My first visit to Carlsbad Caverns was all the way back in 2000 during my first attempt to move to California. I have two standout memories from that visit. The first was that it was on a weekday in March with no school groups and the caverns were virtually empty and it was doubly amazing to have them essentially all to myself. The second memory was dropping my (film) camera into the toilet in the visitor center! Fast forward to 2021 and the caverns were filled with few people using the recommended whisper voice, and my camera was digital and mirrorless, and I did not even dare take it into the restroom!
Photographing the orchestra at Albuquerque Academy
Now having photographed two plays at Albuquerque Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I am excited about expanding into the area of theatre photography. The latest play I photographed was the final dress rehearsal for Pirates of Penzance (see those photos). Before the performance started, I had a chance to photograph the orchestra getting warmed up in the pit. I had free range to go anywhere in the auditorium, including the catwalk! Also, the lighting changed during the warmup from very bright to the actual dark light level that would be used when the play was being performed. The last photo was of all the musicians out of the bit and on the stage for a clear group photo. I look forward to photographing their next play and of course sharing those photos with you here on Jason Collin Photography.
This was my second play performed by the students at Albuquerque Academy photographed in the past 3 months. Their rousing performance this time was of Pirates of Penzance. Not being a theatre buff, I had never heard of it so the story as it unfolded in front of my camera lenses was a surprise to me! Professional theatre photography is becoming a new niche for me as a professional photographer here in Albuquerque, New Mexico and I am really liking the challenge of it.
Theatre Photography in Albuquerque at the Cell Theatre
My photography of a play at Albuquerque Academy got me noticed and lead me to getting hired to photograph a full on professional play at the Cell Theatre, and not just any play, a Tony nominated play called Gary a Sequel to Titus Andronicus (get tickets). This was a much different photography experience as there were only three characters, and only two on stage at a time, rather than a dozen or more at the first play I photographed. The lighting was also better, as in brighter, though it still required high ISO settings. I was also much closer to the action on stage so I could get full closeups of the actors. Check out the play now as it goes through February 15, 2020 at the Cell Theatre!
Original student play photographed in an intimate setting
I had a very unique opportunity to photograph the rehearsal of an original student theatre performance at the Albuquerque Academy thanks to a former client who got the parents on board to have a professional photographer (me) come in to make proper, professional theatre photographs of the performances. In the audience that evening were just the director, two parents, and myself, so it was quite an intimate setting. I got caught up in the play, while being totally focused on working with the very low available light to make the best theatre photos I could. There is nothing more challenging than shooting a moving subject in low light. I had to use a very high ISO on both my Sony mirrorless cameras, but despite that I am very happy with the final image quality results. The students were as well it would seem as the photo gallery containing the 136 images I delivered had over 14,700 views in just 4 days!
Speaking about melanoma at the PER 2013 Conference at USF Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 2000 1/160th (no flash)I was a USF student in the 1990s. I have not been back to the campus much since, but I spent over eight hours there on Saturday photographing the 2013 PER Conference on melanoma at the Moffitt Cancer Center. It was a very weird feeling to hear so many talks, in English, and really not having any ability to put into context the stats and treatments they were talking about! However, in the end I did start to decipher some of it. I now know about "ippy."
Inside the 2013 PER Conference at Moffitt Cancer Center USF Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 2500 1/60th (no flash)I was given some specific instructions for this conference, the most concerning being that I could not use flash, at all. I had to only hope there would be enough available light to get decent enough exposures, and thankfully there was. You will see though some very high ISO settings I had to use!
Break time during the 2013 PER Conference in the Moffitt Cancer Center USF Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/4 ISO 2000 1/60th (no flash)There were also specific shot angles needed. By the second speaker I had pretty much dialed in my settings for each part of the conference room. I used three lenses to photograph each speaker to cover all angles. The light and the subject matter was not changing, so once I established my settings and angles, it was a matter of making sure the speaker was not blinking or caught frozen in the photo making a funny face mid syllable.
