Giselle opening night. I’ve been hearing about Giselle from the dancers all year. Its a bucket list ballet for most. Opening night was amazing and stressful and beautiful.
Purchase prints here: http://newtim.photoshelter.com/gallery/Giselle/G0000m8COz0sUFAM
With springtime comes the possibility of new love. And when you find that love, there is much rejoicing in the village.
When Giselle meets and falls in love with a handsome young noble, it’s the happiest day of her life. She dances for joy at the promise of romance.
But not all is golden in the enchanted Rhineland and Giselle faces heartbreaking disappointment — literally.
Carolina Ballet brings the classic ballet “Giselle” to life at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium this weekend. It’s a love story not to be missed.
-Ben McNeely
See the part 2 post here: http://newtim.com/2013/05/giselle-part-2/
Purchase prints here: http://newtim.photoshelter.com/gallery/Giselle/G0000m8COz0sUFAM
If you were ghost, who would you haunt?
What about being haunted by a whole clan of vengeful women who were jilted by their lovers and died from broken hearts?
It is said that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But can love and forgiveness transcend jealousy and death?
Go see Carolina Ballet’s “Giselle” this weekend. Or risk being haunted from beyond the grave.
-Ben McNeely
See the part 1 post here: http://newtim.com/2013/05/giselle-part-2/
Purchase prints here: http://newtim.photoshelter.com/gallery/Giselle/G0000m8COz0sUFAM
Aida! I went to shoot the NC Opera perform Aida this past Wednesday in Chapel Hill. The power with all the singers and symphony on stage at once is pretty amazing. You can feel it, even in the back row where I was for a little bit. More on Aida here: http://ncopera.org/current-season/aida/
Got to see a short performance of the NC Opera this past Friday at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh. Its kind of amazing how they drown out the dj and expensive loud speakers.
Mr. McNeely had a good run in this year’s bard brawl. Last night was the final and he told a story about the Dix hospital which included bats, crazy people, and gambling.
A quick portrait with Rapsody while Kenneth shot a music video at my house.
Lara O’Brien dressed in the Rite of Spring costume. We didn’t get much sun that day. Which has been prominent in most of the other urban ballet photos and meant most of my scouted locations weren’t going to work. So I found this wall with little details in it and figured the her red leotard would contrast well. The overcast light also brought out all the definition in her leg muscles. It’s always a pleasure shooting with Lara.
Last night was windy. The other day was foggy. This is the result.
Birthday champagne.
Callie and Ben with mustaches. It was a Tow3rs show and PBR gave out mustaches. That was a fun night.
Katie and her hair from birthday day at Hopscotch.
I didn’t think I’d miss Nutcracker after seeing it so many times this past December. But I kinda miss it now. Found myself craving some of the music the other day and listened to the music on this video: http://youtu.be/KiccMk0Mm7c. Take a listen and get that music stuck in your head like I’ve had for a while now.
I thought it was the last day of fall and winter was soon to follow. We gathered the leaves on the warm night and threw them up in the street. It’s been warm since then but the leaves are all gone now.
It’s no surprise I’m a big Harry Potter fan. It started years ago when I bought book 5 on audio book. I was interning at the Concord Monitor and driving an hour or two a day for assignments. Quickly I got sucked in. Eating lunch in the car to listen, driving the slow way to everything on my day off. I bought the rest of the books one after the other. Spent about two years only listening to Harry Potter in the car. Was better than all those NPR reports of war around the world. It was a magical escape. I stared seeing wizards in disguise everywhere.
When the seventh book came out, we’ll I couldn’t wait as well as everyone else. But my dad planned our second trip to Ukraine the day before the book was released. I was devastated. You know, as devastated as a boy boarding a flight to Ukraine could be. All I could think was: “if our flight left 3 hours later I could buy the book.” I could see pallets of books carting around JFK before my 9pm flight. Three hours…
Since then I’ve forced the books on to friends and relatives. Entered trivia contests. Went to midnight showings of movies 5,6,7.1, and 7.2. And best of all, visited Hogwarts and Hogsmeade in Orlando last year.
I’m headed back down is weekend and just as excited as last time. These are some photos from the last trip.
Lilyan and I shot this for next month’s ballet Rhapsody in Blue. It was late and we were losing light, the sun just went behind the clouds you see in the photo, so I tried some some double exposures. They are usually pretty time consuming to shoot but we got in a few good ones. I always enjoy putting subjects into a surreal situation like this.
