The hustling and bustling of the festival was in full swing upon my arrival at around 10:30 a.m. I hurriedly broke out my camera and began setting it to gain the best possible picture from the brilliant sunlight of the day. There was so much already going on, hoards of people were gallivanting around, probably trying to acclimate themselves to the bustle as well, so many activities on each stage, at each tent; it was difficult to choose where to start. So I just jumped in head first…
Mulan was on the Yellow Stage outside the entrance to the theatre. Grace St. Luke’s Episcopal School was performing various segments of the movie/musical.
And while I think that every event presents an opportunity to get a great shot, I honestly wasn’t particularly excited about this one; mostly due to the fact that it felt like I was taking school portraits for the parents of these children- it just felt a little uninspired; the talent of the singers, however, was not, these kids could really belt it out. (Later on, I would get pictures of their performance on the main stage inside the theatre that had slightly more potential.) However, I did like capturing some of the audience as they watched the show. Like this kid,
My next stop was Music for Aardvarks, an interactive music program for children that originated in New York City by one David Weinstone (composer/musician, father of three). Families gathered in large numbers on the Red Stage indoors to participate in the event. He intermittently walked around singing with a portable bubble machine (genius!), keeping the kids entertained whilst they cleaned up the various toys that they had just been playing with, singing and dancing all the time.
(http://www.memphisaardvarks.com/)
Then Weinstone sat down amongst them and played songs on his guitar…the kids were so jazzed.
I caught a picture of a girl underneath a giant circus-type tarp as well.
Besides the indoor/outdoor bubble machines,
I believe this was the place that I saw the kids the most excited. It was so exhilarating that it kept this little girl dancing throughout the day, “taking it to the streets…”
So many events were occurring simultaneously, I hurried about the place trying to capture what I could. And I definitely wanted to take some more pictures of the encore Watoto performance.
My next stop was the Mime Show! by Darius Wallace (actually a former customer of mine from my stint at Starbuck’s). I had known that he was a talented writer and that he was working on a movie in town, but I had no idea he was also a mime! And usually, I have to be honest, mimes give me the heebie-jeebies; but Darius wasn’t following me around an open square, mocking my every move, so I was totally into it.
Using black and white seemed appropriate given that the entire stage was dressed in black and his face was painted bright white…I thought the contrast would more likely capture the bare emotion that he was displaying (which is inherent in miming, right?)
Later, he would incorporate the audience into his miming; but luckily, I was too busy photographing.
I ventured back outside soon afterward; wanting to take some more shots of children at play (at the Japanese culture tent, the face painting tent, the storytelling tent, etc.)
I love how they had mini-lounging areas for the children to rest.
A couple more pictures of my good friend's neice, Laila.
The final performance that I was able to shoot (before the storm and a lack of film and extra camera battery- a mistake I will not make again if my budget allows- chased me back home) was the Pandora’s Box and Other Greek Tales play that I was unable to shoot the night before. I really think that this gave me an advantage, as I knew the performance well enough to anticipate the shots that I wanted to attain. Here are a few of my favorites:
The lighting could have been slightly better on this one, but I was determined not to use a flash and ruin the ambient lighting as well as the audience's connection to the performance; so I used a slower shutter speed and left the aperture wiiide open.
Alas, these were the final shots of the day. And while there was more festival to be had, a severe storm cleared the outside events and sort of cleared me out of there as well, along with a large number of visitors.
I had such a great time wandering around the festival grounds and being what Jerre Dye referred to as, “the ghost of the event”, as it seemed that I was drifting about everywhere, never making my presence an interference, so to speak. It allowed me to practice photojournalistic skills, meet new people, interact with the Memphis community and really enjoy some of the immense talent that our fair city has to offer.
All in all, it was indeed a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
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