Sunday, December 25, 2011

X-Mas Pageant Trinity Church Boston






Boston, MA 122411 In front of a full house, children perform during the Christmas Pageant at the Trinity Church at Copley Square on December 24, 2011. The official cast is only Mary, Joseph and a couple of angels but then the members of the congregation are asked if there is anyone out there who'd like to play the roles of stars and manger animals. This is the point where hundreds of children and even some adults take to the front of the church. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff) BEHIND THE SCENES: In my 10 years at the Globe I've covered several Christmas pageants in different denomination churches. So I kind of knew what to expect... up to a point. At first I was a bit concerned since I saw the official cast was only about five children or so and I knew the Globe was counting on my photos for page one display so when they asked for actor volunteers and I saw how many came up I knew it would be all right. TECH STUFF: I was told by the officials at the church not to use my flashes since these disturb the children. I acquiesced and left them in my car. A decision I regretted the moment I saw the number of parents who crowded around the front of the church with camera in hands and flashes popping everywhere. As luck has it the girl's face in the main photo, the angel with open arms, was light by a red-eye reduction beam coming from a camera belonging to one of the parents. Had it not been for this serendipitous accident her eyes would have been cast in shadows due to the overhead-light scheme. ISO: 3,200 to 5,000/ Speeds: 1/60th to 1/160th of a second/ Cameras: Nikon D-3s, Mark IV/ Lenses: 24-70mm 2.8 Nikon, 70-200mm 2.8 Canon/ CompactFlash cards: SanDisk Extreme III 4GB and SanDisc Extreme 8GB (UDMA)

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