GBSEx III

I spent the weekend in Manchester at the third annual Great British Salsa Experience Congress. This is by far the UK's best salsa weekender and an opportunity to catch up with friends from all over the country as well as overseas.

This was also a very important event for Dos-Seis Dance Company who were able to showcase their current routine to an international audience for the first time. I captured the girls preparing for their congress début in Manchester Town Hall and converted the images to black and white in Lightroom.

Dos-Seis Dance Company

My friend manages a dance group and asked me to take some publicity shots of them last Saturday. Their début performance is this Sunday and the images have been posted on Facebook, included in a promotional video and will be uploaded to their website.

I bought a background support and some black muslin recently. I have played with this set up at home, but this was my first opportunity to use it with live models. We were in a large studio as the group had planned to rehearse after the photoshoot so there was plenty of room and plenty of light. I used a couple of the studio's built-in spotlights as continuous light sources rather than use my speedlights.

What have I learned?

These dancers all had poses worked out in advance and in view of the purpose of the photographs, they are highly stylised. However, I still think their individual personalities shine through.

I had to darken the background in Photoshop so, in future I need to try and underexpose the background at the time of capture. In some instances, a bit of back/rim lighting would have been useful to lift the subjects from the background.

Bachata Masterclass

This is a style of dance originating from the Domican Republic and is very popular in the salsa community.
The masterclass was held on Monday in a pub in Chingford from 9:30pm until about 11:00 and was hosted by Marosh and Kristina.

I'm very pleased with these images as I managed (after a little trial and error!) to retain the ambient light and light the subjects evenly. In most of these, I bounced the flash over my shoulder.

T-Mobile Big Dance 2010

This is a biennial event and is "the world’s biggest and most influential dance initiative". It took place on Sunday in Trafalgar Square. A friend of mine was taking part so I went along to get some pictures.
I'm only posting a few images at this time because I plan to use them for the narrative picture essay in the final part of the course.

Mojito Free Sunday Salsa

This is a monthly event that a friend of mine hosts in Chingford. It's very popular and she often has a guest performer. On this ocassion it was Marosh and Kristina.

I'm pleased with all except the second and fourth images because you can see the effect of the flash on the wall, but I'm much more confident using the bounced flash technique.

Using Your Speed Light Flash

I did a workshop today with Studio Time Photography to help me get to grips with my Nikon Speedlight.

On Sunday, I took some pictures at a monthly salsa event for which I am the 'official' photographer. I kept the flash on the camera in TTL mode, and tried to bounce the light from walls, ceilings and pillars. I also used my ABBC All Black Eye Shield.

In this shot the subjects are back-lit, so I aimed the flash at them, tilted towards the ceiling, but shielded them from any direct light. I was very pleased with the lighting in this because there is no obvious use of flash. I've boosted the contrast to make the contrasting colours pop, but no other adjustments were necessary.

These dancers were side-lit (from the right) and I managed to successfully bounce the flash off a pillar behind my left shoulder to fill in the shadows. This is a shot I would have previously missed, but since I attached a 'quick recycling battery pack' to my flashgun, I was able to use my camera in continuous shooting mode to capture key elements of this high energy dance routine.

In this shot the subjects were front-lit by large patio doors behind me, and I added some fill light by bouncing the flash from my left. The use of flash is obvious and there is a dramatic fall off of light in the background. These are things I need to work on.

What have I learned?

On Sunday, I did see an overall improvement in the softness and distribution of the light, but was not able to get consistent results.

Today's workshop has helped me to better understand TTL mode (I'm not going to worry about the other modes for the moment) and see how to get 'studio quality' images using just one Speedlight. I just need to keep things simple!

Salsa Masterclass

On Monday evening I went to a spinning masterclass. I have done spinning classes/courses before so I thought I'd concentrate on trying to get some good pictures instead. I took my tripod because I wanted to show motion rather than freeze the action.

I'm pleased with the results (after a little trial and error). There is the suggestion of movement but the participants are still identifiable.

In this image, I particularly like the contrast between the teacher and the participants. In both images, the shutter speed was slow enough to provide sufficient ambient light to illuminate the background.

Exercise: A sequence of composition

Brief:
For this exercise, you will need a situation that involves people. Use the camera as a viewer and keep it to your eye. Take pictures as you go along and see how the sequence progresses.

'Mojito Sunday Salsa'  is a monthly event hosted by a friend and I regularly take pictures for the group which is on Facebook. On this occasion, I took the opportunity to complete the exercise.

The event runs from 1pm 'til 5pm and these first shots were taken at 1:15 when the room was being set up and sound checks were done:

People start to arrive and the dancing begins:

There were 2 shows:

After the shows, the dancefloor started to fill, and then it was just a question of walking around and trying to get shots of dancers without getting in anybody's way:

I used a focal length of 135mm to get candid shots of people relaxing at the bar:

I then decided to try pick out some of the smaller details:

This is a group dance called 'La Rueda'. I held the camera above my head and by a process of trial and error, was able to get a couple of useful shots:

Shots of people bidding each other farewell and departing at the end of the event:

What have I learned?

A completely different approach - recording events as they unfold rather than just looking for interesting shots.