New Emerald Ballet Theatre Galleries
Please peruse the galleries and enjoy. All images are available for purchase vie the options on each image frame.
Other images from the Emerald Ballet Theatre archive are available for viewing/purchasing in the EBT Portfolio page.
EBT Shoot
The last image was
literally the first image shot - just something to
see if the camera was picking up that it was tethered
(it never did, ack). Funny how sometimes something
unexpected turns out beautiful every once in a while.
Viktoria was quite pleased and they've been sent off
to the design firm doing the poster in both black and
white and color.
Client Shoot
The shoot was to create some images for the advertising of an upcoming performance, a new choreographic work entitled Tales from the Mediterranean that will debut in June of this year. The dancers are hard at work on it already and I've been attending rehearsals as my travel schedule permits.
I finally got around to hanging a 12' seamless in the studio - mounted on the walls using the Bogen Expan system - I really liked how easy this was to put up and will make my life so much easier when doing things like this, especially when I'm doing pictures of dancers on point with their arms/legs extended. In the past that has required a certain amount of post-production work on Photoshop to make them fit (seam carving, if you please). Saves all that time putting up/taking down the seamless backdrop supports.
Nice.
I'll be posting those shortly.
New Emerald Ballet Theatre Galleries
March!
Welcome
March. Already.
Yesterday we attended a Russian festival - our
daughter was performing a dance as a showcase for EBT
- the artistic director is from Russia and danced for
the Bolshoi - so her roots are deep in the Russian
community here in Seattle. This was a short
performance, to a Chopin piece, mostly to inspire the
crowd to send their Russian girls/boys to learn to
dance at EBT.
She did a great job. Here is a picture from that
piece...
Here is another EBT dancer doing a more modern
piece...
Wednesday at the Studio
I just found out I'll be traveling again next week. I
had plans to do a studio shoot with Viktoria
(artistic director of EBT) next week, but it looks
like I'll have to postpone it for another week. March
is already jam packed with scheduled shoots, travel
and a mix of other important happenings. Wait, its
March? Wow.
I spent a few hours in the studio yesterday and
captured a few images I'm quite happy with.
Exploration can be Good
Sometimes you need to step outside what you are doing
and play with something. Here is a small series of
pictures from last year that were shot with a bad
lens. On purpose.
I ordered this knock-off Leica lens from a russian
seller about 6 or 7 years ago. It wasn't the right
lens (I had ordered a collapsible 50) and the first
roll thru demonstrated a big problem - a lens element
had come unattached somehow and was causing havoc. I
was nothing less than thrilled. There was no way it
was going back.
I've used this lens a few times, but never been very
serious about exploring what it can do. Last year, as
part of a dance project with Ballet Bellevue, I put
that lens on and shot some dance pictures as part of
the larger project. I've done likewise several times
over the past year, but the results never really
seemed to fit into the larger set - they didn't feel
like they belonged.
Today I saw them in Lightroom as I was browsing. A
few tweaks and I was very happy. Here are a few...
An interesting effect - and they work great in color. I especially like the middle photo - I'm drawn to vertical compositions these days (80% of my shots are vertical for some reason) and this one works for me. Time to dig out that Fed lens... Cheers!
Joe McNally
I ran across a post by Joe McNally, a well known
photographer, talks about his affinity for dance
photography.
Read it here
I liked this part here best:
"Put a dancer in front of my lens, and Joe be happy
monkey. I feel a real affinity for dancers, actually,
because, just like photographers, they are hard
working, creative and underpaid."
Dance Photography
Dance is something I got sucked into a few years ago
when my daughter started pirouetting her way across
the marley.
She had been talking about it since she could talk
and she was pretty sure of herself. She spent most of
those early years in a tutu or some form of
ballet-related costume. Here is a picture of her at
her two-year old birthday party, appropriately
garbed.
My wife had danced as a child, and was still doing so
when I met her in 1991. I loved picking her up after
her dance classes, although I was much to silly to go
in and actually watch. It took a few more years to
develop a taste for it myself. When we moved to the
Seattle area, my wife went off on a quest to find a
studio that could teach our budding dancer. She
didn't want a
rinky-dink dance studio in the
strip mall
- you know the kind that teach ballet, hip hop, jazz,
clogging and every other dance under the sun - all
with the inherent cuteness, but with mediocrity at
the center. She wanted something more, although the
idea of PNB (the giant gorilla of the area) was a bit
overwhelming. So she stumbled across a small studio
in Bellevue that had an interesting pedigree - a
small studio, very intimate, with an artistic
director who had danced at the Bolshoi (the big
gorilla of the world). It was small, unassuming, and
mostly run by volunteers and people who cared about
dance. And better yet, Viktoria (the artistic
director) was just what we were looking for- someone
with real training and connections that could really
make a difference if Chloe decided dance was for her.
So Chloe started at 4 years of age - on her birthday
no less. I took pictures of her, here and there, but
never was able to get the access or the time to do
more. As Chloe grew, it became more important to her.
Happily, this little ballet studio was really focused
on performances (even if they couldn't publicize them
very well) and Chloe began racking up the stage time.
And solos. She was in heaven. At some point, my wife
approached me about doing a bit more with the studio
(she was on the board of directors by then) and after
some negotiations, I started shooting weekly
sessions. First with my daughter's class and then
with the rest of the classes. It was inspiring,
beautiful and enjoyable. I'm very happy with the
results of that year long project. You can see this
work here:
Well, as you know, things can go awry. Soon after I
stared my project, Viktoria and that little studio
had a schism. Silly stuff really, but it mainly
focused around respect. So she left to form her own
studio. We decided that, while we loved that little
studio, that we really needed to follow Viktoria as
she was able to provide the training Chloe needed. So
we did. And that was the birth of
Emerald Ballet
Theatre.
The new studio has grown over the past year. I've
done a lot of work for them and have enjoyed
myself even more. My work has become an important
part of the studio - from the walls, to the
website, to the posters and advertising. That and
I'm there a fair amount and have gotten to know
many of the dancers. Its great to know these
beautiful girls and see them developing their
talent and at the same time providing a wonderful
little community for my daughter. She loves it and
is up to 8 hours a week. Seriously. We are so
proud of her and her accomplishments. You can see
the work here:
We still miss the old studio. There was some wonderful people there, and it was a sad day for us to leave, but it was the right decision. EBT is growing and I'm loving the work I do in the dance studio. If you have some time, explore the galleries linked to above. Cheers!
New Emerald Ballet Theatre Galleries
I've posted two new
Emerald Ballet
Theatre
galleries to my portfolio pages.
These two galleries encompass about 60 new images in
total. You'll notice that there are an increasing
number of color images as of late. I've been moving
toward some color interpretations lately - and I've
been enjoying the results.
Please peruse these two galleries and enjoy.
More from the Studio
Creative Dance
Here are a few of my favorites.
This is a bit of a
different take on a subject I've been working at for
over a year. Like some brown tone with that?
I'm heading to San Jose for a big company shindig
next week - might be a bit more sporadic with the
updates.
Also, I took Chloe to PNB's Romeo et Juliette tonight. It
was gorgeous. Beautiful. Go see it if you live in
the area. Really missed having my camera - there
was so much visually to take in.
Auditions - Take 2
Here are a few of my favorites...
Outdoor Photographer just posted an online review of Lightroom that presents a short but sweet take on Lightroom's position in the marketplace. My favorite quote:
Easier. Faster. Effective. Yup."Develop is a place where magic occurs. This module mimics Camera Raw in some ways, but it makes working on an image so much easier, effective and faster than Camera Raw. The right panel of adjustments includes the necessary controls to allow you to get the most from your core image processing."
New EBT Gallery
Back in the Studio
Here are a couple of pictures of Viktoria - founder and danseuse extraordinaire...
