Hairspray - Portraits
'Hairspray' opened up this weekend at The Playhouse. Their season closer, LOTS of folks have been waiting for this gem to arrive!
When the CEO/Artistic Director, George Green, and I were discussing what to do with the portraits for Hairspray, the word that he said that struck me most was "loud".
We had some back and forth with a few different proofs but some of my initial ideas were not loud enough. After a few tweaks and a few more proofs sent, I got the go-ahead and started working in earnest.
I'll say that these were the most intense images that I've created in a long time. Each one took about an hour just for the final editing and all the shooting, reshoots and batch editing took several days on their own. Well worth it though. I truly love helping a show and its team succeed by getting the patronage excited with these portraits.
Based on the packed houses and standing ovations that they received at all three shows this weekend, I know for a fact that the patrons were pleased.
Congratulations to Director Omar Leos and his team for ending The Playhouse's 2016-17 Season with a smash hit!
As the 2016-17 Season is on its last show, very soon I'll be posting my favorite portraits from each of the 9 shows in the season and another post with my favorite show images. Stay Tuned!
Loud enough for ya? I think so.
Hairspray runs at The Playhouse San Antonio through Aug 6. Tickets and info can be found HERE!
Lili in the Golden Hour
There exists a small window of each day in which the sun gives us perfection.
Lili in the Golden Hour
The lower the sun is on the horizon, the longer its rays must travel to reach us. Because those rays pass closer to the earth, their strength is further diminished by the denser air. Those factors give us my favorite time of the day in which to capture beauty, the Golden Hour.
You've met Lili before. She was such a pleasure with which to work, she's was so very comfortable with the work AND, as I've gotten to know her better over time, I've grown to appreciate the freedom she carries with her. I knew that I wanted to work with her again and I had the perfect spot for her.
There's a natural place just south of Spokane that I've gone to on dozens of visits. It's quiet and wild and colorful and has a great view of the sun as it sinks in the west.
That sun takes a long time to leave the land before it disappears. The golds get richer by the minute and the oranges go from a faint tangerine to a rich pumpkin color. When that mix of color is applied to already beautiful skin, the results are stunning.
“Once we are aware that our nudity makes us objects of desire, we become naked.”
― Chloe Thurlow
Once the sun sets, the bright colors quickly disappear and the "Blue Hour" begins, called so for obvious reasons. Softer shades, more diffuse light and a palpable drop in temperature. The same scene, the same look a few minutes on either side of this narrow window yield vastly different images. Nature is like that, no?
To steal and morph a phrase from Heraclitus, "No person stands in the same light twice for it's never the same light and it's never the same person." We change and grow and even if we replicate our steps, we tread those steps with more grace and wisdom than before.
Now, I know that the sun and light are only small factors that make an image pretty. It takes pride and boldness, an open mind and not just a little bit of freedom and bravery. I can't create any of those traits when shooting people. That all has to come from within. It takes a special boldness to truly show yourself to the world.
How many of us wear masks so no one really sees us? How differently do we behave when no one is looking?
“It’s the invention of clothes, not nature, that made “private parts” private.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
All is Calm - Character Portraits
The Playhouse San Antonio has just announced that All is Calm has been added to their 2016-17 Season and I couldn't be more pleased as I have a fond history with that production
My new theater, The Playhouse San Antonio, has just announced that we're adding All is Calm: The Christmas Eve Truce of 1914 to the 2016-17 Season as the Christmas show. I'm extraordinarily pleased to hear this as I was quite sad that I'd miss The Modern Theater's 2016 presentation. I've grown to love all the folks involved with the show and had great plans for this year's portraits.
I'm excited that I'll be able to apply those plans to this cast, albeit with a twist, but I won't reveal those plans to anyone but a select few and then only in the days leading up to the shoot. It's fair to say that I intend to give this cast my very best efforts.
In the first season that we presented AIC, the cast of 11 blended perfectly and created a thing of such beauty that I can't properly describe. Words can be cheap when trying to explain such a thing but I'm sure you've all experienced such a reaction to something so exquisite. Directed by my dear friend Abbey Crawford and with Music Direction from Zach Baker (the one with the cigarette), they had the distinct honor to perform the piece to a packed house at The Bing on the 100th anniversary of the event from which the piece came.
For 2015, we lost two of our young stars to their college aspirations but picked up Nicholas and Jace, a classicly trained opera singer and a local cabaret star, respectively. Again, they created a show of near perfection and I was lucky to have been able to capture them again.
For 2015, we even made a few videos. You can see this and one more on the Modern's Youtube site.
Every show that I've shot has afforded me new opportunities to learn and improve. I'm very happy that I get to be part of this show again as I had some great successes with this show yet there also a few aspects of its weight and beauty that I feel I missed.
Soon, I'll have the chance to try again.
A Walk Through the Grass
The secret to happiness is freedom ... and the secret to freedom is courage. - Thucydides
We wear masks. All of us do. In order to keep the social peace, we smile when we're supposed to. We use good manners and we keep ourselves pretty in order to be accepted. Most of the time, when we rebel against social norms, we fall into the familiar, well-used patterns of rebellion because we really don't know any other ways. Our "rebellion" looks just like those of all the other wannabe rebels.
We pretend to like the popular things ... sometimes we convince ourselves that we DO like that cool band or new movie. We don't speak our true minds. We keep ourselves so tight and wrapped up because of all the unspoken rules about how we're supposed to BE when we're in the world. So many things we have to do to conform and be "normal".
I just wondered what a thing it would be...if overnight everything you owe anything to, justice, or love, had really gone away. Free. It would be...heartless terror. Yes. Terrible, and...Very great. To shed your skin, every old skin, one by one and then walk away, unemcumbered, into the morning. - Tony Kushner
Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. ― Rosa Luxemburg
The world I held so closely, she played me like a game, I released and left her laughing to stand on my own two feet. ― Coco J. Ginger
Amber, Beauty.
Beauty is but a lease from nature. - EDWARD COUNSEL
As well might a flower complain of the bee which its sweetness attracts, as a pretty girl of being gazed at when she goes abroad. But the complaint is seldom made in earnest.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
I enjoy pretty things. Trees, puppies, buildings ..... people. Looking at beautiful women doesn't bother me a bit. I certainly accept that the object of my gaze is a thinking, feeling, breathing person with thoughts and viewpoints and problems and such but that seldom detracts from my appreciation of their inherent appeal.
Sometimes, beauty simply IS without any effort whatsoever.
If you dear little girls would only learn what real beauty is, and not pinch and starve and bleach yourselves out so, you'd save an immense deal of time and money and pain. A happy soul in a healthy body makes the best sort of beauty for man or woman.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, Eight Cousins
Beauty acts as a cause to produce love, because the being, the attributes and the works of God possess beauty, and every one loves that which is beautiful.
MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZALI, The Alchemy of Happiness
Horns to bulls wise Nature lends; Horses she with hoofs defends; Hares with nimble feet relieves; Dreadful teeth to lions gives; Fishes learn through streams to slide; Birds through yielding air to glide; Men to courage she supplies; But to women these denies. What then give she? Beauty, this Both their arms and armor is: She, that can this weapon use, Fire and sword with ease subdues.
ANACREON, "Beauty"
Thank you, Amber, for sharing some time with me. I appreciate not just admiring beauty, but helping to capture it and share it.
