Posts Tagged ‘theatre’

One in a series of 23 headshots I took for Missouri Street Theatre. One hour to light it, one hour to shoot it…for all 23 people! Book your headshot session by clicking here.

Company portrait of Aris Roberson for Missouri Street Theatre’s production of “Once Upon A Mattress.” Photo by Mike Padua.

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One in a series of 23 headshots I took for Missouri Street Theatre. One hour to light it, one hour to shoot it…for all 23 people! Book your headshot session by clicking here.

Company portrait of Kirstin Pieschke for Missouri Street Theatre’s production of “Once Upon A Mattress.” Photo by Mike Padua.

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See more work on my website.

One in a series of 23 headshots I took for Missouri Street Theatre. One hour to light it, one hour to shoot it…for all 23 people! Book your headshot session by clicking here.

Company portrait of Ethan Bell for Missouri Street Theatre’s production of “Once Upon A Mattress.” Photo by Mike Padua.

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See more work on my website.

One in a series of 23 headshots I took for Missouri Street Theatre. One hour to light it, one hour to shoot it…for all 23 people! Book your headshot session by clicking here.

Company portrait of John Ewing for Missouri Street Theatre’s production of “Once Upon A Mattress.” Photo by Mike Padua.

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See more work on my website.

It’s official: my new website has launched. It’s much easier and smoother to navigate, and it’s optimized to work on big screens, small screens, and everything in between. The pictures are beautifully displayed and all the functionality to deliver pictures to clients quickly and securely remains.

HUGE thanks to Photoshelter for providing the amazing tools they do for photographers.

Check it out!

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A lot of new stuff cooking. Over a year’s worth of new work to be added to the portfolios, and a new website that’s just about done. The site is up now if you want to look at it…I just haven’t made the “official” official announcement to make it officially official.

http://www.mikepadua.com

I took a little break from shooting theatrical and film productions to focus more on shooting headshots this year–or at least I thought I did. It turns out I’ve shot almost as many productions (both theatre and film) as I did the previous year, in addition to the headshots. This is just the professional stuff–there’s so much more personal work that I’ve shot that I haven’t even begun to sort through. Here’s a little review of some of the work I did 2013.

Theatrical Productions

The Fourth Messenger – A new, original musical by Tanya Shaffer, Directed by Matt August. See the whole gallery.

Sweeney Todd – Presented by Bay Area Stage, Directed by Jeff Lowe. See the whole gallery.

Funny Girl – Presented by Lucky Penny Productions, Directed by Barry Martin. See the whole gallery.

Wonder of the World – Presented by Napa Valley Playhouse and Lucky Penny Productions, Directed by Taylor Bartolucci. See the whole gallery.

Desire, Despair, Destiny & Death! – Presented by Opera Bravura. Check out their schedule of shows.

The Importance of Being Earnest – Presented by Bay Area Stage, Directed by Jeff Lowe. See the whole gallery.

Films

“New,” directed by John Harden. Cinematographer Kirk Douglas and Director John Harden discuss the next shot.

Rise,  Directed by Scott O’Hara. Check it out on Facebook.

Story of Eva, Directed by Tom Woodbeck. Left to right: Sound Engineer David Minard, Cinematographer Jason Morris, Director Tom Woodbeck. Check it out on Facebook and their website.

Headshots

And of course, I focused on shooting actors and performers headshots in 2013. One notable instance was shooting 23 headshots within an hour for the entire cast of Missouri Street Theatre’s “Once Upon a Mattress:”

Click here for headshot information.

It’s been a couple of years since I shot this show, but it’s still one of the fastest, most kinetic shows I’ve photographed as of yet, not to mention my first musical. The performances and movement make these types of shows really difficult to shoot, but the results are always so rewarding. I’m always trying to capture the peak of action–the moments that tell a story and hopefully get people to want to see the show. Yet again, Bay Area Stage built a killer set, created an amazing array of costumes, and brought on powerful and dynamic performers to fill the roles.

Check out the entire gallery here.

I had a chance to shoot Helen Pau’s original play, “The Stone Wife” at the Berkeley City Club. The challenge of this show was that it was theater-in-the-round, which meant that I had to cover the performers from 360 degrees. In addition, I had to do so in a very confined space.

I was allowed to shoot an early dress rehearsal as a test run and to get familiarized with the actors’ blocking so I could make sure I was in the right spots at the right times to capture the best of the performances. The prep shoot helped quite a bit–the first time around I found myself photographing the actors’ backs more than I would like to admit. It was definitely one of the bigger challenges I’ve faced so far, because even though the performance was happening in a relatively small space, there was a lot of movement to keep up with.

After seeing the performance and getting to test shoot it once, I found that I was better prepared by the time the final dress rehearsal came around and all makeup, wardrobe, set pieces, and lights were in place. The director and producers were happy with the results.

See the whole set here.

Need photos for your theatrical production? Booking information.

Questions, comments, or just want to be social? Get in touch.