Setting The Stage
Two cameras. Three photos.
I've made about half a dozen trips to the Cowan Hall stage looking for a good photo of the stage repair. Only one of those photos made it online as My Final Photo.
It was made on February 22 just as repairs began. It also wasn't very good but had good action (slightly blurred) and was topical as the repair work had just begun. Every time I've been back the photos never looked as good as I'd hoped. I’m blaming it on the lighting.
It was flat lighting on the stage, the subject of the photo. Flat lighting has no contrast. No texture, depth, or dimension.
This day the lighting wasn't flat. The stage was lit with a strong single light off to the side that gave it depth, shadow, dynamic tones, and a strong central subject other than the stage. And, the worker was in a position that let me show the audience, the stage, the workshop doorway, and the nearly completed stage floor.
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The Other Choices
I had several other photos that could have worked as My Final Photo but are better by themselves, with a story.
The three photos are essentially the same photo with different perspectives. Wide angle, normal, and telephoto. Each one could have been MFP or used to illustrate a story about repairs to the stage.Â
In all three but especially the telephoto shot, it appears the carpenter is performing in a production about the difficulties of managing a college theater department when disaster strikes and they have no place to perform. As if he's in the middle of the second act in an expository scene lamenting his troubles and woes. Before resolving the conflict and accepting how life has changed for everyone.
That requires a little imagination.Â
And carrying more than one camera. One with a wide angle. The other with a telephoto zoom to shoot before the carpenter moved on to another position that was less dramatic and performative. Three quick photos, each similar but different. Different in angle and different in how the stage is seen.