The original photo was taken at a rehearsal of the London City Ballet at the Hawth Theatre. My position was probably about the fourth or fifth row of the stalls.
The subjects were Marie St Claire, Principal Ballerina, and her partner whose name escapes me but I remember that he was formerly of the Kirov Ballet.
The lighting was bare rehearsal lighting.
The camera used was a Mamiya C33 with 180 MM Sekor lens and Porro finder. The camera was mounted on a home made rifle butt mount to help keep it steady. The exposure was 1/100 at F4 on HP5+ film. The film was pushed but I have no record of how much. Probably to about 3200 asa. For stage photography I always shoot at 1/100 at F4 and then sort out the film speed later
The print is on Ilford Multigrade paper developed in their multigrade developer.
Brian Kendal

Back to Gallery Distribution Page