Last night, we saw David Sedaris at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. This was the second time that I have done photography in this particular venue, the first time just a few months ago shooting the FanimeCon 2007 Masquerade.
The situation was different for FanimeCon, as I had received a press pass, and was sitting smack in the middle of the second row, right behind the judges and a row of press -- my obstacles for shooting were the judges and the various objects on the stage that could obstruct my shot. However, an even larger problem during the masquerade was the lighting. When you're sitting 10 feet away from the stage, you're flooded with light, even if all the other lights in the theater (save the emergency lights) are off. Because there was so much light available, what became more important was the shutter speed -- if it was too fast there wouldn't be enough light, and my pictures would have been underexposed, and if it was too long, the picture would be overexposed from all the light flooding into the camera. I was able to get some fantastic pictures at ISO 50 after playing around with the settings a bit, which I was quite happy with.
For David Sedaris, our tickets landed us in the twenty-third row of the theater, underneath the balcony overhang, and only a few rows away from the absolute rear of the theater. We were however, in the center directly facing the podium and David Sedaris. Not knowing where we would be seated, I had thought ahead, and brought my EOS 20D and the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS to give me maximum range. You won't ever hear me say anything bad about this lens or this camera body, because they are fantastic pieces of equipment, and they never fail to impress me. Before he comes on stage, they've turned off all the lights, and centered the spotlight on the podium. We're sitting somewhere in the ballpark of 70 - 80 feet away from David Sedaris, and from there, you can't really even make out his face. Part of that is due to the lights they're using in the theater, it gives a pinkish-red glow to one side of his face and his hair. It reminds me of those warming lamps you used to see at all the fastfood joints before they switched to microwaves. Indoor shots in near complete darkness do not fare well, even with a large aperture lens, so I took a few test shots, made some adjustments, and discovered that the lighting on the stage is actually so bright that I had no problems shooting at ISO 200 and 400. I took less shots than I usually do, partly because I'm just too mesmerized by his stories and wit, and partly because the screen of the LCD is just so distractingly bright that I switched it off after completing my test shots. Usually even after I feel that I've got the correct settings, I still check the LCD after taking the shot, so If this photoshoot could be parodied by Star Wars, it might go something like this:
"Mike! You've switched off your LCD display. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm alright."
In Star Wars, Luke manages to make the one-in-a-million shot resulting in a grand explosion, whereas my shots just result in my happiness of managing to get a nice clear photo.
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