Klyment.com - Journal

I have uploaded all of my photos up to the end of Day 10's matinee in this gallery. The gallery will Theatre Groups: you're welcome to use the photographs for promotion purposes. It would be nice to be credited and tearsheets would be cool, too. =) If you are using the photos on the web please e-mail me with a link and I'll link back to you. For print, e-mail me with a requested file number and I can pass along a full resolution version of the photo.

Photographic prints of the photographs are available to performers and the theatre groups involved for $0.50 for 5 x 7's, $2 for 8 x 10's and $2.50 for 8 x 12's.

Blog entries with highlights to follow.

I photographed the 8pm and 11pm Improvaganza 2005 shows for June 7th, day 3. All were shot with the D2X at ISO 800, 17-55/2.8 at F/2.8 and various shutter speeds and focal lengths. All RAW conversion was done with Rawshooter Essentials. No post processing outside of Rawshooter other than web scaling. That means black and white conversion was also done in Rawshooter. For more details on this series of performances click here.

Rapid Fire Theatre's banner boys, Mike and Matt. Twin brothers . . . I hope I remember their names correctly. Thanks for your commitment and help with the banners.

Chris the sound and light guy. If you like the colour in the photos you have this dude to thank. Thanks, Chris.

Craddock sulking in the green room.

Lynette and a very enthusiastic volunteer . . . can't remember his name. Lynette (sp?) was Huy's former drama teacher in high school.

Arlan (left) and Drazen. They aren't twins . . . and those are Oli's glasses. This photo was Joe's idea. Drazen (still not spelled quite right) is one of two performers representing Slovenia and Teater Narobov.

Enter the judges

Becky and Graham of Iron Cobra (Toronto).

Becky and Graham. =)

I believe this ring is yours, Jacob.

Ummm . . . yes . . .

Chris helping Mark birth one big, hairy baby.

A shot from Atlanta's perfect scene: 5-5-5.

Any teams with websites are welcome to e-mail me with links and other information. =)

June 15-25 Rapid Fire Theatre hosts teams from around the world in Improvaganza 2005 - Canada's largest improvisional theatre festival. The shows all happen at the Varscona Theatre located at 10329 83rd Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. For more details please visit this site. Most shows start at 8pm and regularly scheduled Rapid Fire Theatre shows have been converted to Improvaganza shows as well.

I will be covering most of the ten days of what has, at least so far, has already proven to be a series of extraordinary, non-scripted performances. Here are some of my favourite photos from opening night. All photos were taken with a Nikon D2X w/ a Nikon 17-55/2.8 AF-S DX ED lens shot hand held in RAW with existing light.

Yann, a Belgian improviser enjoying a Kokanee. ISO 800, F/2.8, 55mm, 1/100s

Chris, did you just pinch my ass? 35mm, F/2.8, 1/30s, ISO 800.

European connection. 19mm, F/2.8, 1/20s, ISO 3200. I understand that ISO 3200 images are of special interest to some prospective Nikon D2X purchasers so if there's an ISO 3200 raw file you'd like to play with please e-mail me.

Oops . . . did I get in your shot? 17mm, F/2.8, 1/20, ISO 1600.

Joel - most awesome improv sound dude ever. 38mm, F/2.8, 1/2s, ISO 3200. I know there's a blue cast - there was a blue gel over a fluorescent light so there wasn't a lot of colour information to pull out of the NEF.

Upstanding, one of the two Toronto teams. Kevin (left) is formerly of RFT. 38mm, F/2.8, 1/90s, ISO 800.

Chris Craddock, a very sickly-looking Jacob Banigan, and Mark Meer. When converting these photos from RAW I found that Mark's skin tone was always green cast when I managed to neutralize most of the other players' skin tones. I'll follow up on this skin tone issue in a later entry. Jacob just returned from Austria, Chris and Mark are RFT residents. 28mm, F/4.0, 1/125s, ISO 800.

I have no idea what the hell this part was about but the shot looked pretty cool so . . . 38mm, F/2.8, 1/160s, ISO 800.

Julian suckling on "The Magic Cow" with a hand from one of the players from Oregon as "The Twins" (both of them!) and Mark as "The Handsome Nurse" doubling as an udder. 44mm, F/2.8, 1/320s, ISO 800.

A HUGE thank you and acknowledgement to all of the people back stage and in the light and sound booth. The lighting on Wednesday made my job as a photographer so much easier as you can see from the shutter speeds achieved for many of the shots. When I shot one night of Chimprov last year with the Fuji Finepix S2 Pro, I was shooting everything at ISO 1600, F/2.8 and I was still getting shutter speeds of 1/30s and below.

All images were processed with Pixmantec's incredible and FREE raw workflow software Rawshooter Essentials 2005. D2X NEF support is still in a version 1.00 release but as you can tell the results are more than usable and I've experienced a huge improvement in workflow throughput with the software. When you're finally tired of unbearably sluggish performance with Nikon Capture even on computers with 4gigs of RAM and 3GHz+ processors it may be time to check out Rawshooter.

As of May 27, 2005, I am the proud owner of a brand new Nikon D2X digital SLR. I have taken almost 2000 photos with the camera already over the last few weeks and the camera is literally an orgasm in a magnesium alloy can - there's no other way to describe it. The ergonomics on this camera are incredible - everything you need frequently is within reach whether you're using the camera in normal orientation or from the vertical grip; focusing is near instantaneous and shutter lag is almost non-existent; write speeds are fast and even with fashion shows I'll run out of memory before I buffer out even when shooting full resolution RAW files in high speed continuous servo mode; metering is dangerously precise, even in horribly backlit situations. For image quality, detail is nothing short of eye-popping. Sure, it's no PhaseOne P25 or Leaf Valeo 22 but I have yet to use a compact system such as the D2X coupled with a few good F-mount lenses that has produced the detail that the D2X has. Add to that a usable ISO 1600, surprisingly clean ISO 800, and relatively noise free images ISO 400 below and you soon realize that you have a very serious piece of machinery that almost guarantees that you are your own barrier to taking good photos.

Anyhow, I'll have photos and more info posted shortly but I felt I had to write a quick update and dedicate it to Brian Zinchuk, the only working photojournalist within my circles, and congratulate him on his recent photo-related awards. Nice work, Brian, I'll e-mail you in a bit. Thanks for leaving a comment in my last entry.