Posts Tagged ‘DC’

Gaithersburg Salsa Formation

Today’s photos are the last from the Arthur Murray Spring Freestyles – a Salsa formation performed by the Arthur Murray Gaithersburg, Maryland studio. It is appropriate that the last post of the “grungy” set of posters from that event is from this piece. The dancers, just as all the pros, really go all-out for these shows with their costuming. For this formation, though the dancers also applied theatrical makeup to punch up the hardened look to go along with their moves.

Salsa Formation Arthur Murray - ©TimeLine Media
Salsa Formation Arthur Murray – ©TimeLine Media

Dancing in formation is as challenging as it seems. You are multiplying the number of people that you need to align on the floor, and you need to incorporate them with dance figures. When pulled off well, the different presentation of familiar steps is really fun to watch! The audience that is familiar with many of the basic figures of Salsa had a great time seeing how the group worked figures into this 4-person configuration.

Arthur Murray Salsa Formation - ©TimeLine Media
Arthur Murray Salsa Formation – ©TimeLine Media

As with all formations, there are also times where the dancers need to move on their own, not connected with a partner. They were able to showcase their individual skills which are not always as obvious when they are dancing with their students. Anyone that has taken lessons will know the feeling when they dance with a pro that it is very different than dancing with a fellow student. Being able to display their technique on their own worked really well in formation. With all the colors, the painted faces, and the grungy clothing, it was really fun to play with these images.

Salsa Formation - Arthur Murray Gaithersburg, MD - ©TimeLine Media
Salsa Formation – Arthur Murray Gaithersburg, MD – ©TimeLine Media

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Arthur Murray Columbia – Poster Winner

Chantilly, Virginia

I do not know where the time went, but the Spring Showcase really sprung up on me. There was not as much time to get the votes and promote the voting for the poster contest before yesterday’s Spring Showcase. In any event, there were still some that came to view the “aged photo” contest at the TimeLine Media Facebook page. It was again an easy win for the dancers from the Arthur Murray Columbia, MD studio for the photo of the Tango professional show.

Tango Professional Show by Arthur Murray Columbia, MD - ©TimeLine Media
Tango Professional Show by Arthur Murray Columbia, MD – ©TimeLine Media

These two dancers have performed many shows for the local Arthur Murray studios, and we have even run into them at competitions outside the region. They are an awesome pair to photograph! Not only do they dance these smooth dancers well, but they have also competed and performed Rhythm shows. We have no doubt that they are inspiring other instructors and student alike with their dancing.

Arthur Murray Columbia, MD - ©TimeLine Media
Arthur Murray Columbia, MD – ©TimeLine Media

Not only is their dancing technique very strong, but they also have some of the best costumes and hair design! Having the complete look is important for dancers on the competition floor. Placement of head pieces, having stones in place correctly on the dress, having hair that does not distract, but still catches the eye really makes an impression on judges and the audience. In every show, these two put the work in to make sure they are ready show ready every time. There are always multiple images from each show that I could use for posters to display! This post has just some of the others that could have been as easily substituted.

Tango Pro Show - ©TimeLine Media
Tango Pro Show – ©TimeLine Media

As for yesterday’s event, I am going through the photos now. Stay tuned to the blog for updates on their progress. If you want to be notified by email when they are ready, you can add your address at the proofing website here:

http://proofs.timelinedc.com
Tango Professional Showcase - ©TimeLine Media
Tango Professional Showcase – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Rename Photos – Tech Thursday

Flowers in Bon Air Park - ©TimeLine Media

Photo Processing

This is a simple idea for a blog post, but one that I think is very important for many reasons. Digital cameras are small, very advanced computers that specialize in making images. The computers run an operating system that conforms to the Design Rule for Camera File Systems or DCF. This is the reason that in any digital camera, your images are stored in a file folder named “DCIM”. After that level, camera manufacturers can change the default naming conventions for images captured by your camera. For Nikon, Fuji and Sony cameras, the default is “DSCXXXX.jpg” while for Canon cameras, the default is “IMGXXXX.jpg”.

Flowers in Bon Air Park - ©TimeLine Media
Flowers in Bon Air Park – ©TimeLine Media

In the menus for your cameras, you can change the default name for your images. When I am setting up a new camera body, this is one of the first things I change for two reasons. The first is so that I can easily identify which images are from which camera, or photographer if I am covering an event with multiple photographers. The second is that in post-processing, I can more easily keep track of photos that I am editing.

Rename Photos

For example, I rename all my images W2A for one camera, W2B for another camera, etc. When at an event with other photographers where we are collecting all the images on one workstation, I can almost ensure that there will not be any accidental rewriting of images since the filenames will likely be different. If I kept the default DSC names, there is a danger that copying files from 2 different Nikon bodies will be overwritten if the user is not careful in copying images. During a busy event, something like this can definitely happen!

Field of Buttercups - ©TimeLine Media
Field of Buttercups – rename example – ©TimeLine Media

Before posting images online, it is also important to rename your images. This makes it easier for search engines to find your images when people search. It is much more likely that someone online will find my image of the “Washington_Monument.jpg” when searching for images of DC when it is renamed rather than if it was posted as “W2A7879.jpg” as it was named straight out of camera. Come up with some naming conventions for your images. Especially as your image collection grows, it helps to keep organized and will help you to recall the images later if/when they are needed. Perfect for #TBT Throwback Thursdays!

Washington Monument at night - ©TimeLine Media
Washington Monument at night – ©TimeLine Media

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703-864-8208

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