Photography Information and Tips

2010 Senior Portraits

  • Deadlines are July 1rst, but i cant find where to schedule my appointment for senior photos. Bryan allan is contracted with Mariner high school. Cape Coral, Fl

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  • A photographer that takes nice senior portraits and willing to travel to Mississippi to take wedding pictures.

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  • So you want to become a ventriloquist? Well, first comes the “Punch” voice which, as its name indicates, is a close imitation of that used for the puppet Punch in “Punch and Judy” shows. A Punch and Judy performer uses a little instrument (made by winding a narrow piece of cloth or tape over and between two curved pieces of tin) to produce this voice, but this is not allowable for a ventriloquist who stands in full view, and the voice must therefore be produced naturally.

    To do this, recall just how the Punch voice sounds or take the first opportunity to listen to a good Punch and Judy performer; or think of the higher notes of a clarinet or the sound of a squeaking door. Then bring the teeth together and stretch the tongue until it touches the roof of the mouth near the back of the front upper teeth.

    Then say, “Judy, Judy, where are you, Judy?” in as high a tone as you can command. The position of the tongue throws the sound into the cavity of the nose, thus imparting to the voice the strong nasal quality which is needed. It also has the sound of a high-pitched reed instrument, and the more reedy and metallic you can make it the better.

    You are now well on your way to become a ventriloquist.

    If the student has difficulty in getting just the right tone, place the tongue as before and say “Th-e-e-e-k,” prolonging the “e’s” and thinking of the punch voice or the sound made by a clarinet, as before.

    This voice is utilized for the speech of a querulous old woman and for the imitation of ordinary instruments, the crowing of a bantam, the talk of a parrot, the sound of a mandolin string, the voice of a young child, the mewing of a cat, the bleating of a lamb, etc.

    In a little lower key, and less nasal in quality, it may be used for either an Irish or Negro figure. If you can produce it easier than you can the graver voices, adopt it for the figure which carries on most of the dialogue, and vice versa if the deeper voices are more easily made. Always favor yourself in little ways like this as much as possible, as you can do best that which requires the least effort.

    When you are starting to know how to become a ventriloquist, once you have acquired facility with the Punch voice, repeat the easy letters of the alphabet in that voice slowly and carefully. Then, after a few minutes’ rest, run them over again, first saying the letter in your natural voice and then in the Punch voice, and so on-alternating each letter in your ordinary tone with the same one in that of Punch. By this means you accustom your throat to instant change from one voice to another.

    When you can go through this exercise with ease you may try a little dialogue at a curtain or a Japanese screen:
    Vent. (You say this with your face turned squarely toward the imaginary audience, then turning toward the screen say quickly in the Punch voice.) “What do ye call me?” A short and amusing conversation should then ensue.

    After learning it thoroughly and giving it considerable practice, the student may venture to try it before his own family and if they aver that it is “not so bad” he can begin to astonish his friends and acquaintances, and thus make a start to become a ventriloquist.

     

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    Ventriloquism requires the possession of certain qualities of voice, such as strength, clearness, flexibility and ready ability to change at will; ordinary strength in the cartilaginous membrane of the throat and the muscles of the abdominal regions, and some aptitude for mimicry, which of course is dependent upon a combination of qualities connected with the ear and the voice. You too can become a ventriloquist- it just takes determination and practice!

    Most people, even though whose ear is so imperfect that they cannot sing a little or imitate something, with practice and perseverance, could become acceptable if not great ventriloquists.

    After taking a few lessons the student may find that he has a hitherto unsuspected talent for the art, which only needs proper cultivation to be made a source of amusement and profit. One must learn how to use the mouth and tongue to achieve certain results, how to speak interiorly with entirely motionless and almost closed lips, and how to make each of the sounds or voices used distinctive in tone, pitch and character.

    To become a successful ventriloquist you must be cool, confident and something of an actor. The voices to him present no illusion, and he can judge of his success only by their effect upon his audience.

    In one respect his work is more difficult than that of an actor. An actor impersonates only one role at a time, but the ventriloquist who uses figures must speak the lines of several different characters in as many different voices, and must at the same time be ready to question, argue, re-prove or interrupt in his natural voice.

    The farther removed a ventriloquist is from his audience, the greater the illusion he creates, and yet it is remarkable how near the auditor can stand to the performer without being disillusioned.

    Unlike the magician, who requires an elaborate “fit-up” to properly perform his illusions, ventriloquism always has the mysterious at its command. From a haystack by the country roadside or from behind the closed portals of an empty store or the depths of an open sewer in the city, he can evoke “spirits” to amaze and mystify the hearers, which yet exist in nothing more substantial than his own voice. In this strenuous age of money-getting, public amusements are necessary, as they afford welcome relief and relaxation from the constant hurly-burly of modern conditions.

    Merely as a source of amusement, however, a practical knowledge of ventriloquism pays well for the time and effort spent in acquiring it in the amount of fun and glory one gets out of it, the relaxation it affords from the sterner duties of life, and the welcome pocket money which it brings to its successful exponent, which in a city, where one can be in touch with amusement agents, often amounts to considerable.

    A half-hour’s exhibition of ventriloquism with the aid of mechanical figures, which carry on a bright and amusing dialogue with the performer and possibly contribute a song or two, varied by conversation with invisible people or imitations of various tools and musical instruments will often be eagerly accepted as an agreeable departure from the monotony of readings and vocal and instrumental music usually given at local entertainments.

    If you possess a voice of at least moderate range and power, and an ear that is fairly accurate in sensing sound impressions, you should have the ability, with practice, to become a ventriloquist.

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