A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

September 19, 2012

Some Recent Work

Filed under: General photography — Tony Drumm @ 4:53 pm

I thought I’d share a few photos I’ve done recently. I had a great head shot session with Lisa. I really enjoy shooting actors. What’s not to like? They take direction, even the move-your-chin-up-slightly kinds of requests. They know how to give a great expression, a great smile. It makes my job easy and makes me look good!

When we were done with the serious part of the shoot, Lynne suggested we do some fun hair-flinging. Lisa was game, and this is one of the shots. I posted another one over on Facebook. I decided to have a little fun in post, too.  I think she looks like she’s just loving life in this photo.

I’m continuing my personal project shooting dancers that I discussed in an earlier post (here). Michaela is quite passionate about dance and offered to be my ballet model. This is an interesting project for me. I have a rough idea going into a shoot of some of what I want, but the session just leads where it wants to go. After the session, I look through the images and select those that talk to me.

After flagging some, one will say “me first!” I’ll make some initial adjustments in Lightroom, then I bring it over to Photoshop and let it guide me. Sometimes I feel color is in the way, dropping the saturation maybe all the way to black and white.

And sometimes I start with a nearly monochrome image and see that bold color is what I want. I have worked on several images from Michaela’s session and have a few still to consider. Some of the images in the series have morphed a few times as I reexamine them. Artistic vision is like that, at least for me. Ever changing, not often satisfied.

September 9, 2012

RCT’s Encore Fundraiser

Filed under: Rochester Civic Theatre — Tony Drumm @ 12:43 pm

Last night, Rochester Civic Theatre held their annual fundraiser, Encore, at the theatre. Seemed like a good turn-out to me. There was good food – really good food – and a cash bar to begin the evening. This being a theatre, you know there’s going to be entertainment, mainly provided by the cast of the current show, The Marvelous Wonderettes.

They were awesome, just like on opening night the evening before. I had my trusty camera with me and grabbed some shots during dinner and during other parts of the program, including our mayor coming on stage wearing a Harley Davidson leather jacket!

But I thought I’d show off some of the shots of the Wonderettes cast here – sort of a preview of the show photos.

Probably the most noticeable feature is the bright colors. Of course, the girls have the requisite hair colors, blond, red, and two shades of brunette. But the dresses are what grab your eyes.

The songs are late fifties and sixties, mainly of the style employing a lead singer and a group of back-ups. So, we had some strong spot lights with a bit more subdued lighting behind.

This sometimes adds a lot of contrast to the shots, but it actually works fine since the focus is really on the gal up front, and the lighting draws you there. That’s the intention of the lighting, of course, for the actual live performance.

For a fundraiser like this, consider that the actors, the band, the two folks running the spots, and the woman running the mic levels are all volunteers. So are the group of young actors who manned the red carpet in front of the theatre as the paparazzi. I’m sure there were others. This is something very special about the arts, and particularly the performing arts. This theatre is a place they need to be there for them.

It was a fun evening. Lynne and I were there until they were literally rolling up the carpet. Hanging with friends, enjoying their company, and glad we have a civic theatre of this caliber here in Rochester.

September 3, 2012

The Marvelous Wonderettes promo shots

Filed under: Rochester,Rochester Civic Theatre — Tony Drumm @ 9:47 am

The first show of the new season at Rochester Civic Theatre opens this Friday, The Marvelous Wonderettes. Greg had the idea for the promo shots to drive around Rochester and shoot the four actors with various Rochester landmarks. Of course, the first one to come to mind is the corn cob water tower!

For those of you who aren’t or haven’t been in the Rochester area, Rochester, MN is in the upper Midwest of the USA, part of what is often called the bread basket. So, yes, there’s plenty of corn in these parts. And, judging from the smell and the truck we passed filled with cobs, it’s sweet corn harvesting season!

I loved this shot and the energy they showed!

Rochester is also a year-round home to giant Canadian geese. Silver Lake, downtown, is a favorite site for the geese. We all walked out onto the grass – carefully.

The Mayo brothers’ put Rochester on the map. Their statue stands in front of the Mayo Civic Center, and it was another obvious choice. The evening sun provided some nice warm tones for the photo.

There are several large painted geese around downtown. This one sits (or stands?) in front of the offices of the Rochester Honkers baseball team. It’s just across the street from the theatre.

We wanted to use one of the Rochester welcome signs. I know of two – one north of town on US 52 and one south of town on US 63. I scoped out both ahead of the shoot. The north one is actually near a frontage road which could have made it easy to get to – except for the fence in between. US 52 is a freeway there, so stopping along the road isn’t really a good idea and likely illegal.

The sign on 63 isn’t a lot better. The highway speed limit is 65 mph in that section, but there are at-grade intersections, so it’s not a freeway. We parked well off the roadway, and Greg led the young women through the weeds to the grassy area in front of the sign. I stood on the shoulder with my 70-200 lens maxed out to 200 mm. Trucks driving by honked their horns as the ladies climbed up the hill. We had some decent evening light and the great bright colors of the dresses.

We ended back at the theatre for their rehearsal and grabbed a shot in front of the marquee. It’s hard to believe it’s September, today is Labor Day, and Wonderettes opens the new season this Friday. What the heck happened to summer?

While we were out shooting the corn cob water tower, I moved in for a closer shot of the players. Sounds like the show should be fun with lots of old favorite tunes.

We’ll be there Friday. Hope to see you, too!

 

Powered by WordPress