Beach Blanket Babylon: Inside and Out

Beach Blanket Babylon is a cultural landmark of the first order.  The show began its run in 1974 at Club Savoy Tivoli and has since moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco. It is America's longest-running musical revue.  Every year, three $10,000 Steve Silver High School Scholarships are awarded to encourage high school students to pursue their educations in the performing arts. This year, one of the finalists was Ms. Candy Tong from a high school in our service area, and my editor and I hoped to get a shot of her holding one of those checks.

Before we went into the theater, I introduced myself to all of Ms. Tong's friends and asked them to please PLEASE wait on the street in front of the club after the show was over so I could make a photo for the paper.

Indoors: Club Fugazi is a relatively small theater as seen in the lead photograph. Because of the wide variety of artificial light sources, I decided to let the camera select the proper white balance. The camera settings on the Nikon were Automatic White Balance, F2.8, 1/15 if a second, ISO 3200, with a Tokina 11-16 2.8 zoom. This shot was stretching my ability to hold still, and despite the signs of subject movement, this shot gives you a feeling for the audience's excitement before the competition began.

The guest judges include a number of local luminaries, including former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. If you look closely in the shadows of his jacket, you can see that some of the accent lights were definitely blue, which adds to the problem of obtaining an acceptable color balance. I set the camera to Incandescent and hoped for the best. At least this way, the white balance would be relatively consistent.

Shortly before the performance, I was directed (escorted, if you will), to the "photographer's area", up in the balcony near the back of the theater. I switched to a 70-200 2.8, and was saved not so much by the focal length but by the vibration reduction. Without it, all the photos taken from this vantage point would probably shown some camera motion. F 4.0, 1/200, ISO 800. The relatively short exposure time helped freeze the action, since subject motion can be a real problem when shooting indoors under available/house lighting conditions.

Ms. Tong gave a lovely performance during the competition. I made over two dozen photos during her routine, but kept this one because of the light fell directly on her face. Whenever possible, make your photos when the subject is look towards the light. This was the only acceptable shot I made of her that evening.

There is never a shortage of "drama" among show people, as this former scholarship recipient clearly demonstrates. The gentleman with the microphone is Don Bleu, a local morning radio personality.

 

One of the winners,  Reilly O'Flynn is seen here receiving his check. It sure looks to me like he couldn't believe he really won.

Outdoors: The competition ended, so I headed out the front door. Thankfully, all of Ms. Tong's friends were already in front, waiting for her to emerge from the theater. When she did, she was greeted by a wonderful, hand-painted sign, a surprise her friends managed to keep from her throughout the evening. Although she didn't win a scholarship, she was very pleased at this showing of support by her classmates. Incidentally, those shapes in the foreground are the backs of the hand painted signs held by her friends.

Now I had to start setting up the shot. I wanted the "Club Fugazi" sign in the background, so I re-arranged her friends in front of the stairs. The naturally fell into line, so I decided to take the shot as they were, even though I had another arrangement in mind.

In this first pose, it was difficult to see Ms.Tong standing in the background. After I made this shot, I asked that the signs be held over their heads. I moved Ms. Tong to the foreground so she would appear larger. The juxtaposition of her head, while corny, seemed to work, so the shot was done. You can see the final, corrected shot, below.

Only three shots were taken of this particular arrangement, and luckily for me, her feet weren't completely cut off, as it was the only shot where the "O" sign was fully visible, so I was especially thankful to the Photography Gods who let me slip by with this one. Just having that little bit of curve from the shoes made a huge difference.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lighting was provided by a single Nikon speedlight held high overhead with a monopod. The extended exposure setting of 1/15 resulted in some blur but great background separation provided by the lamp above the front door. The framing error and the camera shake may have been the result of trying to hold the monopod while shooting with one hand, not the steadiest shooting combination.

Lighting Big Groups Outdoors

I've been making the group graduation photo for the past nine years. My first attempt was with a handheld 6-megapixel Sony Point and Shoot, the last with a 16-megapixel Nikon D7000 mounted on a tripod. Things have changed considerably since my earliest efforts. The biggest jump came when I decided to upgrade my lighting several years ago. I traded in my speedlights for two Norman 200B units mounted on 8' light stands and triggered with twin Eilenchrome Skyport radio receivers. So far the system has worked well. The session now includes "chimping" with a Hoodman Loupe between shots which gives me a chance to inspect the shot before the group is dismissed. Using a tripod allows me to get the horizon as level as humanly possible, and helps to maintain a consistent shot-to-shot appearance.

The two Norman heads were mounted at 45 degree angles to the left and right of the camera. While this might qualify as unimaginative, the size of the group and the shooting distance make it very difficult to be creative with your lighting. so I have always thought it best to play it save and use a simple copy-light setup.

Hiding Glare Spots. This is a tough place to photography because there will be strong direct sunlight shining on the students at camera left. That can't be helped, since this is the most suitable location for the shot. I use a "sketch" shot like this one to fine-tune my exposure.  If you look a the two shadows cast beside Cissie, you can see the nearly symmetric placement of the lights. You can also see a glare spot on the glass door from the camera-left Norman flash. While there would probably be people to cover the door at this point, I decided to be pro-active and eliminate the spot by re-positioning the flash head.

My first effort was not quite on target, but you can see I'm moving in the right direction. If memory serves, I had Cissie move the light stand a short distance to the left, make a shot, and examine the results. Eventually, I was able to hide the glare spot on one of the grey columns beside the door.

As long as my camera stayed on the tripod and the lights stayed in position, I wouldn't need to worry about any glare from the background. The light was still even, and the shot, while pretty straight forward, was well lit.

Hoo-RAH! One last bit of whimsey is the "hooray" shot. You get better smiles, but you have to be careful to make sure that nobody's face is obscured ay an overly enthusiastic fist-pump. I have the students practice it and have them adjust themselves of they can't see the camera with both eyes, an important distinction.

Drag Shutter Candids: If there was a celebrity at the graduation, it was Jan Becker,  who was retiring from the Adult School after teaching for 35 years. I wanted to get a photo of her with two students who had won statewide honors for the accomplishments. I made three photos using three different shutter speeds and a constant aperture.

Shot #1: 1/125th of a second, 5.6, ISO 800, Zumbrella with Nikon SB-800.

Shot #2: 1/60th of a second, 5.6, ISO 800, Zumbrella with Nikon SB-800. 

Shot #3: 1/30th of a second, 5.6, ISO 800, Zumbrella with Nikon SB-800. I like this shot primarily because it provided some separation between the twilight sky and Caesar's blue shirt.