I photographed a bunch of material for a play called, "Immortal Longings." I didn't care for the play itself but I did have a great time photographing the ballet dancers who performed in little bursts in the production. These images are from a shoot at the very beginning of the rehearsals; done in conjunction with a TV commercial shoot.
I grabbed "the greatest hits" at the time and sent them along to marketing but I always meant to circle back and look at the dance images more closely. Yesterday I was cleaning up my physical desktop, which is a boring and mundane task, and to break the boredom I had a Lightroom window open on my computer and I was intermittently browsing through images from 2019. I liked them many of them better than I remembered.
Mostly photographed in dreadful light (I wasn't able to light the scenes...), and at high ISOs, with a Fuji XH-1 and the very, very, very good 90mm f2.0 lens.
Photographs always look different after appreciable time has passed since their creation. Sometimes better than we remember and sometimes worse.
And sometimes they match what I remember.
This last shot, of the ballet slipper, is my favorite. The texture of the tights and the wonderful out of focus highlight in the background make it for me...
6 comments:
Kirk
I've looked at and enjoyed your site for a long time. Gotten familiar with what you post and enjoy most. But these pictures are remarkable. What other gems do you have hidden away?
And you pixelpeepers who are thinking to much noise? Adds character.
Jay
Always have enjoyed shots that focus on the details which many times completes the story. I was a bit surprised that you sold your Fuji system given the apparent success you had with it, especially the X-H1. Do you think you have significantly improved your photography by changing systems?
Hi JR, I'll say that switching cameras never improves my photography; only my attitude. I could still do the same work with the Canon 5D mk2 I owned back in 2010. I just get bored with cameras and like to switch things around. Also became really interested in some of the new L mount lenses and Leica lenses and wanted a platform on which to try them out. Example: Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art. A wonderful look....but not much better than the 100mm f2.0 I used on the Canons.
Expensive to change systems but cheaper than a mistress or a private plane...
To Anonymous: I have about 550,000 images in my Lightroom catalogs and we've shown about 10,000 images on the blog over the last ten years. I think there's a bunch hidden away that may need to be excavated.
I heard that it's very very painful to dance on your toes ... I 'm thinking about the pain this causes to the girls, should be forbidden.
Very painterly colors in these pictures. I have to disagree with Frank. Ballet is a beautiful art, and I've that takes years of commitment and training to excel in.
If we were to ban all endeavors that cause pain we would be reduced greatly. From our athletes and how hard they train and work, to our dancers, and every other job with muscular labor and risk of health.
I take the approach of not nannying these tremendous individuals but celebrating their commitment and achievements as the inspirational acts they are.
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