Candid Portrait from the Frog & Onion

While in Bermuda, we visited the Frog & Onion Pub.  (Come on, I went to TCU.  What did you expect?)  It's named for it's two founders, one a Frenchman (frog) and one a Bermudan (onion).  I was walking around photographing while Lynn sat at the table.  As I walked back, I noticed her gazing out the window so, without even putting the camera up to my eye, I just took this shot.

Sometimes, I just like a photo because I like it.

For more, click here to visit Mark Oristano Photography.

Just Because I Like It

This is a shot of my friend, the great comic actor B.J. Cleveland.  It's from a PR photoshoot from WaterTower Theater.  He was working the mic, and went into this pose, and I just couldn't resist.

B.J. has been in any number of great productions lately, including an incredible turn as Max Biyalystock in THE PRODUCERS at Uptown Players.

Back on Stage

My favorite place to work as an actor, without question, Lyric Stage in Irving, Texas.  Stephen Jones musical theater is an amazing place, where they do classic American musicals (Oklahoma, West Side Story, The King & I) with full, 40-piece orchestras and the original Broadway scores.  The shows done on Broadway now aren't even done this way.
I'm getting back up at Lyric in June in the first show I ever saw, The Music Man.  I was 5-years old and went with my mother and older brother to the Majestic theater on Broadway. And when the curtain went up, and I saw the guys bouncing up and down on the train in the opening number, I knew I wanted to do what they were doing.  It took awhile, but starting in 1980, I did.  Start on stage, that is.
Here's a shot from the last show I did at Lyric...

You don't need to be told, do you?  It's 1776, and these are three of the finest musical performers I've ever shared a stage with.  David Coffee (Ben Franklin), Brian Gonzales (John Adams), and Bryant Martin (Thomas Jefferson).

Here's a way to get some more info on Lyric. Click here to visit the Lyric Stage website.  And come see The Music Man.  Cause you ain't heard 76 Trombones until you've heard it played by the full, Broadway band.

Putting Your Photos on the Line

So, let's do a little something to help you take better pics, even with your cell phone.
The old master painters knew something about how to frame a shot.  I don't know how they figured it out, but they came up with something called the "Rule of Thirds."  They used it for portraits, landscapes, everything.
Here's a Rembrandt portrait.

If you look at it, you'll notice that nothing important is directly in the center.  The two key things, the faces, are near what we call the "third lines."  Here's the same painting with lines dividing it into vertical and horizontal thirds.

Somehow, the old dudes knew that the center of the frame is the last place the human eye looks to.  They learned to place important stuff at least on the lines and, hopefully, where two lines connect.  Because those four spots are the most interesting to the human eye.

Here's a shot from downtown Dallas I took a couple of years ago, with lines already added in.

But wait, you say, the horse is in the center.  Yes, it is.  But it's so dramatically framed by the building's architecture on the third lines that it works.

Most cameras today have a setting where you can see the third lines in your viewfinder when you take the shot.

Start thinking about putting stuff "on the line."  Your photos will improve dramatically.