Cape Town Opera at the Sheldonian

The artwork for the souvenir programme has now been received and I'm very pleased with how my photographs have been reproduced and the recognition they have afforded me (inc. p16). I have been invited to attend and take photographs at the rehearsal on the afternoon on the 11th June and then attend  (with my wife) as VIP guests for the concert - which looks fantastic. Looking forward to it immensely.

Holywell Music Room

I suppose this is the sort of shot I would have gone for prior to this course. A study in tone and form, admittedly decoupled from any context and quite removed from any course work I am doing, or researching into. It was interesting that my reaction to it was reflexive. The newel posts can be seen toward the rear of the stage/podium.

My visit to the Holywell Music room (HMR) was twice postponed, both due to my spraining an ankle. Nevertheless Rebecca, who was my contact at Wadham College, to whom facility the HMR belongs, showed great patience. It is, as I said previously here, reputedly the oldest purpose built concert room in Europe. The image below of the facade to the building. Clearly distortion from the wide angle lens, but this gives an impression of the importance that the architect implied to the facility.

The entrance, looking left to the box office, not much space, perfunctory, almost utilitarian, and right to the stairs leading to the upper level. Beautiful light on this occasion, but no real "elevation" to the spirit in the entrance area this all done in the auditorium. The entrance to the aforementioned auditorium can be glimpsed through the door, where the stage and part of the organ is clearly seen

Two shots of the entrance to the concert room, the one being landscape and the other being portrait. My preference is the landscape as, to me, it has a better natural balance.

The reverse angle shot, from the stage, showing the entrance to the room, giving a sense of the scale and height of the room.

Three shots from the upper level of the seated area (in front of the door - seen from the reverse angle shot above) giving different perspectives of the performance area. The shotabove left provides more information I think and would likely be my favourite for inclusion in the assignment.

Two shots from inside the "Green Room" where the performers prepare themselves and relax before entering the auditorium. Both these shots show the banality of the area, tea bags, coffee and easy chairs.

Shots of the key visual feature in the HMR - the organ, slightly differing perspectives

A couple of detail shots of the ceiling lights.

And lastly another shot of the outside, providing a little more detail of the building.

 

Back to Assignment 1

When I go to a concert in Oxford it is usually in the staid environs of the Sheldonian, the Hollywell or similar places - though definitely not to the "New Theatre" as their sound system is very poor - but I had the opportunity to attend a concert at the O2 Academy in Oxford last night. A close knit ensemble of three strings, one percussion and a vocalist entertained the enthusiastic audience for some time with their energetic playing style and whose influence can be safely described as somewhere between Led Zeppelin and Edge of Sanity.

Six Bullet Chamber, to which my youngest son plays lead guitar and writes a good deal of the music were, thankfully, first on! I situated myself toward the front of the stage in order to get a decent, audience free, shot of my son just before the opening bars of their first ditty, culled from their latest CD,"Interpretation" wafted from the multitude of amplifiers.The instantaneous energy released from the speakers at that point encouraged my denim trousers to flap. I had thought that these jeans would be trendy, though I soon realised that darning the wear hole on the knee, as I had done to deter further damage, just didn't "cut-it" with the, generally, younger members of the audience who seemed to delight in exposing various parts of their torso's from what appeared to be self inflicted vandalism to their apparel. Not to be deterred from the soon to become overpowering odour of young males who hadn't appreciated the benefits of good hygiene, I stayed near to the front to record as many images of my son and his chums as they rattled, mercifully, through a shortish set before my wife and bade farewell to him, his friends and the various individuals in the audience whose uniform colour tones of drab black, coupled with skin tones the pallor of which suggesting a nocturnal life, situated mostly at zone 1 or zone 9 - they would have had Ansel pre-flashing methinks!

So, what did I learn from this exercise? Always support your children - no matter that they drive you to the edge of sanity! It was difficult to try and negotiate with the extremely bulky bouncer who was “protecting” the band from, well who knows what, during a performance which delivered more decibels in one sitting than is surely safe to consume over several sittings. Best to get there early and consider the angles, talk to the people in charge and prepare - though I suspect I won’t make a career out of this genre. Don’t be too put off by the smell of youth, whilst getting in close, or by the “old guys” who dress up in extremely tight t - shirts whilst adopting “moves” to seemingly attract the barely post pubescent females in some curious courtship ritual which dictates a lot of very vigorous head shaking and a great deal of wobbling in the stomach area.I did enjoy and was immensely proud of my son who seemed genuinely appreciative that his parents came to support him. And whilst his "contract" made him stay to the end of the concert, with all the associated bands, my wife and I bade him farewell and went to have a well earned cup of tea to the ringing in our ears of "I am yours" the closing number of Six Bullet Chamber's O2 Oxford gig May 26th 2012.

He seems happy and this set captures this I think, and will help form a wider pictorial portrait of Mark.