Aer­ial per­for­mances at the 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival

I was for­tu­nate to be the Sideshow Fringe Fes­ti­val 2015 pho­tog­ra­pher, and as always there were many incred­i­ble ses­sions of the­ater, aeri­al­ists, pup­pets, and music. There are many, many, many tac­tics one can uti­lize when pho­tograph­ing per­for­mances. Long expo­sures, high-ISO cap­tures, processed images to high­light the per­former — all are good options. Another option on engag­ing the sub­ject: shoot once, process none. Shoot film, process, and take what develops.

In addi­tion to the actual live per­for­mances, I was also invited to check out some rehearsals, includ­ing the work of the FALL com­pany. It was pretty incred­i­ble to lis­ten in and hear some of their process as they rehearsed through the work, and to try and unob­tru­sively cap­ture some of the dis­cus­sions in pho­tos. Below are three of those images next to one of the per­form­ers dur­ing the rehearsal set.

FALL Rehears­ing, Side Show Fringe Fes­ti­val 2015

Giv­ing up some con­trol with the medium lets me work in the avail­able light­ing and motion with­out stress­ing over the upcom­ing post-processing. A chance to pho­to­graph the mood and ambi­ence in the unpol­ished envi­ron­ment. A bit of a looser, yet more focused, feel­ing from the per­form­ers seems to come out in rehearsals. When the dancers are con­tin­u­ing the com­mit­ment of their work to mus­cle mem­ory it’s almost like a photo cri­tique. Peo­ple are look­ing for input, look­ing for encour­age­ment, but also any­thing that helps rise the level of the work is welcome.

Many thanks to FALL for allow­ing me to shoot the rehearsals!

Aeri­al­ists are incred­i­ble. Flat out, hands down — some of the most enter­tain­ing per­form­ers com­bined with incred­i­ble phys­i­cal abil­i­ties. Twist­ing, pulling, turn­ing, falling — it’s amaz­ing. See­ing an aer­ial per­for­mance is great. Always, always, always go if you have the chance. The photo below is from the 2014 Sideshow Fringe Fes­ti­val. This ses­sion was with the FALL dance com­pany and Aer­ial Fab­ri­ca­tors.

The Bird (Move­ment IV, SSF 2014)

It’s been a long time since the last photo explo­ration post. The fall and win­ter were a pro­duc­tive time, just not for updat­ing this part of the web­site. So let’s dig in one a photo taken around the time of the last photo explo­ration!

Long expo­sures a great. They are easy to do, fun to share, and usu­ally pro­vide some very inter­est­ing results. Almost every pho­tog­ra­pher I know has gone through a water­fall period, which usu­ally involves con­sid­er­a­tions for ND fil­ters, low-as-possible-ISO, stop­ping down the lens and look­ing for the shadi­est spot pos­si­ble to get a good image of creamy water over still rocks. For that mat­ter, I still do those shots when the oppor­tu­nity arises!

How­ever, when work­ing in a black box the­ater with high con­trast spot lights, it’s much eas­ier to do long expo­sures than any­thing else. The ques­tion is, just HOW long should that expo­sure be? 1 sec­ond? 5? 1/2″? It’s trial and error at the start, and with per­for­mances you might not get a sec­ond chance. Pro tip: auto-bracketing helps tremen­dously in this sit­u­a­tion. But once you get the set­tings dialed in for the scene, some fan­tas­tic work can be captured.

I remem­ber the piece being incred­i­ble. Bursts of motion over­laid on still and gen­tle cross­ings of the stage. When the per­form­ers were climb­ing, it seemed like they could have stayed aloft for­ever. When one came down, it was like a bird emerg­ing from the egg and imme­di­ately tak­ing flight. Enthralling, to say the least!

Move­ment pho­tog­ra­phy at the 2014 Sideshow Fringe Fes­ti­val. Beau­ti­ful per­for­mances with the FALL dance com­pany and Aer­ial Fab­ri­ca­tors.

Thank you to Jes­sika Mal­one and the entire Sideshow Fringe team for invit­ing me to be part of the event this year!