Motivated by Opportunity

My determination to do a studio shoot with dancers, aka The Dance Project, opened a door to becoming immersed in the “new to my lens” genre of Competitive Ballroom Dance.

The DeWitts, Stratton and Jonathan, took part in The Dance Project. They suggested I consider volunteering at the upcoming USA Nationals. I thought about it and reached out. (Reaching out is an important part of finding opportunities.)

Trading emails with American Dancer, they liked my dance portfolio even though it had only 1 Ballroom image. They also needed a photog since someone they routinely use wasn’t available. Timing!

Full disclosure. I told them I had zero experience with dance competitions and minimal visual perspective of the genres of Ballroom. The managing editor told me I had the eye for dance and that it would be fine. “If you see a couple you like, they will make good subjects”. What the heck? I agreed to do 3 days at the end of March.

My visual experience with multiple dancers was from the audience with 13 on a stage. Standing next to the dance floor with 20 dancers at eye level was a very different point of view. What lens is best was one of many questions bouncing around my brain.

I reached out to Pittsburgh Dance Friends to test my options and timing at a few of their events. As I suspected, the 28mm and the 40 gave me good coverage.

Rose-Ann Lynch, the managing editor, mentioned the lighting was an issue in the past and they were improving it for the dancers and photography. I had no control so “Be Prepared” and compromise to find the least/worst position to work from. Lighting is always my biggest concern since I never use flash.

My “Mind’s Eye” rewound to “Burn The Floor”. What stuck in my memory were the costumes and the speed of the moves. Ballroom encompasses different dancing styles. Standard, Latin, Rythm, Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Jive. I justified to myself that I didn’t need to recognize different styles and began anticipating the dancer’s fashions.

OBTW I believe “Burn The Floor” is the absolute best blend of Dance, Stage, Cinema, Music, Lighting, Wardrobe, and all crafts involved in creating this performance. Nothing I’ve ever seen comes close to the overall quality level of this production.

Rose-Ann, described shots she was looking for. We agreed head to toe, all limbs included in the frame. She needed bib numbers of the lead to ID the dancers.

I told her a challenge was the left arm of the lead was almost always over a face. She assured me some dances like the Tango, would not be a problem and added many couples knew where/how to dance in front of a camera. She was right about that!

Friday evening, I chose a position putting the LED screen in the background. I hoped the screen would be an identifier. BAD choice! The screen was too bright and mostly had distracting images. I was on a corner beside a light stanchion. Lighting in front of me, wasn’t terrible. Glare from the opposite lights was less than ideal. Nonetheless, I felt I got a few good shots.

Rose-Ann wanted a few shots for their social platforms. That meant a quick “sort” early Saturday morning. I did a fast review and picked 2 dozen images I was happy with and uploaded to Flicker.

I did a good job on full-frame shots and only cut off a few toes. Getting bib numbers…well many of those shots were useful for ID only.

Quick turnaround. Sleep, shower,…didn’t shave, and get back to the venue by 7a. Having done a quick review of my shots from Friday, I felt a breeze of confidence.

I was rewarded with dramatic wardrobes on many women. Unfortunately, the detail of the black tuxedos of the men/leads gets lost. But the formal tux provided a fine classic balance with their partner’s wardrobe. From my uneducated eye, better dancers had a more interesting wardrobe. I lack credibility, but was making shutter decisions based on fashion.

Adding to the list of challenges associated with Competition Dance Photography are the number of couples on the floor. It reminded me of traffic on the Ft. Pit Bridge. Fortunately, I only witnessed a few close calls.

The music tracks were somewhere between :90 and 2 minutes. This usually allowed for two rotations around the floor. That was enough time for couples to catch my eye, and for me to track them hoping they came into the light where I would snap the shutter.

Experience has taught me when I sync the beat of the music with the dancers, I’d find moments to capture. I’m not a musician or dancer, but the tempo of the music gave a blueprint of the dance and “tells” of when to snap the pic.

I wasn’t aware Saturday competitions would go on till 1 am. I hung in there and paced myself for what turned out to be an 18-hour day. Hadn’t done that long of a day since I was in my 40’s! If you’re keeping track, that was last century!

During a well-deserved sit-down-relax, I met a woman with a son on the team from the University of Hawaii. She asked if I had shots of him could I send them to her? She gave me his bib number and I said I’d look. She followed up, and I sent about a dozen shots. (Reaching out created an opportunity for her.) I got a few decent pictures of the DeWitts. I thanked them for their suggestion to volunteer and sent them copies of them competing. An advantage of digital is the ease of sharing.

A feature that caught me somewhat by surprise was the hair. Some women had hair styled in a way that they wore like a beautiful sculpture. Many wonderful traditional portraits ran through my Minds Eye as they danced past my lens.

I cut back on Sunday. I felt confident. I over-shot and now needed to consider the sorting. Why not over-deliver also? Since I was uncertain how my images would be used and the genre was new to me, I chose shots I felt had potential. I culled what I had captured to about 20%. I expect maybe 5% of those will be of value. My “sort” of images made clear that form, fashion, and emotion were the dominant aspects of what caught my “Minds’ Eye”.

Reaction to pics I sent the magazine editor was good. I was disappointed to learn they did little editing. In my opinion, many of the shots I liked needed editing on the backgrounds. Good form and fashion, but distractions in the background minimize impact to that eye in my mind

I was pleasantly surprised that one of my shots was chosen for the cover of American Dancers monthly magazine. This may be the biggest audience for sharing my work. They were able to use other images from the event in an article about the Championships here in Pittsburgh. Dance Photography has many challenges, but it also has rewards.