A Night at the Orchestra Challenging Personal Creativity and creating unique imagery
As a photographer I’ve never put myself into a box. I take photos of subjects I find interesting and beautiful, and let creative vision lead the way.
This time, it brought me to “A Night at the Orchestra” – a creative endeavour that doesn’t really fit into any box but pushed my brain both creatively and technically.
When asked about this project, I’ve described it as a meshing of portrait and landscape photography, with the most accurate term being “environmental portraiture”, except with the instrument as an equal, or even more important part of the image.
Music evokes emotion. Nature evokes emotion. Bringing both elements together through photography, I wanted to convey the magic of each and the juxtaposition of the joining of the two. The series begins with the conductor at sunset and moves through the evening, building towards the dancer in the middle of the night. This was my vision, and sticking to it provided all manner of technical problem solving. But this was never meant to be an easy project. Part of the fun is the creative challenge to try your best to create something new and exciting. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
First, some behind the scenes. The timeline was tight and the temperatures cold. Models weren’t selected based on their modeling experience, but rather their knowledge and passion for their instrument – I wanted to connect with real musicians. The series was set in a two hour window, giving very limited time each day to capture what we needed, providing Mother Nature held up her end of the bargain. She did to a point, giving only a day or so of potential working conditions. All of these factors pushed the Fujifilm GFX100S II in a variety of ways, most notably: low light capabilities and autofocus performance – all while operating in temperatures down to the minus double-digits celsius. During one shoot, the final few images, including the final image used, were shot in near-darkness. Through the viewfinder, I could almost see the faint outline of Mark and the double bass, but the GFX100S II autofocus picked out his face every time. For the ice dancer, modeling lights were able to help more, but thankfully the autofocus operated effectively and allowed us to work quickly and spend a minimal amount of time on the windy lake in dangerously frigid conditions. The stabilization allowed quick work, giving me the freedom to get sharp photos with very slow shutter speeds, without the limiting nature of a tripod. Being able to stay nimble and work efficiently were vital to the success of capturing these images in tough conditions.
Anyway, I will happily sit down with anyone and answer all the technical questions they may have, but right now I want to talk about the process of having an idea and bringing it to fruition. There are easier ways of making these images, but how would it feel after? Because I was having trouble finding any inspiration images to create my mood board, I created this entire set using AI – simple enough. The images the program churned out were impressive and so close to the image in my head, but they were missing so much. They lacked the depth, the experience, the community connections, and the sprinkle of creativity brought by each person that was a part of this project.
Is each image EXACTLY as I dreamt up? Not completely. But that is part of the process. In your dreams, there are no constraints – no deadline, no weather events, no costs. Ultimately, the best that can be done is get as close as possible to your dream shot while working to the set parameters, and hopefully be proud of the piece of work you created, regardless of what you originally set out to do. Even if you get kind of close but your mind is expanded to future possibilities, you’ve learnt some new skills, and you’ve met some great people along the way. In this case? I am very proud of the images I created, but naturally there are various “What if…” and “I should have…”. I think that will always be the case when ending a project that has been built up in your mind for so long. If it wasn’t, then progression would come grinding to a halt.
This was only partly about the photos. The project as a whole allowed me to work with a wide array of amazing and creative people in different genres, learning about and feeding off of their experience and creativity. It was a mix of skills and knowledge, culminating in a final series of images that each person has put a little bit of themselves into, to make something different.
While shooting, the most amazing part was when the musicians played. We were in these beautiful environments – a peaceful rainforest, a frigid beach, a sandy sunset – and the music was so out of place but felt amazing to hear at that particular moment. That was where the magic was.
