Shutter Mike Photography

The Million Dollar Theater was the third building we photographed on the Shooting Architecture weekend workshop last month in Los Angeles.  This theater is classic early twentieth century theater architecture and design.  It has the ornateness and opulence and of early movie houses with a bit of wear and tear of almost a century of use and reinvention.  The theater was built by Sid Grauman of the Grauman’s Chinese Theater fame on Hollywood Boulevard and was reported to have been built for $1 million in 1918, hence its name.  Since the 1930s it has been used primarily for Spanish language entertainment with the occasional cameo in films and television.

Architecturally and photographically this is an amazing space.  It is a very dark space, as would be expected of a movie theater, so it is a challenge to photograph.  Long exposures of up to 30 seconds are absolutely necessary.  It is also a very red space as you can see from the photographs.  The lighting is red in hue and the seats are red which, I think, presents a very, dare I say, theatrical look.

This was a great space to photograph and we had full access from the lobby to the depth of backstage.  There were even a few stair cases that lead to the depths below, but I did not venture down them since there was no light.

f/8.0 – 30 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 28 mm

f/10.0 – 2.5 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 35 mm

f/8.0 – 30 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 200 mm

f/5.0 – 30 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 40 mm

f/4.5 – 30 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 55 mm

f/9.0 – 20 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 70 mm

 f/7.1 – 25 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 105 mm