Improv In Black and White
February 21, 2009 by David Bergman
Right before the BNL Cruise, I was in Las Vegas to shoot “Drew Carey and the Improv All-Stars.” They perform at the MGM Grand each Super Bowl weekend and Drew asked me to come out and document it again this year.
The cast is made up of improv comedians that you know from The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway. Along with Drew, they are: Ryan Stiles, Kathy Kinney (check out her reading site for children here), Greg Proops, Sean Masterson, Chip Esten, Julie Larson, and Jeff Davis, along with musicians Laura Hall and Linda Taylor.
We didn’t do a portrait like I’ve done in the past, but it’s always fun to watch them perform. I’ve probably seen them do this show 30 times, but since it’s all improvised, it’s different every night and always makes me laugh.
The quality of the light wasn’t very good in the theater, so I converted the images to black and white using the Silver EFX Pro plug-in for Aperture.
I made this first image of the board during sound check using a tilt-shift lens.
(Nikon D3, PC-E Nikkor 24mm lens, ISO 1600, 1/60 sec, f/3.5)
(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, ISO 4000, 1/60 sec, f/2.8)
(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, ISO 1250, 1/250 sec, f/4)
(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, ISO 1250, 1/200 sec, f/4)
Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff was in the audience one night and came backstage after the show.
(Nikon D3, 24-70 lens, ISO 1600, 1/125 sec, f/4, SB-800 bounced off the ceiling)
Sometimes Drew likes to zone out with his iPod and work on his stand-up material backstage.
(Nikon D3, 70-200 lens, ISO 4000, 1/100 sec, f/2.8)
I left Vegas after shooting half of Saturday night’s show to catch a red-eye flight to Miami for the BNL cruise. It took me longer than expected to make my way through the crowd and get a car because a major UFC title fight had just let out at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Luckily, I made it to McCarran Airport on time and all my gear arrived with me in Miami. Otherwise, I would have literally “missed the boat.”
I stook next to Ryan once…he is “that tall”
Funny group of people. Hope you were able to let your ears hear the humor as you clicked away. When I shoot concerts, I rarely hear the music being played, so I don’t exactly know what shooting comedy is like.
When I’m only allowed to shoot the first three songs of a concert, I usually can’t tell you what songs were played. But when I’m working for the band (or the comedians) and can shoot the entire show, I tend to hear more of what’s going on.
I enjoy your “people” photographs very much. But my challenge to you is: retake the “board,” at the same angle, and use the 24mm to make the entire sound board in focus.
This link is for a set of photos I took with the nikon tilt/shirt lens. If you click on the individual files, I have a description of how the controls were utilized. Comments welcome.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucelivingston/sets/72157604156847679/
Bruce
Bruce, thanks for the comment. My choice of lens and focus was intentional as I want the viewer’s eye to be drawn to the word “Drew.”
Mrs. P’s publicist sent me this link. Thank you for mentioning her. The photos are wonderful as always.
It was good to see you.
xxkk
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