building that serves as the rehearsal and performance space for the Performing Arts program until a permanent theater is built on campus.
Photographically speaking, shooting in the Dome is a hit or miss proposition. Lighting Director Daniel West does a good job with the space and equipment available. The lighting design is for the performers and the audience, of course, and I wouldn't change that. For the photographer, sometimes it rocks, while other times it presents a challenge. The stage itself is small, making choreography for the larger groups difficult. From a photography standpoint, this introduces extraneous arms, legs, hands, and assorted body parts into most images, unless it's a solo. So you do the best you can to capture movement, lines, and hopefully, expression. Typically, for me, the exposures are ISO 1600 or 2500, f/2.8 (or 3.5 if I'm lucky) at 1/250th a second. That won't completely freeze fast motion at the extremities, but as they say, it's "close enough for jazz."
Before the performances, the Dance Team warmed up on stage. I asked Daniel to give me as much white light on the stage as he could. Taylor, above, asked me to shoot her in a leap, as we had done a year ago just as an exposure check. This time, I wanted to capture the back lights in the frame, and to place one of the lights directly behind Taylor. That's not something you can easily direct. Of course, Taylor nailed this jump time after time. And I'm usually able to catch it at the peak of the movement, so that's not a real challenge. The trick was capturing the alignment of the light and Taylor's hair, to achieve the rim lighting I wanted. After just six attempts, we nailed it. I was really pleased with every aspect of this frame, including the relative lack of shadow density, the direct lighting on Taylor's face from the lights in the wings, and the rim lighting all around Taylor, caused by top, rear, and side lights, plus a bounce from the floor. I was extremely happy to give this frame to Taylor, a graduating Senior, who's off to college at the University of Alabama next year. The details on this shot were ISO 1600, f4.5, at 1/320; everything, including focus, in fully manual mode.
With this as a template, we made a few other shots, including these.
Malia:
Berit:
Maddy:
Emily:
My daughter Katherine:
and Alyssa:
Before the final performance, the Dance Team Seniors asked for a group photo, including this "stack".
Here are a few of my favorite images of the performances:
One of four "Dances with Teachers", this one with Ms. Taylor, who teaches Physics:
All told, 8,000 frames over four nights, the last hurrah for the Seniors in the Dance Department, an eye-opening experience for a lot of students who had never before seen a dance performance, several sold-out shows, and "a good time was had by all".
Next stop...the annular solar eclipse, hopefully photographed from Valley of Fire State Park north of Las Vegas. Or maybe I'll get the Stratosphere tower into the eclipsing sun. Who knows? We'll see....
Michael Lington
Another great morning with the Gary and Kelly Show at the Norman P. Murray Center in Mission Viejo. The guest artist today was Michael Lington, who gave a customarily great performance.
I've described the approach to shooting artists in this venue already, shooting into the wings to create a dark void behind the performer. The details for this shot are ISO 400, 1/250 at f/2.8, pretty standard settings for this kind of shot. White balance was set to Auto in camera, then cooled slightly in Camera Raw to render skin tones better.
I thought I'd try something a little different this time, though. During Michael's last number, I got down low in front of the stage, off to the right, to see what a low and wide view would deliver. I like the leading lines and framing elements that the ceiling lights provide. This shot is 16 mm, but cropped to a 4x5 format. With the crop, I lost some of the lights, but also much of the large void in the ceiling. The Gary and Kelly Show not only features performances by the guest artists; they interview the guests as well, hence the desk and chairs. For this shot, I would have preferred the chairs to be filled, but to give Michael the undivided spotlight, Gary and Kelly left the set during his performances.
Michael has performed in the annual KSBR Birthday Bash in the past. The 2012 Bash is coming up in about three weeks, and I can't wait. I first photographed Michael at the 2009 Bash. It was one of my favorite images of this annual celebration of KSBR and smooth jazz. He stepped out in front of the stage lights, such that the majority of the frontal lights washed over and behind him, leaving him in soft, feathered light. I captured a number of frames in both horizontal and vertical positions while he was there, and converted my favorite one to black and white. I presented a print of this image to Michael this morning; he was gracious and appreciative, and told me he would frame it and hang it in his studio. That's a real honor for me. Here's the image from 2009.