Shadow Play

Did a “themed” photoshoot with local model Amanda Veldkamp, and local photographer Faith Blackwell at the Stutz Building in Indianapolis.  Great times!  The theme was Shadows.  The idea was to use low light combined with single or multiple speedlights or monolights to create various shadow effects.

I spent hours researching ideas to shoot, lining up the model, planning the makeup (I know, I know sounds silly for a guy to worry about a model’s makeup, but hey got to get the right effect) and arranging the studio.  All came together smoothly, and we started up on time. 

I brought massive amounts of kit with the idea of covering everything.  Once again, as with other shoots I brought way too much equipment.  Oh well, I used to be a Boy Scout, so I wanted to be prepared.  Here was a condensed version of the kit I brought:

• 2 x Nikon SB-600 speedlights
• 2 x LumiQuest Softbox III
• 2 x Elinchrom D-Lite 400 monolights
• 2 x Elinchrom softboxes
• 1 x RPS Studio Softbox RS-4030
• Elinchrom Universal triggers & receivers
• 2 x Manfrotto 5001B lightstands  with the kit for the speedlights
• Various HonlPhoto snoots & flags for the speedlights
• 3 x DIY gobos for the softboxes
• Lastolite Professional TriGrip Reflector
• Nikon D300s
• AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
• AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime
• AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime
• Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX
• AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D
• Assorted accessories

I know, I’m exhausted too.  You guessed it I used only a portion of the kit.  I ended up using the speedlights, the RPS Studio Softbox, the snoots & the Elinchrom triggers.  I used my Nikon D300s and the Nikkor 24-70mm almost exclusively.  Now get this people, I also brought an old school Nikon F50 SLR film camera mounted with the 85mm lens.  I shot a roll of B&W film with it.

All shots with the D300s were taken in manual setting.  I started off at 1/160 of a second shutter speed, ISO 400 and aperture set at F/8.  I also set my exposure compensation + 0.3 – 1.0 throughout the shoot.  I found I adjusted the shutter speed and aperture as needed, but kept the ISO fixed throughout the shoot.  We did 4 series, 3 in the studio and 1 in the hallway.  

The first shoot in studio consisted of 1 speedlight with the RPS softbox mounted and a snooted speedlight projecting a light circle behind Amanda against the background.  The background was made of fashion magazine pages taped to the wall.  We moved the softbox around camera right, front and left to get the shadows we liked.  Directing Amanda the entire time.

The next series was the same setup, only without the snooted speedlight but this time against a plain white background.  I won’t go into the details because the light was too bright (very large windows) and I couldn’t get usable shadowing that appealed.

Final studio setup was against a black background which blocked most of the windows.  I used the speedlight/RPS softbox setup camera left.  Again, no kicker or snooted strobe to add any lighting effects. 

The next setup was to move into the bowels of the building and shoot in a VERY dark, long hallway.  It was very industrial, but my type of place.  We had Amanda switch out of a tee-jeans combination into a black dress.  Good choice since it added to the atmosphere.  Also, I didn’t want a pretty girl look, so I asked Amanda to muss up her hair and give me a bit of attitude.  Jackpot people, she was picture perfecto.

All shots in the hall used either the single speedlight / RPS Studio softbox setup, or a single snooted speedlight.  All lighting was off camera with the speedlights mounted on the Manfrotto lightstands.  In ALL of the shots we manually set the speedlights adjusting the power up or down to taste.  We also moved the lighting around to get the desired effect.

The hall shots worked the best for me.  As you might have guessed from earlier posts I like the darker images.  I got a number of great shots in this series.  Also, for the last 30 minutes or so I asked Amanda to get on the floor and prop her legs up against the metal doors, or sit and do various poses.  The floor was cold, but she was a true pro and worked the set very well.  I really liked the shots on the floor.

All-in-all we ended up spending close to 3 ½ hours and took away approximately 500 images.  My shooting partner, Faith, did an equivalent amount.  The entire day was great fun and I ended up with really nice images.  I will definitely do this again.

My after action report:

·         Plan ahead and don’t bring unnecessary kit.  I knew I was going to move around and take different types of shots so I came prepared.  Honestly I could have left ½ of the kit at home

·         Plan your photo style and what you want in advance, but be very flexible.  I had a general idea what I wanted (I bought sketches and sample photos), but after about the 2^nd series I went off script which worked great.

·         Experiment with light.  We tried all types of shadows and I was surprised how hard it was to get the right look. 

·         Plan out the details with your model in advance including time, fee, makeup, clothes, etc.  I wanted to make sure Amanda was prepared.

·         If you don’t have a Nikkor 24-70 F/2.8, do yourself a favor and go get yourself one.  It will set you back, but you will thank me.

Spark Art Photography Party & Photoshoot

Model Angela - 1/200, f/9, 38mm at ISO 400

What started out as a holiday party turned into a really amazing photoshoot.  I was invited by a local Indianapolis model, Amanda Lynn Veldkamp, that I’ve photographed previously, to the 2^nd Annual Spark Art Holiday Party hosted by Dave Fulton at his Spark Art Photography studio on Indianapolis’ north side.

The party was an opportunity for local photographers, models, make-up artists & media to meet and mingle.  Part party and part advertising.  Dave also provided the additional bonus by allowing the photographers to use his lighting equipment and shoot the models.  Guess what I spent my time doing? - talking, introducing myself and shooting.  There was supposed to be a DJ who flaked so I let Dave use my iPhone that had a Dance & Trance mix I use for photoshoots.  It was the perfect music for the scene.

Model Hayley- 1/200, f/13, 66mm at ISO 400

There were approximately 15-20 models from several agencies & independents.  LModelz in Indianapolis brought 9 of their models and were the most active.  They were great.  There were about 5 photographer’s that took turns photographing the models in about 5 minute sessions.  I ended up shooting about 8 of the models and came home with approximately 700 images.

The lighting setup was fairly straight forward.  I was busy shooting and talking so I didn’t pay tons of attention to the lighting setup (kicking myself), but it consisted of a studio strobe mounted with a large softbox and grid.  This light was camera right.  Camera left was a huge reflector panel.  Above the model was another studio strobe with a strip light and grid.  Finally behind the model camera left and right were bare-bulbed studio lights.  After one series we turned off the lights behind the models as they were unneeded.  All lights were triggered with Pocket Wizards.  Behind the models extending to the floor was a black background mounted on the wall.  The entire setup was approximately 8’ x 8’.  It was perfect.

Model Bri- 1/200, f/8.0, 24mm at ISO 400

Model Ebony - 1/160, f/7.1, 35mm at ISO 400

I shot the entire night in manual mode with either my AF-SNikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED or AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime lens.  I used my Nikon D300s.  ISO was set at 400 because of the use of the studio lights.  We didn’t adjust the lighting which were a bit hot, so I kept my f-stop f/7 or higher and my shutter speed in the 1/200 of a second range.  I could have gone higher but was running into some flash synch issues when I went much faster.

I also shot a few images of the make-up artists with my aperture wide open and with ISO at 1600 and my shutter at 1/60^th.  Local make-up artist, Sasha Niles-Carnes “Sasha Star”, was working her magic and let me get into her space.  It was fun watching her work.

Make Up Session - 1/60, f/4, 38mm at ISO 1600

Overall a blast.  Great time meeting up with local artist, friends, photographers, models, and lots of pretty people.

My blog post wouldn’t be complete without some after action comments:

·         Bring plenty of business cards.  I took a handful and ran out almost immediately.  That’s the second time. 

·         If you don’t have business cards, bring a notepad and write down people’s names and contact information.  This was handy.

·         Mingle.  I spent about ½ my time just chatting people up.  I really enjoyed mixing the photography with the social event.

·         Watch your histogram.  At first the lights were way too hot (due to the previously mentioned forward facing lights).  If I hadn’t looked at my histogram I would have ended up the entire night with blown out pictures.

·         In a setting like this be courteous to the other photographers.  I worked hard to get in and shoot about 20-30 shots of a model and then hand off to the next shooter.  It would have been a real drag if one of the photographers hogged the set.

·         Watch the angles.  Almost all of the models in their heels were taller than me at 5’9”.  Although this is generally a more flattering angle for the models I did get several shots that needed to be at a higher perspective.

·         Send the models several processed images.  They were doing this for free so show them some love.

·         I’m old school, so I sent the host a hand written Thank You note because I had a great time and he went out of his way to do a good job.  I think this has a better impact than an email, but hey, as I mentioned, old school.

·         Watch your kit. I brought a full camera bag and ended up putting it in the corner. The place was literally shoulder to shoulder with people and it would have been easy, although unlikely, that someone could have walked out with some of my kit.  I ended up putting my bag in my car.  Anyway, I didn’t want anyone to trip over my stuff.

Tribute To A Photographer



A Young Photographer, Husband, Micro Biologist, Man of Faith, Fireman & Family Man

My father passed away this week after 84 great years.  While it’s been a difficult week for the family it’s also been an opportunity to celebrate his life.  One of my Dad’s legacies he passed down to me was his love of photography and technology.  I would have never picked up my passion for photography if it weren’t for him.

My dad always had a camera around his neck capturing life’s moments.  He weaved photography into everything he did from his professional work as a microbiologist, church activities, vacations, as a volunteer fireman, family get-togethers, photos of all of us kids & our children, and much more.  Not only did he photograph everyday events but he also did photography for the art.  I was looking at some of his photographs today and am amazed at how good they are.  I’m convinced he was a photojournalist at heart.

Always had a smile on his face, and a camera around his neck

Getting ready to process some photos he shot

I remember constantly waiting for him to take “one more picture” of us kids.  I found I did the same thing with my kids.  I remember him using vacations as an opportunity to shoot photos.  I find I do the same thing.  I remember to this day the first SLR film camera I purchased with his help, a Canon TX with a Canon 50mm f/1.8mm lens.  All of my friends were in awe of my cutting edge camera.  I still have that camera today.  

Although I don’t remember all the cameras my dad had, I know he had some great ones.  Not only that we had our own DARKROOM!  He built it in a spare bathroom in one of our houses.  My brothers, dad and I spent many hours developing, dodging and burning and processing photos.  

When digital started to overtake film he jumped onboard.  He had a digital camera way before most people did.  He also loved computers and was an original Apple fanboy.  He loved the fact he could combine his love of photography into his passion for computers.  Although based on most of our standards he used pretty basic digital processing software, it suited his purpose.  He loved creating photo cards, award certificates, photo collages, and presentations.  He created his own personal line of photo cards / certificates called Brokards, get it, Brokaw Cards…. He would celebrate all of our kid’s accomplishments with a Brokard, like the cleanest closest award. 

For a guy at his age, although physically he wasn’t able to do as much photography recently, he still talked about photography with me all the time.  I’m sure most of my Flickr views were from him.  He religiously read my blog posts and would comment on what I was doing.  Although I tend to shoot more on the darker side of life he always gave me very constructive comments.  He really enjoyed sharing his views on my images and wanted to know how they were taken.  He was dazzled by my kit and always wanted to see my latest purchase.  I would regularly bring over my equipment and show him how it worked.  He always wanted to know what I was planning to shoot next.

Technology was starting to get ahead of him, but he was not afraid of it.  Just last week I upgraded his laptop computer to a bigger Apple desktop my brother had purchased.  He loved it.  He was even talking about trying out Aperture.  People; please understand he was 84 years old!

I think one of his true passions was being a photographer during his years as a volunteer fireman and shooting everyday objects very artistically.  I was going through a box of his photos today, many I had never seen.  Some of his photographs documenting crash scenes, fires, and training events are amazing.  Some of the photos he took of my mom or everyday objects were great.  He was no noobie when it came to DOF or composition. 

From inside of a firetruck arriving at a motorcycle crash scene

Burning barn at night

 

From inside a firetruck arriving at an overturned truck fire

I am richer in all ways because of my Dad.  The world is a better place because of my Dad.  I am a passionate photographer because of my Dad.  I’ll miss him.

Dia De Los Muertos

Opportunistic photoshoots are sometimes as enjoyable and successful as planned shoots.  During this past week’s photo club meeting at the Indianapolis Art Center I saw a flier about the weekend’s 2011 Dia De Los Muertos at the Art Center.  I thought that would be fun, but had other plans.  On Saturday my schedule changed so I decided to check it out.  As I was walking out the door I picked up my camera and headed out.

I didn’t even change the lens.  I was toting my Nikon D300s sporting a Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G. This is the last lens I used.  In my last blog post you might have read this is a sweet lens. What I like about the 35mm is that the extremely large aperture (f/1.8) allows extremely shallow DOF if wanted and is wide enough (53mm equivalent on a DX-format CMOS sensor) for most purposes.  Therefore, I was able to get street portraits with excellent bokeh, wide shots of dancers and good speed in the shade.  Probably, I could have had better reach and wider at the low end if the focal length if I had brought my AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II.  This is the perfect walk around lens, but hey, you dance with the gal you bring to the party.

I was there for about an hour and saw some colorful Dia De Los Muertos art, temporary sculptures, watched glass blowing for a while, watched cultural dance, talked to another photographer, and listened to some Mexican music.  Oh yes, took bunch of photos.  Good times.

My after action tips:

·         Keep a camera with you ALL THE TIME.  Get yourself a point & shoot or have your smartphone handy.  I keep a Nikon DSLR & 2 general purpose lenses in a camera bag in my trunk…just in case.  In this case I did have my primary camera, but if not I was covered.

·         Keep your “walking around lens” on your camera when it’s not being used.  That way when you pick up your camera you have a general purpose lens always available.  The problem with a general purpose lens like the Nikkor 18-200mm you get just that, general purpose

·         There’s a photography opportunity everywhere.  Every place you go is an opportunity to take photos.  OK, the Dia De Los Muertos was a natural photo opportunity, but you get my point.

Zombies vs. A Human Photographer

Living Dead Girl

I recently photographed the 2011 Broad Ripple Zombie Walk and Prom.  This fun event benefiting Gleaners Food Bank was a mix of costumes, make-up artists, music, dance, food, partying and ZOMBIES.  The event is held a couple of weekends before Halloween in Broad Ripple, an Indianapolis hip suburb.  The event starting in the Kroger’s parking lot includes a food donation drop-off (10 cans of tuna fish earned me a cool t-shirt), zombie makeup by local make-up artist, a Zombie Wedding (yes, a real wedding where the bride, groom, priest, & wedding party dressed the part), dancing to a DJ, a Zombie Walk through the streets of Broad Ripple, a Zombie Feast with participating eating establishments & bars, and Zombie Prom at Tru nightclub.

I met up with several local photographers to shoot the event.  Earlier I had snagged a Media Pass, so I was able to roam with immunity.  It was my zombie shield.  After hanging out with my photog colleagues for the first 30 minutes we set off on our own.

Pie Eating Contest Winner?

You Do Not Have Permission To Take My Photo!

Wow, what an event.  It was PACKED with about 1000 people in all forms of costume and make-up.  Some as basic as some face paint to full on freak-fests of zombism.  Some were truly nasty looking.  It was uber.  You got the sense some people were having way too much fun dressed up.

This Is Wrong At All Levels

Feeling A Bit Green

I brought full camera kit with me as I knew I would be faced with extreme sun, shadows, low light, street lights, and then full dark.  Also, I wanted to reach out and touch with my long lens and get in close for head shots … the only way to take down a zombie!!  Also, I brought a speedlight, diffuser & plenty of spare batteries.  My kit for the shoot: 

·         Nikon D300s

        ·         Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro AF Lens

·         AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

·         AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G prime

·         Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro DX

·         Nikon SB-600 speedlight

·         6 sets of Sanyo eneloop rechargeable batteries

The entire night was shot in full manual so I could adjust shutter speed and the aperture.  Knowing I was going to be in strong light with shadows moving to darkness I wanted to manage aperture, shutter speed & ISO myself. I focused on 1/100 shutter speed as my slowest speed throughout the shoot and change aperture to get the desired DOF.  That means I sacrificed ISO (and noise) as my 3^rd variable.  ISO went from 200 early on up to 1250 before it got dark.  It worked out well.  As it started to get dark (when the Zombie Walk kicked off) I popped on my speedlight and moved ISO back to 400.  Throughout the night I adjusted white balance to match the lighting.  I used presets most of the time and a few times used the kelvin setting and set the color temperature based on experience.

Makeup Artist?

My weapon of choice throughout the night was my trusty Nikon D300s.  I started off with my Tamron 70-200 f/2.8.  This lens is very solid in good lighting environments, but a piece of junk (OK not so good) in low light settings.  It doesn’t have VR which limits it to tripod use in low light and it just doesn’t focus fast enough.  I really need to suck it up and buy a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII.  After about 30 minutes I shifted to my Nikkor 24-70mm to take advantage of a wider zoom.  Finally, when the Zombie walk started I switched to a Nikkor 35mm prime to take advantage of the wider aperture and the lightning fast focus.  Also, since I was taking extremely close-in street portraits the 35mm (53mm effective with a cropped sensor) focal length was perfecto.  I ended up not using my Tokina extreme wide angle mainly because I wanted to focus on close in shots.

Zipper Face

Bad Day In The Office

Overall, a great night and tons of fun.  I ended up spending about 5 hours shooting in different venues, different lighting, with / without shadows, and with tons of people dressed the part & really into the event.  What more could a photog ask for?

A few comments / tips:

·         If you have the opportunity, get a press or media pass.  I did and it was extremely helpful.  I was able to get into all venues with no drama and shoot everyone without a single, “I don’t want you to take my photo”

·         Come prepared for all types of light.  I went from uber bright to pitch black with all forms of mixed lighting and shadows mixed in.  Basically, if you know it’s going to be dark bring your brightest lenses.

·         Remember to watch where your shadows fall.  A shadow tends not to show up until you plop your image on the computer and slap yourself on your forehead.  Throughout the event I was very aware of where my shadows fell and what effect I wanted.

·         My general rule of thumb is people who dress up (or have loads of tattoos) want to be photographed.  Take advantage of it.

·         Watch where you’re standing.  I had a big backpack and the setting was tight.  More than a few times I smacked into someone when turning around. 

·         Get in close.  Some of my best zombie portraits were taken less than 24 inches away.

Way Past His Bedtime!

Nikon 1 System Lenses

A few weeks ago I posted a blog post about Nikon's new Interchangeable Lens Compact, ILC, mirrorless camera system the V1 & J1.  I talked about he lenses that would be available, but had few specifics.

Here is a blog post from the camera store I normally visit, Roberts Camera, in Indianapolis that highlights the new lenses.

One comment, with the camera on the new iPhone 4s, point & shoot cameras need to potentially rethink their strategy especially in the higher price range.  One such strategy is the ILC to keep them relevant in the P&S category.  

Enjoy

Roberts Camera Blog - Nikon 1 System Lenses

Photography Podcasts I Follow

Photographers have a great way to stay up to date with the latest in photography, learn new techniques & follow their favorite photographers.  This is through Podcasts, but audio and / or video podcasts.  A podcast is simply an audio or audio/video interview or discussion on a selected topic.  Most of the time the podcast includes “show notes” on the podcast’s website or subscription service that link you to topics, photographers, or other items discussed in the podcast.

Being an iPhone user I have an easy way to access many photography podcasts through free subscriptions using iTunes.  You can also access most podcasts through other online subscription services plus directly through the photographer’s websites.  I’ve become a huge fan of podcasts and regularly listen to them on my way to work or when I have some down time. 

Here are the podcasts that I follow:

·         “The Candid Frame”, host / interviewer / photographer – Ibarionex Perello

·         “Tips From The Top Floor”, host / interviewer / photographer – Chris Marquardt

·         “Chasing The Light”, host / photographer – Ibarionex Perello

·         “TWiT Photo”, host / interviewer – Leo Laporte; host / photographer – Catherine Hall

·         “The Two Hosers”, hosts / interviewers / photographers – Allan Attridge & Adam Schwartz (just started listening to this podcast)

·         "TWiP This Week in Photography", multiple hosts & interviewers

·         “The Photographer & Model Podcast”, host / photographer – Ron Davis; host / model – Shawna Rencher

Also, although this is not a podcast I regularly watch DigitalRevTV on YouTube.  This is a Hong Kong based video review of various photography subjects.

Of the podcasts I mentioned above I probably enjoy Tips From The Top Floor (Chris has a great sense of humor & covers the technical side of photography), The Candid Frame (Ibarionex is a smooth interviewer), & TWiT Photo (amazing guests) the most.   However, to be honest I like them all and listen to them religiously.

Bottomline, if you think about photography as much as I do; now you have another way to fill your photo knowledge jones.  Check out these podcasts.

David Robillard's Video - Time

David Robillard is an Indianapolis based photographer that I know through our Indianapolis Photo Venture Camera Club.  Tonight we had a member photograph review and critique, and Dave showed his video "Timelapse Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois, The Bean" titled "Time"

People, you have to check this out.  It's great.  Next time I catch up with Dave I'm going to have to have him tell me exactly how he did this.  He did say tonight it was composed of approximately 600 images.

Enjoy,


Timelapse Millennium Park Chicago Illinois The Bean from David Robillard on Vimeo.

My Gypsy Soul

Tormented Soul
f/2.5, 1/125, 35mm, ISO 800

One of my favorite venues to photograph is the Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre. They are a resident dance troupe that recently relocated to the Tarkington Theater at the Center for the Performing Arts  located in Carmel, Indiana.  The Indianapolis based Photo Venture CameraClub gets the opportunity to shoot the GHDT during their dress rehearsals. We had such an opportunity this past week for the showing of “My Gypsy Soul”. The performance “Traced the footprints of the gypsies from India to Spain. Music was featured from Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, India, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Africa".

Let’s see; low light photography - check, contemporary music - check, motion & movement - check, vivid colors - check, challenging photography setting - check. You guessed it, I was in photographic heaven.

Red Leap Three
f/2.5, 1/100, 70mm, ISO 800

Flying Blue Three
f/4.5, 1/100, 70mm, ISO 1250

As you probably know from my blog posts and photo sessions (non-studio based) I migrate to after dark or low light settings.  This was no different.  I was shooting in full manual for this shoot.  I did research prior to the shoot to best determine the white balance to us.  As I’ve mentioned previously, even if you shoot RAW I don’t advise using auto white balance.  Shooting in auto white balance may require an extra step in post processing to correct or tune.  For this shoot I knew there would be lots of mixed color lights accompanied with a single or multiple bright, focused, white spot lights.  Therefore, I set my white balance at 4760K (kelvin).  All shots were taken with this white balance.  I think I hit the sweet spot with this white balance setting because I didn’t have to make a single white balance adjustment in post processing.

In Flight
f/2.8, 1/100, 70mm, ISO 800

Also, because I wanted to get as much freeze action during this shoot I had my shutter speed set at 1/100 of a second in almost all shots.  On a couple of shots with my brighter lens I did go to 1/80, but also at times I shot at 1/125.  I did set my exposure compensation at +0.7EV on all shots.  This allowed me to brighten the photos a bit.  Also, what is a bit unusual for me, I shot at center weighted metering.  Normally, I shoot matrix metering, but tonight I wanted to meter off my subject knowing there was going to be lots of dark negative space.  I didn’t want to blow out (over-expose) my subjects of focus.  Finally, I set my ISO last.  I started off setting my camera at ISO 2500, but found with the mentioned settings, the distance from the action, the quality of the lighting I was able to quickly move to ISO 1600 for most shots, and believe it or not with my f/1.4 & f/1.8 lens I was able to get to ISO 800.  I have shot LOTS of low light images before, and I have never been able to hit 1/100 of a second with ISO 800.  This says quite a bit for the quality of the light.

Finally, I shot most of my photos with my AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens (I think I’ve told you before this lens is UBER), but I also used my AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G prime (also UBER), and my AF-S Nikkor35mm f/1.8G prime (oh yes, UBER as well).  I found the 35mm was more useful focal length than my 50mm for this shoot since I wanted to get a bit wider angle and I was shooting with a DX sensor.

Silhouette on Orange
f/3.2, 1/100, 70mm, ISO 2000

Leaping Blue
f/2.5, 1/125, 50mm, ISO 1000

With these settings I was set up about 20 feet from the stage but eye level with the dancers.  On stage the dancers were probably no less than 30 feet away.  All shots were hand held, and I spent most of the night either focusing on the entire stage or following and panning on a specific dancer.  I also wanted to capture images of dancers at the top of their leaps.  I ended up taking about 1,600 images over approximately 2 hours.  All images were processed in Adobe Lightroom 3.5 and a few had additional processing in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended.

Bottomline, I really enjoyed myself and have lots of images that I will share with the GHDT.