Posts Tagged ‘Washington DC’

DC Dance Challenge photos expire today!

Ballroom dance competition - ©TimeLine Media

Tick, tick, tick – today is the last day to view and buy photos from the 2013 DC Dance Challenge!  After tonight, the images will be removed from the website, and put in the archive. We need to make more room for new events – starting with our first event of the year this upcoming weekend. There was some great ballroom, and Latin dancing from the participants, and an awesome professional Argentine Tango show to end the day.

http://proofs.timelinedc.com

Ballroom dance competition - ©TimeLine Media
Ballroom dance competition – ©TimeLine Media

Thanks to Fabio and Jennifer Bonini that have had us cover their event the last couple of years. They worked very hard every year to bring more to the dancers so that they have a good time on the dance floor and off. This last competition had their special challenges landing on the week of a federal government shutdown. This resulted in a change of venue right at the last minute, and they pulled it off nicely. The Ronald Reagan building was a beautiful venue for their event, and it would be nice if this becomes the new venue as it was great for photos.

Dance Team at DC Dance Challenge - ©TimeLine Media
Dance Team at DC Dance Challenge – ©TimeLine Media

Whatever or where-ever the competition is held, you know that it will be worth your time to get in front of their judges, and enjoy the dancing of your friends and studio mates. They also have some great shows, and the unique “Dancing with the DC Stars” competition. We hope to be invited back again this year, so stay tuned to their website for more details as the date comes closer.

Dance formation ending - ©TimeLine Media
Dance formation ending – ©TimeLine Media

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

Creating Vignettes with Flash

Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash - ©TimeLine Media

On yesterday’s post, I wrote about creating vignettes, in Photoshop. Today, I want to post some photos of another cool way to create vignettes, but this time, doing it in camera. I made these at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC. In this walk-through park dedicated to the longest-serving US President, there are many of his quotes engraved into the large pink-colored blocks that make up the monument. You can use the color of the blocks to your advantage as pink and blue are next to each other on the color wheel, so they will work together well in a frame. Here is a frame of the manual exposure setup in the camera without the flash:

Roosevelt Memorial without flash - ©TimeLine Media
Roosevelt Memorial without flash – ©TimeLine Media

Washington, DC

I am just looking to keep a dark, saturated blue in the sky. The flash will be used to illuminate the foreground and pop the subject out of the frame. To setup the flash, I put a warming gel over the front of the flash. Additionally I zoomed the head in to 180mm. This focuses the flash into a tight circle as opposed to just spilling light all over the scene. This is what creates the vignette effect which will draw your viewer’s eye to where you want it to go. I hand held the flash with my left hand, and made this photo:

Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash - ©TimeLine Media
Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash – ©TimeLine Media

How far you zoom the head, can make the circle of light larger. Especially if you have more of an area you want to cover in light. This next photo, I zoomed the head out farther since I was standing farther away, and had more words that I wanted to light:

Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash - ©TimeLine Media
Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash – ©TimeLine Media

It was a challenge to get the light exactly right. Sometimes, I would flash the ground, sometimes, I would only light the trees above the blocks. It would be much easier to do this with the flash on a stand that you can control with more consistency, but I did not want to risk any entanglements with the park rangers. I simply used a hot shoe cable cord to get the flash off the camera, and fired away. Give it a try next time to get a different look at places that are photographed all the time!

Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash - ©TimeLine Media
Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Mediawww.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

DC Dance Challenge photos expiring soon

Washington DC ballroom dance - ©TimeLine Media

Just a quick post today! There is one public event that is expiring early in February. At this time the photos from the 2013 DC Dance Challenge will expire on Monday February 10, 2014. I will send out an email blast to the mailing list to let everyone know on there when they are about to be removed, but I wanted to give lots of heads up for this one. I hope all of you have a great weekend!

Click here for the photos from this event at the proofing website- http://proofs.timelinedc.com

All the photos are organized by the man’s number. If you have any trouble finding your photos, please send me an email [ rassi @ timelinedc.com ] or call 703-864-8208.

Dance competition floor at the Ronald Reagan Building ©TimeLine Media
Dance competition floor at the Ronald Reagan Building ©TimeLine Media
Dancing with Friends studio at a competition in Washington DC - ©TimeLine Media
Dancing with Friends studio at a competition in Washington DC – ©TimeLine Media

Overall, we want to thank Jennifer and Fabio Bonini for inviting us to their event. On this occasion, the full dance floor made the job of finding dancers throughout the event very easy! We are also selecting photos for the top student awards. Stay tuned for updates!

pro am dancers ©TimeLine Media
Washington DC ballroom dance event – ©TimeLine Media
Pro-Am dancers at the DC Dance Challenge competition- ©TimeLine Media
Pro-Am dancers at the DC Dance Challenge competition- ©TimeLine Media 

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

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