I rarely go into a shoot with a fixed notion of how I want it to go, or how I want the images to look. I often base my techniques, color palette, and post processing on what the moment dictates…
Read MoreA Study of Form: High Contrast Black and White Dance Shoot
A study of shape and tone. Thanks to @kristielatham for bringing power and grace to every shoot, and thanks to the @ohioartscouncil for the grant which allows me to make art.
Read MorePhoto Shoot with Ballet Dancer Caitlin Valentine
I had a lot of fun exploring my new @nanlite_global Pavotubes. I set them to rapidly change through the prismatic spectrum while @bemycaitlinvalentine danced. I explored a range of techniques from long exposure to using prisms to shooting through reeded plastic. I’m super excited to explore the lights in greater depth.
Read More
Bold Colors and Shapes with Ballet Dancer Kristie Latham
My latest shoot with dancing queen, Kristie Latham. We’ve been shooting together for over a decade now and it’s fun to look back at how our work together has evolved over the years. I started off with a simple color and shape study with the Lindsay Adler Optical Spot (Kristie styled her wardrobe). Then I finished the shoot with some long exposure work (I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this technique).
Read MoreShoot with Ballerina Francesca Jordan Dugarte
My latest attempt at capturing the beauty of movement over time. Been exploring long exposures while rotating my @prismlensfx linear filter and multi-strobing my flash. Excited at the possibilities! Also really loving the hard light and fast falloff I can get with my @lindsayadler_photo @westcottlighting Optical Spot.
Read More
Images From My Creative Portrait Workshop
This past weekend I hosted a 2-day Creative Portrait workshop at my studio. In an effort to keep the atmosphere intimate and allow for a lot of hands-on time for students, I capped the workshop at 5 students. We covered a range of techniques such as using flags to shape light; color theory; making and using snoots; long exposure portraits; and lighting with projectors. We packed a lot in, as you can see below…
Read More
A Fixed Point in Space Over Time: Photo Shoot with Ballet Dancer Kristie Latham Zurmehly
In my art my go-to techniques all center around the passage of time. Take this shoot with Kristie, for example. I made long exposures and multiple exposures in order to observe how she moved through a fixed point in space over time, which I otherwise wouldn’t be able to see with my naked eye…
Read MoreThe Many Ways to Photograph a Dancer: Shoot with Ballerina Caitlin Valentine
I’ve been working with dancers for over a decade and I still struggle to come up with fresh ways of capturing their movement in a way that conveys their power and grace. But this challenge doesn’t keep me from trying…
Read MoreLong Exposures with Dancers Wrapped in LEDs
In my last post I mentioned how I’ve struggled for years to capture the essence of a dancer in a single frame. These are more attempts in this ongoing quest…
Read MoreA Window to the Soul: Long Exposures of Ballet Dancers
Sometimes all you need is time. I photographed Caitlin and Karen last week, two dancers from Ballet Met. The sessions were deceptively simple. A dancer, a window, and a tripod. For some of the shots I froze their movement, highlighting their pose and their poise. I also explored making long exposures in an effort to capture the grace and fluidity of their movements (for years I’ve struggled to adequately capture a dancer in a single frame). I also used my fungus-filled lens on a few of the long exposures, resulting in especially ghostly images. Here are some of my favorites:
Read More
Rae of Light
Rae is a dancer with Balletmet and a frequent collaborator with me. She’s as willing to experiment as she is talented, which means we always come away with a great range of images. We started off by creating fragmented portraits courtesy of my broken mirror, before moving on to creating golden images with slow shutter speeds and mylar reflections.
Read More