Photos: Robin Hood play

posted by Andy

FINALLY! The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood at the Majestic is over. Yay! Besides making the hats, a pair of giant Wii controllers, and helping out with a few of the Merry Men tunics, I managed to photograph the dress rehearsal and get discs burned in time to hand out to parents at the strike party. Relatives can never have enough photos of nephews, nieces and grandkids in silly costumes.


The Towns Guy, or narrator, expert wii bowler and master of the fade out scene change.


Maid Marian, Robin and the Merry Men meet for the first time after lifting the Sheriff's gold. I was "hat-guy". The Merry Men caps are simply triangles of felt folded in half with a strip sewn around the side.




Robin attempting to hide in Maid Marian's room while the Sheriff searches.


Robin waits in the background as his stunt double prepares to take a beating from the evil Prince John's guards.


That crown took some thought and planning to get a design that looked both suitably pompous, cartoony, and ridiculous. It's foam core with yellow paper glued around the outside and folder over the edges.


The Sheriff of Nottingham with his oversized wiimote, part of his backup plan to thwart Robin Hood. The play's theme was "cartoon" so I HAD to make a pair of giant wii controllers to suite the silliness of the play. They were constructed entirely from foamcore and poster board. I hope they survive the show's run, I'd like at least one for my office.


The fawning ladies cheer during the final competition between Robin and the Sheriff. Angie made all the dresses. Their wigs were ordered from an online costume store, and I borrowed the pink one for Halloween.


Robin and the Sheriff's wii bowling competition degenerates into some form of wii battle.

---

Theater photography is a great challenge - low light, no flash and unpredictable action. You gotta shoot from the hip, just like nature photography. Capturing that great pose is worth filling up 2 GB with blurred, too dark or closed-eyes shots.

I've had the most success taking a monopod, using 400 ISO and putting the camera on manual. Then adjust the shutter speed as needed to get passable exposure levels. I sometimes forget to increase the speed when the lights go brighter and end up with a few washed out photos. And of course they're always the shots that would have been perfect. Also, shooting in RAW (digital negative format) gives great flexibility to adjust for color and lighting after the fact. One of the challenges is fixing stage lighting. While color gels work on stage, in photos it looks more like poor color balance.

I've got the process down to a science: Open RAW file, choose "auto-adjust" or "previous settings", tweak the sliders, crop, import into Photoshop, run a batch action witch pops up dialogs for color balance, fade auto-contrast and fade auto-color. Then save as jpeg. Rinse and repeat.

The real reward is to go back through my favorite shots and make black and white or apply other effects to the shot. Stacking and mixing warm and cool B&W images sometimes gives unexpected depth. Next, I'm going to finally give in and try the old high contrast HDR gimmick effect.

Junior Improv at Bombs Away Cafe

posted by Andy

Scott and other after school improv brats, aka: JenEric's Kids, doing some improvisational games at Bombs Away Cafe earlier this week. They'll be holding another performance at CHS on Friday, Oct 24. Many of these guys just happen to be in the upcoming "Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood" that seems to have taken over our free time. That play is shaping up to be a hilarious show.

In this game the audience suggests a murder victim (Jabba the Hut), a location (Kitchen), and the murder weapon (cheese grater). Each actor then has 30 seconds to pantomime these facts to the next participant without words. The last person then blurts out the end result of this string of misinterpretations.

Stop! It's Puppet Time

posted by Andy

Chris and I really enjoyed our visit to today's puppet workshop put on by the Majestic Theatre (downtown Corvallis, $5). We learned how to breath life into a masking taped wad of inanimate objects, including chopsticks, cloth and wadded newspaper. Mine turned into some form of Mickey Mouseish metro swinger with blue hair. The kid spent a long time forming his dragon head then added purple wings and a spiked tail. Now he can't wait to see the full Reluctant Dragon puppet show - but in the mean time he's out in the backyard sculpting left over chicken wire into a dragon head.

Speaking of puppets, the host mentioned Puppet Up, an improv troupe with Brian Henson and crew. Funny, but not for kids. Well, not for kids that haven't been ruined by crass humor and sarcasm. Ours are already beyond help.



Back in the day I once worked on a few projects involving famous TV puppets. Making video games for preschoolers was always an odd experience. There are few jobs where you might find yourself in a room full of grownups seriously discussing what a bear should say after sniffing you. All the best material was never suitable for all ages. But, even then I was always amazed by the other grownups who made their living with their hand up a puppet's keister. They're nuts. And yet I got the sense of a whole community universe not shared by us normals, where that line of work was as routine as flipping cow patties.

Anyway, I've been getting that creativity bug again, but it's not strong enough to rouse me into manic artist mode ... yet. I just lack that little extra muse-infused guidance to settle on a project I know I'll finish. Soon, very soon ...

Merigoldded

posted by Andy

Flower from a friend's garden. Desktop wallpaper sized, or larger. Very huge.

Guys and Dolls

posted by Andy

Musical at a local theater.

Guys and Dolls

posted by Andy

Musical at a local theater.

Guys and Dolls

posted by Andy

Musical at a local theater.

Night Of the Living Dead - Show

posted by Andy

In honor of the Majestic Theater's production of "Night of the Living Dead" I will be showcasing photographic work presented with customized frames and enclosures suitable for an evening with the undead. Images are on display through early October.

The Majestic Theatre is located at 115 SW 2nd Street, Corvallis OR.

Here are some samples:

"Voracious Daisy" Old iron pipes and plastic dowel around the close-up of a daisy.

"No Hunting" Image over recycled skinned stuffed animals. I actually support hunting in moderation, but this just seemed too good an idea to pass up.

"Pyroclastic Adhesion" Old burlap covered in glued dirt, very stiff, with a manipulated macro image of Pacific coast barnacles.

Nicky

posted by Andy

Nicky from the play "On the Verge"

50s Teen

posted by Andy

From a local play production of "On the Verge". 1955 teenager trying to give directions.

Hypothermia

posted by Andy

The character "Alex" in snow gear from a local play production of "On the Verge".

Alphonse

posted by Andy

Alphonse the cannibal from the play "On the Verge". Colors edited to remove cool hues.

12th Night Olivia's Court

posted by Andy

Feste returns to Olivia's court, from Shakespeare's "12th Night". Costume inspired by the "Fruits" fashion books. Some color manipulation effects done.

12th Night Trouble Makers

posted by Andy

Feste, Sir Andrew, Toby and Maria scheme in Shakespeare's "12th Night". Costumes inspired by the "Fruits" fashion books.

12th Night Malvolio

posted by Andy

Malvolio reads the love note while Sir Toby looks on in Shakespeare's "12th Night". Costumes inspired by the "Fruits" fashion books.

12th Night Feste

posted by Andy

Feste's monologue in panorama, from Shakespeare's "12th Night". Costume inspired by the "Fruits" fashion books. Some color manipulation effects done.

Photo: Anna's Hummer

posted by Andy

Anyone know what's up with the feathers on this little guy head? Is he just molting or could it be something more serious?

Photos: Finley Ducks

posted by Andy

It's been over a month but I finally got out this weekend to photo some nature. Here's a few of the ducks hanging out in the area at this time.

Photos: Da Vinci Days recap

posted by Andy

Ok, so these "Da Vinci Days" kenetic sculpture race photos were taken last July, 2006 in Corvallis, OR. But for some reason forget to post them. I managed to hand out a CD of unedited photos to each of the teams, but if anyone wants a cleaned up copy just email me.

1. "Bright Idea" with some bright editing to enhance the effect.
2. Tiny spectator at the mud rally event. I think that's the Tortoise and the Hare racer.
3. One of the Kenetic Kops during the parade around the park.
4. "The Muenster Rat" gets stuck on a sandbar during the river leg of the tour.
5. Hairy potter, a wheel wizzard.
6. "Extreme Makeover" during the starting parade.
7. One of the mud event judges, I think. The blurry background contains an Italian boat stuck in the mud with a giant red puppet thingy behind it.
8. Pirate Success.

Photo: Wet Feather

posted by Andy

I photoed this dew covered feather a few weeks ago, but never got around to editing the image. After masking out each and every drop, some colorizing and blending, here's the finished result. The original feather is a dark blue-gray. Not sure what bird it came from.

Photo: Baby Newt

posted by Andy

The newts were out in force yesterday. They're pretty well camouflaged so I had to watch were I stepped. There seemed to be one or two every 10 feet or so. Must be the rain. This one was just a baby.

Photos: Dove and Wren

posted by Andy

Took an early morning walk through the William Finley wetland refuge on Friday. Not too many cooperative birds, but I did spot a pileated woodpecker, some flickers, stellers jay, bunch of chickadees squawking at me (probably black-capped, not positive), some grebes and mallard ducks.

The mourning dove in the first image was right beside the road. Photo taken out the car window with a 200mm zoom. The Winter Wren was one of several bopping about the path, pretty oblivious to my presence.

Photos: Garter Snake

posted by Andy

This little guy was trying to cross a gravel road, but having no where to go he decided to curl up and sniff with his tongue until I went away. His head is only about 1/2 inch long - a pretty tiny garter snake.

The first shot was taken with a 50mm lens plus some stacked macro filters +1, +2, +4. Speed 1/250, aperture f22, ISO 100. The extreme close-up was taken with a zoom lens with a reversed 35mm lens (attached backwards via reverse mount ring) and a diffused fill flash. Speed 1/125, aperture f32, ISO 200.

Photo: Dumb Bunny

posted by Andy

A not-so-bright rabbit that stayed around striking cute poses while his friends ran into the bushes, leaving him as bait. Colors have been edited - removed the greens to give it a bit of a sepia toned effect.

Photos: Finley Wildlife

posted by Andy

To decompress from a long working weekend I took an early morning hike yesterday before going into the office. I had heard that the elk were in the area and the bulls were fighting. I didn't see the males, but while looking at a woolly bear caterpillar crossing the path I noticed several fresh drops of blood and could hear the elks bugling within a few hundred yards off in the woods. I did run across a mother elk and her large calf.

Also, spotted a downy woodpecker and a brown creeper near the Finley quarry.

Photos: Wetland Birds

posted by Andy

(1) Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron fishing for tadpoles in the muck. (2) Great Blue Heron in a tree screeching at me to go away. (3) American Bittern

Photos: For the Birds

posted by Andy

Here are a few more bird images. The hummer is a Rufus buzzing around our backyard Bee Balm, which they seem to love. Staking it out for 30 minutes resulted in several nice shots, but I had to use manual focus.

The woodpecker is a juvenile Downey that was hopping around an apple tree. My wife spotted it. But, so did the scrub jays which chased it off.

Last image is a daddy quail and his brood. Shot out the car window as they skittered away into the sunset.

Photo: Wabbit!

posted by Andy

Photos: July 4th Baseball

posted by Andy

This past July 4th we had our annual local baseball game. Here's a few shots of Richie's Market vs. ???

BUT, more importantly this weekend is Da Vinci Days '06 in Corvallis, OR. If you look at this year's brochure I did the image under "Races & Reverly" along with another photo on the official web site.

Photos from this year's race coming soon ...