Take
opportunities when you spot them. I will use an example from my personal
experience to highlight this. I was in Camden for a day of street photography
and I noticed a sign pointing to a small theatre up a flight of stairs. I asked
whether I might see be allowed inside the theatre to take some photographs of
the set up and was fortunate to find someone who not only let me in but told me
some of the history of the theatre. She also invited me to return to London to
take some photographs of her theatre company rehearsing for a forthcoming play
at the Rose Theatre on the South Bank. Returning to London on the allocated
day, I had the privilege of spending some time photographing a very talented
group of performers and also seeing behind the scenes at the Rose. Three from
the selection I took are included here.
For
rehearsal, the theatre used the house lights which lit the actors from above,
creating a similar effect to hair lighting. I did not want to use flash so used
an ISO of 6400, plus 5 exposure compensation and a shutter speed of 1/250 which
was needed as people were moving around quickly as they rehearsed.
I was pleased with the end results and the theatre group were also very happy, they even used a number of the pictures on their website.
