Behind the Scenes . . . from Gorka . . . to Rossini

As many of you already know, I really enjoy photographing live performance events.  In the space of a week, I was able to shoot two -- or one and a half, depending on how you count.

First up was John Gorka, an American troubadour, who came to our local "Music in Corrales" series March 19.  The venue for the concert series is an historic decommissioned 1868-vintage mission church in our village . . .

 















Gorka graciously allowed me to shoot while he and the audio engineer worked on the levels . . .

. . . during rehearsal . . .

. . . and while he performed in concert.  During the show I had to shoot from the back of the church to avoid disturbing the audience or the artist.  But I still got some good shots:

You can see these and many more images of John Gorka in a gallery at my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

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A few days later, I had the opportunity to do a publicity photo shoot for Opera Southwest, our local opera company.  The shoot is always arranged for an Albuquerque Journal photographer to get some images for their article about each new production, so it's not my shoot and I'm not in control.  I was literally shooting over the shoulder of the Journal photographer . . . 

But he is always very gracious and gives me the opportunity to shoot unobstructed and give a bit of direction to the singers if I feel like it. 

The shoot took place against a stucco wall outside the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, where Opera Southwest stages their productions.  No off-camera flash, no reflectors, just ambient light and some help from Lightroom:

The image above is Angela Martellaro as Fiorilla, the coquettish wife who is smitten with Selim, il Turco, played by Michael Sumuel.  Her foppish husband, Don Geronio, is played by Matthew Burns:

A masked ball, mistaken identities, chaos and comedy -- classic opera buffa!

From first push of the shutter button to the last, I shot 150 images in 10 minutes, but thanks to singers who know how to emote on cue, we all got some good pictures . . .

                                                     . . . and everyone had a good time!




If you would like to see these images and more, visit my photography website by clicking here.

Enjoy!