Last Saturday, I was privileged to photograph a family celebration dinner for a Bar Mitzvah at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC. At this time the event was a gathering of family and friends on a beautiful evening in our nation’s capital. The event was planned by Kelley at Carte Blanche Events. Also, Dick Steiner provided the entertainment for all the guests in attendance. Both Kelley and Dave from the Four Seasons were very helpful in making the evening run smoothly. Additionally. they helped me to get some great images of the family, the events, and the food!
On this occasion, the desserts really capped off a great night! A deconstructed smore served on dishes, and a “Hammer Time” table created by Dave brought a fun and unique way to get your last bit of chocolate, sweet, and nutty treats in a take-home bag. Lots of fun to break up and eat!!
Life takes a strange winding road. Looking back, my wanting to be in something creative led me to photography. Although I love music, and had studied piano from 4 until college, my attempt at becoming a pianist, a-cappella music director, or recording engineer was just not sustainable. I had an amazing time doing these things, but I always seem to come up a bit short when challenged. Much like in my science career at the time, I was adequate, but not special. However, I may have gotten lucky at the Bally’s casino/hotel in Atlantic City.
Dance-o-rama
Bally’s in Atlantic City, NJ
When dancing in at the 2007 Arthur Murray Dance-o-rama, I photographed my fellow students, and instructors from the Arthur Murray dance center in Tysons Corner, VA. Throughout the weekend, I found that ballroom dance was a terrific subject for photos! Additionally it was a fun challenge to capture. There were different types of dances, and different costumes for each type of dance. Also lots of personalities that could be captured from facial expressions, body movement, and moments in between dances. I pushed my camera and 70-200mm lens as far as they would go. It was necessary to try to get better photographs during each heat.
Professional Dance Competition
Open Professional Rhythm Competitors
Overall the goal was to catch dancers in their dramatic lines that were well-practiced, and perfected leading up to the competition. Comparatively, i tried to catch students performing at their best in front of the judges! Likewise it was an ice breaker to interact with students from other studios. With a cheering crowd, and encouraging friends I felt that I really wanted to capture the mood. It was not every day that you see an event of this kind.
Open Professional Rhythm Competitors
Now, three years later, the thrill of that first big competition is still with me. With this in mind, I will again go to the Bally’s Atlantic City for the 2010 New Jersey State Open. It was the same room that I made my first ballroom dance photographs. I still get caught up in the excitement when the music starts. Moreover there is another set of friends, instructors, and dancers start to cheer! My hope is that I can capture not only the anxious, excited mood of the event but the months and years of work the dancers have invested.
Bally’s Atlantic City
Pro-Am dancers at the Arthur Murray Dance-o-rama in Atlantic City, NJ
There are so many I need to thank for helping me along this journey – Steve Theiss for giving my first opportunity to photograph dancers and who really helped open the door to more events, to my first subjects at this dance event who sucked my laptop’s battery dry on the ride home to view all the photos, and lastly to my wife Bryony who has gone to EVERY event I have photographed doing everything behind the scenes from downloading cards, editing images, and talking with dancers about our photography. I am really behind on the blog, but I promise to get more of our 2010 events up here very soon!
Combined with their creative choreography, the ballroom costumes really fly by as the shutter tries to keep up! This will be TimeLine Media’s first ballroom dance event of the year, and I’m excited about photographing more. Overall, I have a goal of making unique and memorable images for dancers this year.
Did you attend the event last year? It was our first time going up there, and I want to receive some feedback on the photos. Especially since that was our collegiate ballroom event, we did not know what to expect. Of course we were blown away by the professionalism and focus that the dancers put into their art. Moreoever, we know they are studying dancing while doing a full course load of classes! For this reason, we are looking forward to see what the dancers have been working on since last year.
I’ll post some of my favorites both on this blog, and on the newly created Fan page for TimeLine media which can be found at this Facebook link.
