A Series of Unfortunate Events: Painting with Light Edition
Painting with light is one of the most enjoyable things I do with my photography, but the one time that I actually need to paint with light for a grade, Mother Nature decides to release her wrath on my incompetence and lack of time management skills.
Maplewood Barn Community Theatre is mid-Missouri's only live outdoor theatre. The cast and crew includes volunteers that are interested in the performing arts but aren't necessarily professionals. Starting in April and ending in September, the Barn performs plays for the public that range from Steel Magnolias to Beauty and the Beast. The Barn has an indoor area where they hold performances in case they get rained out.
The dotted lines represent the movement that Nana and Tom were doing in order to light the entire scene. Kate was at the camera holding the umbrella over it and holding the shutter release, while I waited to paint on stage after they were done. Nana and Tom started off at the wall of the barn and moved down to the stage and to the center to light the steps, then moved out of the camera's view.
Tom, Nana, Kate and I decided to light the barn with strobes, then light the stage, and then paint on the stage as if there was a performance going on. I think that the light is a really abstract way of showing movement on stage, and I was happy about that.
There was really only one challenge: the pouring rain that came down upon on every 15 minutes. It was challenging because I also think the rain affected the way the light from reflected. We tried to use the rain to our advantage in previous photos, but by the time we figured out our exact concept, it wasn't raining as intensely anymore. Also, there are rain drops on the lens, and it's actually really apparent on the select, which wasn't really visible on the camera screen.
The one thing that I think all of us learned is that we should really prepare more in terms of clothing choices as well as equipment choices. I think that if one of us had a big flash light, lighting the barn would have been a little easier and easier to control. But we DID bracket. and I think that we should get some credit for that.