On this occasion, I wanted to post more of my favorite ballroom dancing photos. These were at the American Star Ball held at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, NJ. Comparatively, this is a beautiful ballroom for dancing. In fact, this is likely the longest ballroom that I cover. With this in mind, you can really separate the dancers from the background.
Additionally, this room has a tall ceiling. Similarly to the aspects of the long room, a tall ceiling will also blur a background when the dancers are closer to my position. As can be seen in the photo above, the ceiling elements are nicely blurred. The theater lighting, the chandeliers, and the cloth added to the ceiling do not distract from the dancer forms.
While working on updating my marketing materials, this photo above was chosen to be printed. Being that this is the American Star Ball, the predominant Red, and Blue tones in the dresses matched appropriately. This year’s event will be May 17 – 19, 2013. Check out other photos from the event from this previous post. Have a great weekend!
We are finalizing our plans for the first ballroom dance event for TimeLine Media this year. We are returning to cover the event for the Penn Latin and Ballroom Dance at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. This is an event that we first covered in 2009 when we were very new to photographing ballroom dance. Like us, it has changed and grown, and we look forward to this year’s event!
The last times we covered this event, there was so much energy in the room from all the dancers! With many college team in attendance, there were many friends cheering on their teammates. There were also some flags in the crowd to represent the sections from each school which makes the event unique compared to most others that we cover.
Venue
It will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, a venue which we have not been to previously. I hope to get in there early to get setup lights, and get an idea of where we can position to get the best photos. My style has changed much since the first time we went up to cover the event, but I’m interested to see how things have changed for me – both in lighting, and in composing photographs. I did use images from this event for a long time in my portfolio, and I hope to get more this year.
Event Details
With a full day of dancing scheduled, I’m estimating between 6000 and 9000 photos which will take about a week to process. Hopefully I can still post some blog posts during that time! To keep up with details as the competition approaches, you can follow the competition on Twitter – @UPennClassic13
After I finish editing the photos from the event, I will post them to the proofing site where I put all my other ballroom dance events- http://proofs.timelinedc.com
This is a unique music festival held yearly at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA. The focus of the weekend is on a cappella singing – music made without instruments, only with voices. It may sounds restrictive, but much like haiku, the creativity that can come from making entire musical compositions using voices. In some cases you they use percussive mouth drumming, or foot stomping as well. All will amaze the listener! I was in a cappella group in college, and have spent most of my music budget since then on collecting my favorite collegiate, professional, local, national, and international groups.
In 2010, I asked the organizers if they would be in need for a photographer for their event. It has been a privilege to attend, and get some great images of all the performers. There are performances that are open to the public in addition to workshops for singers. Topics range from vocal performance for the studio, on-stage presentation, different styles of a cappella music, to legal considerations of recording and selling music.
Charitable contributions
The best part of the festival is that proceeds from ticket sales and the silent auction go to the Alzheimer’s Association. So you can support a good cause while enjoying this very creative musical form. I encourage you to go to iTunes to sample some of these artists. To get details on this year’s event, you can go to the SingStrong website [ http://dc.singstrong.org/ ] and get information on tickets and groups that are planning to perform.
Having the kind of access that the organizers gave the photographers really helps to make some unique and memorable photographs. I was able to go back stage, get in front during sound checks, and in the balcony to find places that others usually do no go. These are the kinds of photos I want to make, not snapshots that the crowd can get with their camera phones. I need to get these in order to show that investing in good photography is worth the price. If I am only getting shots that everyone can get, it is impossible for my work to stand out, and be recognized. This is a goal that every photographer strives to achieve, and I try to make on every shoot.
