And it’s getting lighter in the mornings too.

smirk

I sat down in the left front row with my tripod, camera, and wide angle lens…all set to get some great shots. The house lights dim, and a women comes on stage to start the evening. She makes the usual comments about no smoking, no food or drink…etc, and then says “photography is not allowed,” and then pauses…and does a stage look right at me…in front of 200 people.

Well, being singled out in front of 200 people isn’t my favorite thing ever, so said in a stage whisper back to her, “I am here from University Communications,” thinking perhaps she will realize that someone in her department requested my presence.
“I didn’t know about this before hand,” she said. This is getting slightly more awkward… “I’m doing publicity shots for the University,” I said. “Well, I’ll talk to you in a minute,” she replied.

Okay, so does that mean I can take photos? Well she didn’t come talk to me in a minute, so I took several shots at opportune moments. Photography in a setting like this requires some delicacy. First of all it’s dark and flashes are always frowned upon because they are extremely distracting and irritating, so I needed a tripod so I could take pictures at slower shutter speeds. Second it’s in a theater that has incredibly good acoustics, so any shutter noise is very apparent, thus only allowing me to take pictures when there is music and/or spoken word… and even then I have to pick my moments. This means i have to be very selective of when I take a shot. I took 5 pictures before the intermission, and all of them turned out well.

At the intermission, the aforementioned person came and talked to me. She was very brusque and straightforward, but explained why the did not want photographs taken etc… I think it mainly boiled down to copyright issues with choreography and not having the performers permission before hand. Despite the fact that those were not very compelling reasons to stop taking pictures (copyrights on choreographing really only apply to video, and there is not really any law to stop me from taking candid pictures), I decided to oblige them and quit taking photographs. No reason to irritate people just for some work photos.

Anyway, here are my 5 shots from the evening. (I guess i took 6 including the picture of the announcer… maybe that’s why she didn’t like me )

This one is my favorite.

I am a photographer for Winona State University’s Communication Dept. (PR), and my work entails covering events on campus, taking publicity shots, and fulfilling other various photography needs. I generally take lots of candid pictures for work, so it has been fun developing that skill. For my Photo Communication class, I usually have a project to work on every other week. So I am continually on the lookout for subject matter that fits my assignment. (The ‘Fire’ Hydrant pictures were for a class project).

Because it has been awhile since I uploaded any pictures, I decided to gather some of my best shots from this month. Most of them are portraits and candids, though there are a few landscape photos in there too.

Anyway…I’m going to attempt to upload things more regularly… we shall see. Anyway, Enjoy!

Not exactly sure of the ownership of this picture… My friend Peter Boysen may have taken it…
  




And finaly…the masterpiece.