Distant Era Digital Daguerreotypes for SHANE with City Lit Theatre Company

Distant Era’s coverage of City Lit Theatre Company’s production of Shane is comprised of two pieces. Our first article discusses the key art and production photography for the play and can be found here.

This second, brief piece covers the character portraits we made for the production, featuring each actor in the show wearing costumes by designer Beth Laske-Miller.

Character Portraits

Once again, I brought my portable studio to City Lit and made portraits for each character in the play, as I have done for City Lit’s Sherlock Holmes and the Christmas Clowns and Scaramouche.

The more character portraits I photograph, the more I feel compelled to differentiate them. And so, I reach down into the bag of tricks and see what I can find.

For Shane, I didn’t need to reach too deep.

Past History

Between 2019 and 2024, I co-created a live-action steampunk role-playing game called Auxientia with Nathan Pease and Hilary Dirks Norton. At that event, I offered digital daguerreotypes as an option for players who wanted something special to take with them. I learned to make these from Spoon Graphics, who created textures, and shared them on The All Worlds Traveller in years past.

It had been a while since I made these. Regardless, it didn’t take too long to get back in the swing of things. Perhaps the primary difference between the Shane portraits and the Auxientia ones is that I let the textures show through far more on Shane. Whereas in the Auxientia portraits I had prioritized making a “cleaner” portrait for the subject, these character portraits for theatre were more about immersion and style.

Three-Light Portraits

We used three lights to make these portraits in a simple setup. Our key light was to camera right, equipped with a 42″ softbox. Our fill light was a large umbrella behind the camera. Distant Era MVP Elizabeth handheld a third—our hair light—on a pole (the central part of our fancy new MagStand) behind and above each subject.

The cast did an incredible job showing the essence of each character in a single pose or expression. The exceptional costumes worn by each actor were provided by costume designer Beth Laske-Miller.

First row: **Bruce Holtman** (Bob Starrett), **Jay Donely** (Ledyard/Wilson), **Josh Odor** (Joe Starrett).
Second row: **Frank Nall** (Lou Shipstead), **Payton Nesci** (Chris), **Whitney Minarik** (Marian Starrett).
Third row: **Sean Harklerode** (Fletcher), **Ross Childs** (Curly), **Jay Donely** (Ledyard/Wilson).
Fourth row: **Michael B. Woods** (Shane), **Brandon Boler** (Ernie Wright), **Chuck Munro** (Grafton).
Fifth row: The Starrett family—**Whitney Minarik, Bruce Holtman, and Josh Odor** as Marian, Bob, and Joe Starrett.

At the last, we finished our round of digital daguerreotypes with one for Mark Pracht, who adapted Shane from the novel and directed the play.

It was my great pleasure to work with City Lit to create production photography and character portraits for Shane! Thanks to the cast, crew, Distant Era MVP Elizabeth, and to costume designer Beth Laske-Miller for all their hard work, patience, and support in creating these character portraits.

Mark Pracht, director and adapter of *Shane* for City Lit.

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Steven Townshend is a fine art/portrait photographer and writer with a background in theatre, written narrative, and award-winning game design. As a young artist, Steven toured the US and Canada performing in Shakespeare companies while journaling their moments on paper and film. In his transition from stage to page, Steven continued to work as a theatre photographer, capturing dramatic scenes while incorporating elements of costume, makeup, and theatrical lighting in his work. Drawn to stories set in other times and places, Steven creates works through which fellow dreamers and time travelers might examine their own humanity or find familiar comfort in the reflections of the people and places of a distant era.