As a photographer with some connections to the world of eastern style dance (amongst many other things!), I'm often asked to capture dance troupe performances "live in action".
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This can be particularly demanding, especially in outdoor, public places where the audience is almost mingling amongst the dancers, harsh sunlight creates dark shadows and backgrounds can often be cluttered and rather distracting in the resulting images. At indoor events, the lighting is usually far less than ideal for quality photo's and flash is too distracting to the performers.
In short, most aspects of the overall scene are outside the photographer's control and decent results are for from assured!
Here are a couple of better examples of live, outdoor dance events I've captured recently. Freezing the swishing skirts requires a fast shutter speed and, therefore, good light!
The wonderfully colourful Majidah Tribal Belly Dance seen performing in the open at Teignmouth Folk Festival and Brixham Life Boat Week this summer.
No disrespect to the pizza vendor in the second pic' but the presence of his stall and hoardings caused a major editing headache!
Dance classes are available in Exeter and Chudleigh with Majidah too!
Nothing terribly wrong with these, apart from rather distracting backgrounds, but it is so much easier and more reliable to capture dance movement in a studio environment where lighting and backgrounds can be controlled and changed according to the requirements of the dancer - and photographer - and studio flash lights of 1/800th of a second duration can really freeze the movement!
So, contrast the above with a some of dynamic captures of single dancers in our studio, which were then made into "composites" for additional creative effect for their social media marketing posts.
Shema is a very talented dancer as well as dance teacher in the Taunton area, musician and costume maker / restorer. https://www.facebook.com/shemaraqs1
And, her Azayz Dance page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087908785409
Jenny is another multi-talented friend of ours who dances, teaches dance and makes her own costume and jewellery too!
Jenny's Exeter parent friendly belly dance class: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091070538335
I believe dance has many physical, mental and spiritual benefits for the dancer.
At Philanthropic Photographic we certainly enjoy capturing their movement and providing them with forever memories, both in and out of our studio.
Contact us if you'd like some similar quality photo's - whether dancing or not!
See more Dancer photo's on my Facebook group post.....
https://www.facebook.com/groups/180577417883746/permalink/428082879799864/