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Hi everyone. The following are 30-some images from the first three shows with the Ballet Chicago's Nutcracker at the Athenaeum Theatre, plus a dress rehearsal. I'm also including a couple shots from their warmup session prior to Saturday evening's show. It's kinda funny to see how the stage and dancers transform for the show. Keep in mind these are from multiple shows with different casts, so you may see different dancers in similar costumes.
I'm often asked about my equipment and settings for these shots. The Athenaeum Theatre does not have the quality of stage lighting that, for example, the Harris Theatre has in downtown Chicago, so I'm shooting at a slower shutter speed than I'd like, or at least a higher ISO. My settings ranged from 1/60 and 8000 ISO in the darker scenes, to 1/400 and 2500 ISO. I always shoot wide open at f/2.8. I shoot with a Nikon D4, and used a 24-70 for the dress rehearsal, where I sat mostly on the edge of the stage getting a unique angle, and for the shows, I shoot with a 70-200 VRII. I use a camera muffler to silence my camera when I shoot during live shows.
I started keeping track of which ones I thought were really good, then I realized they all are. great stuff. The ones where you've stopped motion with them high in the air are spectacular, particularly 20. I really like the motion in 2 as well.
Ron, you are a master! It takes great skill to get these types of ballet images. You inspire me and motivate me to try and capture just one image of this callaber. You shared you camera settings in your Nutcracker post last year and I made some tweeks to what I was doing in the past couple of ballets and theater performaces that my kids were in. It made all the difference in the world in my images so THANK YOU so much for sharing your technique.
As for the camera mufler, I did not know that they existed. Is there an afordable camera mufler that works? The ones I looked up cost more than I paid for my camera body.
Mitchel, always like hearing which is the faves, so thanks for mentioning No. 20.
Marty, glad I can be of help! I was actually assigned to do an article for Shutterbug Magazine to write and share pics on how to shoot dance performances. I put that off for awhile, but maybe need to get it done.
I took a quick look and found what I believe is the same maker of the muzzle I bought four or five years ago. Just $149, I think. I don't use the part that goes over the lens, just the part that goes over the body. Here's a link for Adorama: http://www.adorama.com/czm.html
Spectacular shots.