We did a photo shoot of a staged Civil War hospital scene the other night. It was intense - a lot of work, physical labor and lighting and whatnot, but fun too. At first I wasn't interested at all - the Civil War just didn't seem like anything I'd be into shooting, but that's what their group chose, and we all have to pitch in.
One of the guys in our class is a "living historian", the new term for reenactors, so he has a friend with this mad amount of equipment - a full tent, all of this hospital gear, an apothecary, a writing desk full of authentic period "stuff..."...even a bucket full of fake amputated limbs. : ) Nice. We brought in bales of hay and spread them on the floor in the tent - went out and chopped those branches off. This was for serious. Steve's friend who came in to be the doctor for us is a podiatrist in real life, but this is his main hobby. So many details! He has glasses that are in frames made by the same manufacturer who made Abraham Lincoln's glasses, with his own prescription. Wild stuff. I can't imagine being that into recreating a scene from history, but I guess that's why people act, too...to step into another skin. I came home from the shoot at around 1 a.m. and was all wired from the general Civil Warness of it all, and my friend Danielle was online. "What in the hell are you doing up?" she says. "I just got done shooting a Civil War amputation scene so I'm a little charged up," I wrote back. And she just "lols" all over the place in the message box, and finally manages to say, "You...have the most INTERESTING life!" I think this was a euphemism for "How in the hell do you get yourself into these situations?" which is something that I ponder on the reg myself.
Anyway...we all got a chance to shoot. I have some "serious stuff" being printed right now. As usual, I'm not very pleased with the color roll, and for some reason when it came time for me to direct the guys as to how I wanted them to stand and whatnot, I got all nervous and weird about it, and I think my shots show that. I'm much more of an "in the moment" photographer - I'm not so good at the staging part. It doesn't come naturally to me. I hope my black and white roll turns out better. I'll find out tomorrow.
Here are a few digi shots from the night. We lit the tent from the outside, so the branches showed through and when you were shooting on the inside they looked like the shadows of trees on the inside. Very cool. Jorge was a doll to be our "almost corpse" for the evening, and some of these shots turned out pretty funny. One of the problems with how well our class gets along is that in some of the scenes in which Steve is supposed to be "praying" over this soldier's dying body, at least one of the guys is smiling. It's kind of funny, but it does nothing for the shot! In these, they were allowed to have some fun. (Please note that they're taken with flash, except for one, maybe, so the light is much harsher than the actual ones we're doing for class...These were just my personal shots.)
Mad knives and scalpels and whatnot. Please note that the anesthesia was very limited at that time. Shudder.........
Steve freaks out because Jorge's dying. Loooooooong shutter speed, so it's no good in a technical sense, but I call it my "Civil War dream sequence" shot. ; )
Fake limbs. Nice. I don't think they were used in anyone's real shots.
And this one pretty much sums up the whole experience. : )
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