Tag Archives: performance

Photographs: Music & Musicians, Photographs: People

Conductor Karen Kamensek

May 25, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

Karen Kamensek conducts the Symphony Silicon Valley

From my ongoing project photographing classical musicians that their world, this photograph of conductor Karen Kamensek comes from a recent performance of the Symphony Silicon Valley, one of the groups I have been working with. (One reason for this project is my hope to expose people who are not familiar with this world to a bit more of its reality, ranging from the sometimes mundane aspects of the work to the aspects that reflect the intensity, dedication, and incredible work that isn’t so easy to see directly.)

All performers in this world distill their technical skills and emotional/aesthetic focus to levels not often experienced by those in more prosaic lines of work. If you have the opportunity to watch closely—as I have, both as a former performing musician myself and now as a photographer—you begin to see subtleties that are difficult if not impossible to see from the audience during a performance. Or, people might see them, but only small parts of them and only for brief moments. The conductor provides a more visible example of what can be seen among all of the performers. A huge number of factors are simultaneously at work—tempo, expression, technical issues of timing and balance and intonation—and all of this unfolds rapidly and inexorably as the music moves forward in time. And the conductor must express (or, often, over-express) all of these things visually, often simultaneously signaling things about to happen, being in the moment of things happening now, and even responding to things that have just occurred.

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Photographs: Music & Musicians, Photographs: People

Wendell Rider, French Horn

May 23, 2014 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Wendell Rider, French Horn, performing with Symphony Silicon Valley

Today, another photograph of musicians. Anyone seeing a theme here yet?;-) This is a recent photograph from my three-year project photographic classical musicians. I virtually always work in low light, backstage, and during rehearsals and concerts. While working to be discreet, I often photograph through gaps in the orchestra shell, between music stands and instruments, and in very dark backstage areas.

Over time I have found some ways to accomplish this often challenging photography. I use long lenses to isolate subjects against a blurred version of the often complex backgrounds of the orchestra environment. I look for juxtapositions of performers, instruments, and perhaps other on-stage objects. I almost always shoot wide open, allowing backgrounds to blur. And much of the shooting is work of opportunity—I see a momentary opportunity and then I work quickly to capture it. Here I found that I had a decent view of the French horn section through a gap in the orchestra shell wall. A long lens allowed by to isolate the main subject and a large aperture threw the background out of focus.

Photographs: Music & Musicians, Photographs: People

Cellist Louella Hasbun

May 21, 2014 G Dan Mitchell 3 Comments

Cellist Louella Hasbun practices backstage during intermission at a performance of the Symphony Silicon Valley

I’m going to make this partial a story about photography and partially a story about musicians—but first some quick background. I have been an “embedded photographer” with two classical music performing groups since the fall of 2012 while working on a project that will continue through the fall of 2014. The nature of the project is a bit of a long story, so I won’t go into the details here, except to say that I am fortunate to have what must be nearly unprecedented access to the world of these wonderful artists. I like to think that the lengthy time I have had to work with them has let me develop a special affinity for them and what they do, and I think that it has also allowed them to come to trust me and what I’m going as I photograph them. There are few endeavors that regularly exhibit the same level of physical, mental, and aesthetic focus and energy as music. There is a raw power in watching this when scores of performers work together in an orchestral performance, but there is also a very special power in the intense inward focus on individual performers, too.

As I have worked with the orchestras I have learned a lot of practical things about how to photograph them. Some are simple and mundane—such as what equipment works well for my approach. Others are a bit more complicated to explain—such as how to anticipate and capture momentary expressions that come and go so fast that they are perhaps not seen by those who don’t know to look for them, or how to photograph musicians in moments of peak engagement, or how to use stage and backstage lighting to best advantage, or how to see a short-lived moment and quickly make a photograph in poor light and without intruding on that moment. This photograph perhaps illustrates the last two of those points. Over time I have learned to look for what I think of as “pools of light” in the backstage environment. Much of this environment is quite badly lit, both in terms of the levels and the quality of the light. But there are a few spots that I have found where a small area may fall under a work light or similar. I watch these areas intently, and any time someone “lands” in one of them I watch to see if a photograph develops. For a moment, this cellist sat in one of those “pools of light” and, focusing inwardly, practiced intently for a few moments. It is almost like photographing wildlife, and I had just an instant to find a composition and make a few exposures before the moment was over.

Commentary, Equipment, Technique

Thoughts About the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lens

August 30, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 17 Comments

(This is another post based on something I wrote elsewhere as a response to a question about this lens – I’m re-sharing it here with minor editing.)

I’ve used the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS lens a lot – for things as varied as handheld shooting of bicycle races and tripod-based landscape photography. Over time I’ve developed a few thoughts about the performance of this lens and some of the comments that I frequently hear and read about it.

First, especially from my tripod-based work, I have found that the lens is capable of very good performance in terms of image quality – e.g. “resolution.” This is true at all focal lengths, but more so perhaps at some than at others. To give one example, I also own the f/4 IS 70-200mm lens. At one point I tended to always switch to the shorter lens when shooting in the range up to 200mm, concerned about a potential sharpness hit with the 100-400. Over time I figured out that while the 70-200 is probably a very tiny bit sharper here, in most cases the difference in many kinds of shooting is insignificant and invisible in real-world output – and in many cases where I would have switched lenses I now leave the 100-400 on the camera. Continue reading Thoughts About the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lens →

G Dan Mitchell Photography

Tag Archives: performance

Conductor Karen Kamensek

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Wendell Rider, French Horn

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Cellist Louella Hasbun

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Thoughts About the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lens

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.