Last week was a fun, interesting, problem solving on the spot adventure when I agreed to take the head shots for a local college play cast of 10. A sign up sheet was distributed and all the time slots filled in for a 2 day/5 each day head shot marathon. I figured 30 minutes each sitting, but allowed an hour time slot in case there was a magical moment to capture.

Theatre folks are wonderfully funny and emotive and brilliant, and apparently they like to travel together, in groups. They arrived in pairs or in a group of three and hung out while they each took their turns on the photography stage.

Remember these are college age theatre folks, most dressed in jeans and dark colored t-shirts, which worked great for the type of head shots needed. There were some "how to groom" oneself discussions and I did a lot of theatrics of my own with tips of deep breathing to focus, buzzing my lips as an example of how to soften and relax the mouth, getting into the different poses myself so they would feel comfortable and using the very limited theatre vocabulary I knew to connect.

I learned so much those 2 days, about Photography, about myself and how it takes a village to raise a theatre. Brava!

JD Meyer, Eva Wilcox and Cord Courtney 3 of the 10 cast members of the play Mankind.