{"id":7,"date":"2011-11-01T08:42:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T15:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/?p=7"},"modified":"2011-11-01T08:42:19","modified_gmt":"2011-11-01T15:42:19","slug":"bracebridge-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/?p=7","title":{"rendered":"Bracebridge Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Singers entertain the Squire and the Bracebridge diners.<\/p><\/div>\n

Forty-eight years as a photojournalist with forty-seven of those covering Yosemite National Park<\/a>, and I had never photographed the Bracebridge Dinner<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0Not because the event hasn’t been around – it’s over 80 years old. \u00c2\u00a0More because when I think about Yosemite the images in my mind’s eye are Half Dome and El Capitan erupting from the earth, icy streams cutting across sharp-grassed meadows, sugar pines, white fir, and giant sequoias soaring into pristine skies. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t think about the already magnificent Ahwahnee <\/a>decked out as a 17th century English manor, a seven-course feast of crab, duck, angus beef with-all-the-trimmings-and-then-some, lute players and ladies-in-waiting, jugglers and jesters, and enough yuletide spirit to fill the place to its 34-foot-high beamed ceiling.<\/p>\n

At least I didn’t before December 18, 2009. \u00c2\u00a0But I do now. \u00c2\u00a0On that memorable evening, I covered The Bracebridge Dinner for the first time. \u00c2\u00a0While the diners partook of music, merrymaking, and mountains of food, I photographed everything I could get my lens on. \u00c2\u00a0I immersed myself and my camera in the images of the celebration just as the diners immersed themselves in the spirit of a Renaissance Yule. \u00c2\u00a0The scents of the meats, pastries, and sauces, the sounds of the trumpets, trombones, and tubas, the textures of the velvets, satins, and furs-all had to be captured in my images. \u00c2\u00a0I worked intensely, not wanting to miss anything, not knowing what might happen next. \u00c2\u00a0I had to move around constantly, with hardly a place to pause because the dining tables consumed most of the room and the wait staff and performers filled the rest. \u00c2\u00a0 I held my breath and did a bunch of slower shutter speeds at wide open.<\/p>\n

Over 900 images later, the event was over.\u00c2\u00a0 As the last wine was quaffed and the last mignardise were nibbled, I loaded my equipment into my four-wheel drive and headed for home through the deep snow. \u00c2\u00a0A long evening followed by a long night – the life of the freelance photographer.<\/p>\n

Editing was challenging.\u00c2\u00a0 The event is one richly colored, highly textured vignette after another, but the technical difficulty is at least a 9 (scale of 0-10). \u00c2\u00a0I set my Nikon D3 at 6400 ISO for the entire evening because the giant room was so dark.\u00c2\u00a0 The shadow-to-highlight ratios were extreme because the high ceilings were lighted by candles and the performers by theatrical spots. \u00c2\u00a0I used my 300 mm f2.8 Nikkor, 70-200 mm f2.8 Nikkor zoom, and 17-35 mm f2.8 Nikkor zoom.<\/p>\n

Initially, I edited down to 200 images even though all turned out to be technically acceptable, most even excellent. \u00c2\u00a0The best of these, 51 images, can be seen on Photoshelter<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Twelve of the final group are posted here. \u00c2\u00a0They are only a tiny representation of the images I photographed. \u00c2\u00a0But I think you’ll notice that the problem presented by the darkness of the room has been entirely eliminated. \u00c2\u00a0It was a terrific night!\u00c2\u00a0 I had such a great time that I intend to do it again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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View of guests in Great Lounge enjoying cocktails and singing carols accompanied by grand piano.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Men in formal attire swap war stories.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Dining room with large beam ceiling is full of guests as entertainment begins.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Squire Bracebridge makes Jester King for the day.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Jester makes merry.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Fish, the third course of the feast, is brought in by four servants.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The fifth course, Baron of Beef and Boar's Head, is carried past a magnificent stone fireplace into the dining hall.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Housekeeper, played by Andrea Fulton a central figure in every aspect of The Dinner, and the French Chef sing a duet.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The Widow entertains diners with stories between songs, dances, and other performances.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The more-than-100 actors, singers, and musicians fill the central aisle as they leave the stage between courses.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The French Chef sings a plea to the Housekeeper about the menu and invites praise for his magnificent cooking.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty-eight years as a photojournalist with forty-seven of those covering Yosemite National Park, and I had never photographed the Bracebridge Dinner. \u00c2\u00a0Not because the event hasn’t been around – it’s over 80 years old. \u00c2\u00a0More because when I think about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,10,190,4,28,9],"tags":[15,11,12,6,19,14,13,17,16,329,18],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california-west","category-events","category-historical","category-news","category-photography","category-yosemite","tag-15","tag-ahwahnee","tag-bracebridge","tag-california","tag-christmas","tag-court-jester","tag-dinner","tag-pageant","tag-winter","tag-yosemite","tag-yuletide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.golubphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}