Here’s another batch of photos from Fresco Opera Theatre’s Big Top Opera show last week.

This includes a few behind the scenes shots, more from the show itself, and some more street performance shots.

What a fun show - I can’t wait to see what Fresco’s going to do next time!

Fresco Opera Theatre always puts on a good show. Always.

But this… wow. They’ve taken it not just to the next level, but probably three or four after that.

This is for real, people. The circus acts are amazing by themselves, AND you get to hear some world-class singing.

So if you don’t have tickets yet, GO GET SOME! And be sure to come early, because the entertainment actually starts on the street before the performance. There’s also a midway set up next to the performance space, with cotton candy, Cracker Jacks, fortune telling, and more!

Two shows left: 2:30 matinee—bring the kids!—and 7:30. Don’t miss this!

I’ve known Chris for years, but until this afternoon, had never actually met him in person, when the CGQ came to Madison to play in the Jazz on the Plaza series. Turned out not to actually be on the plaza, though: despite there not being a cloud anywhere in the sky, the concert was moved inside “in case of rain.” It was fun to hear these guys live, and of course, I shot some photos.

I love working with Fresco Opera Theatre. Love love love it. Their shows are always amazing in every way: great performances, great concepts, and—the cherry on top for a visual guy like me—great staging, costumes, and props.

I recently did my third promo shoot for their upcoming Big Top Opera show - mark your calendars for September 30th and two shows October 1st, tickets go on sale August 29th.

Each poster has raised the bar from the last one; they take the promos as seriously as the shows. Great concepts, great costumes, and I can’t say enough about the great models; Emily and Dom have spoiled me so much. Also, this time Fresco Board President Jeff Turk joins the fun!

And where do you shoot promos for a show called Fresco’s Big Top Opera? Circus World, of course! Circus World was the headquarters and wintering grounds of the Ringling Brothers circus in Baraboo, which is now operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society and on the National Register of Historic Places. I don’t know how they got clearance for us to shoot there, but I was seriously pumped.

We’ve been meaning to take the kids to Circus World for a while, so hey: fun scouting trip!

These aren’t photos of my adorable children. They’re very serious location scouting shots.

As I was packing my gear for the shoot, the question wasn’t so much, “should I bring [whatever] or leave it?” as much as it was, “should I put it in a case that I’ll carry in or leave it in the car in case I need it?” As I was putting all the “maybe” stuff in the car, I realized that even if a location shoot was just across town, I wouldn’t come home to grab stuff, so why would this be different? It really wasn’t, but I still brought everything but the kitchen sink. Just because.

When I got there, the rest of the crew was already there, getting into makeup and costumes. I normally try to shoot some of the behind the scenes stuff, but instead, I took off for our first location to get my gear set up and ready to go when they arrived.

I went across the river to the sideshow tent, which had a nice open spot and a random unicycle prop (I did make some scouting shots here, but they’re not interesting enough to post). We shot here until we worked the possibilities pretty thoroughly.

As it turned out, by that time the Kids’ Interactive Circus was over and we could shoot in their ring, which was in the Ringlingville Elephant House. (see? those were scouting shots.)

We packed up and moved to the Elephant House. While I was getting set up, Mel shot a nice set of candids—posted on Fresco’s Facebook page; go “like” them—that show more of the Elephant House.

The kids were really excited that we shot here - they loved seeing the familiar backdrops and props.

I don’t normally do a ton of post-processing, and I usually don’t blog about it. But this time, I really wanted to give these shots a look that would call to mind circus posters.

My favorite part about Circus World is the huge gallery of vintage circus posters. Many of them are crudely drawn, and virtually all of them are just dripping with hyperbole, but some of them are just gorgeous. They’re simultaneously bold and delicate, and many of the ones that really draw me in have these amazing, almost photorealistic paintings blended right in with simple line drawings.

I had already suggested that look a little in the lighting, but I wanted to really turn it up, and set out to give these shots that same kind of bold yet faded color palette, and combine that delicate photo/painting look. For good measure, I also “aged” them a bit.

I usually do all my post in Lightroom, but I actually fired up Photoshop for these. It was fun to get out of my comfort zone a bit.

I’m always sad to lose the detail when scaling images down for better online viewing, and this time, scaling them down really loses a lot of the poster effect. Here are some details:

Em based her makeup on a specific poster, so I tried to make her look as much like that poster as I could.

Em’s elegant hands. I didn’t have to direct her to do this; she just brings it in every shot.

Check out that costume!

This is going to be a great show - I’m really looking forward to it!

I shot the Dueling Divas II dress rehearsal tonight, and—as always—it’s a great show.

Come on down to the Barrymore tomorrow night, and hear some amazing opera in a totally non-stuffy setting. It’ll be a blast!

More info: Fresco Opera Theatre

The internet is a great way to share photos with people, but the amount of detail that gets lost really bums me out sometimes.

A print can convey so much more than the screen can, so I made some crops (and black and white conversions) of the We Are Wisconsin photos I posted. Even these aren’t as detailed as I’d like, but at least you can get a little better sense of each person.

I was honored to be asked to participate in the We Are Wisconsin photo project this weekend; please click the link, read about it, and—if you’re so inclined—”like” it and follow the project on Facebook.

It was really great to connect with so many people and hear their stories… there were so many people from such different walks of life, with different reasons for being there. It was tough to winnow this down to just a few shots to post here, but you can see them all on the project page.

Continuing from yesterday…

Here is a map of the law enforcement agencies I was able to represent.

I know there were more there, and I wish I could have represented you. Thanks to all of you: here in the gallery, here in Madison, and at home protecting your communities.

Here are the rest of the photos:

A big thanks to all the law enforcement out at the Capitol today… I got shots of officers from 32 different agencies, and I’m sure there were many I missed.

Most of the officers didn’t want their faces in the shots, but allowed me to get a picture of their shoulder patches to show where they were from, and how far they came to be here. I appreciated not just their presence in the Capitol, but the largely thankless job they do every day.

I just got caught up with the news that protesters were allowed to stay in the Capitol tonight—the order came down that they were to be removed at 4:00 today, many were planning civil disobedience—and wanted to post just a handful of the officers that were willing to let me include their faces in the photos… I’ll post the rest (along with the patches) tomorrow.

UPDATE: part two is here.

Thank you for all you do!

continued here.

We’re less than a week from Fresco Opera Theatre’s latest production, Ding Dong the Diva’s Dead!

I’m also very excited to announce that after Saturday’s performance, you will have the chance to get your picture taken with the Viking Girl and Vampire!  For a free will donation to Fresco Opera Theatre, I will shoot you with these celebrated characters and post the files for you to download and print or e-mail - makes a great Facebook profile picture, too!

So come on down, hear some world-class music in a fun show, and support this great local arts organization!