The Spyglass Seven (2025)
An Evening Crane Theatre Production ~ The Poe Museum, Richmond, VA
About the Production
The Spyglass Seven is a theatrical production written and directed by Michael Seebold—playright, independent filmmaker, and founder of The Evening Crane Theatre. The play was performed in the courtyard of The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia on June 6, 2025. The story centers around Edgar Allan Poe (played by Elias Morris) and his resurrection from the grave to confront seven women from his past.
Visit The Evening Crane Theatre website to learn more about this play and other productions.
My Role
I was asked to join the project as photographer and videographer. The production took place in the outdoor courtyard of the museum, so I was able to walk around on both rehearsal night and the evening of the live performance to capture handheld photos of the show. As many of the cast portrayed spirits returned from the dead, they moved through the courtyard in an ethereal, ghost-like manner between their main performances. In addition to capturing moments from the play, my job was to photograph their ghostly essence.
Gear Used
Handheld Photography
~ Camera: Sony alpha 6700
~ Lens: Sigma 18-50 millimeter
Videography
~ Camera: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4k
~ Setup was placed on a tripod to record the entire event
The Results
The show was a great success in terms of both photography and presentation, and the audience complimented the amazing performances of the cast.
Production Challenge #1: Unexpected Rain
Originally, the play was to take place at the far end of the courtyard, with the audience and performers forming a circle around the central water fountain. However, light rain approximately one hour before the performance necessitated several last-minute adjustments to the production setup. Fortunately, a tent had already been set up in the courtyard by museum staff in preparation for a scheduled wedding the following day, and permission was granted to utilize it for the performance. All audience seating and production equipment were relocated beneath the tent, and the new configuration proved effective overall. However, the repositioning did require adjustments to the originally planned placement of the Blackmagic camera.
The rain stopped shortly before the play began, and photos of the cast were still captured as they wandered the courtyard.
Even though I have formal knowledge of camera settings from film school, most of my previous filming experience involved consistent artificial lighting setups or natural daylight. The play, on the other hand, took place at sunset, which meant I had to adjust camera settings as the sunlight disappeared to make sure the footage didn't become underexposed. This was something I had never done before.
In addition, the performers were frequently positioned at a considerable distance from the available artificial lighting, which had been placed primarily in the audience seating area. This created a significant challenge when photographing subjects outside the main performance space, as the limited light levels risked introducing unwanted noise and compromising overall image quality.
In retrospect, a higher ISO setting would have improved light intake and reduced noise levels. Overall though, the photos were a success. Any noise present in the images only starts to become apparent if the shadows and blacks are pushed too far during the editing process.
All photos in the gallery at the top of this page have been very minimally edited in Camera Raw, but no color grading was done. The colors seen are straight out of camera and are the direct result of the colored lighting used on set.