On a cold and blustery Saturday, a very brave Rowena was an amazing model for an outdoor dance-themed shoot.
Rolleiflex E3, 75mm/3.5 Xenotar lens
Kodak Ektar 100 film, negative scanned
and edited with Lightroom and Nik Efex
Tag: Dance
The Toughest Audience
It has been said by many performers that children are the toughest audience you can have: it is hard to get their attention and even harder to keep it. Last night Janice and I attended the 2014 Toronto edition of Dusk Dances, an outdoor dance festival. Many children were in attendance, and one particular performance (involving synchronized swimming in inflatable wading pools!) really grabbed and kept their attention, as shown in their faces below.
Nikon D7100, 18-200mm Nikkor lens
Post work in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2
Flashback Friday: The Dancer
I’ve decided to do the occasional Flashback Friday, using images I’ve created sometime in the past but didn’t post at the time. This film image (taken at a dance rehearsal with I think a Nikon N90x 35mm SLR) has a number of technical challenges, but I do like the lines and light.
A Lighting Lesson
Here is another image from the workshop yesterday. I found this workshop great, as I learned that this kind of lighting is not as hard as I thought: one one side, a beauty dish with honeycomb grid, on the other side, a strip light, also with a grid to control the path of the light. I will be exploring this technique more in the future!
I should also mention the model Kaitlin’s skill as a dancer: her poise and grace came through in every image. 🙂
Let Me Never Be Confounded
In the spirit of refusing to allow depression to be a stigma, this is going to be a fairly open post (and long).
As I have alluded to on Facebook and twitter recently, I am in the midst of withdrawal symptoms from the anti-depressant drug Effexor. This drug was prescribed for me in what I now see to be a quite offhand manner by my former doctor a number of years ago. It was a mistake then, and it is a mistake now. At best, this drug is emotional Novocain; it creates a numbness which can allow one to function, in a distant and disconnected manner.
Withdrawal, even after tapering down the dosage, can be hellish. In addition to the physical symptoms of almost constant dizziness, the emotional side affects, are, well, let’s just say to I don’t have to go to Canada’s Wonderland to ride a roller coaster right now. What I have noticed though is that over the last couple of days when I am busy doing photography the emotional side effects of the withdrawal are kept in check. This afternoon I was at a photography workshop (shooting dance in a studio setting), and despite having had an extremely rough morning emotionally, with the camera in my hand, I felt OK, maybe even better than OK. The camera was a better therapy than any drug.
Also, this past Friday night I was part of the choir singing at a fundraiser concert at St. Thomas’s church, to support our choir tour in England this summer. While I no longer call myself religious in a conventional sense, in a similar sense, performing the music was transcendent, and I am thinking in particular of the final piece of the program, Herbert Howell’s Te Deum. Howell himself in many ways was a tragic figure, who faced many personal difficulties in his life, but the beauty and power of his music allowed him to rise above his pain. The last phrase of his Te Deum is “Let me never be confounded.” Partially a prayer, but in this setting of the words, joyous and triumphant. While I am singing, making photographs, writing, acting or any other creative endeavour, for that moment at least I am in a place where nothing else seems to matter.
Creativity is the most powerful weapon I have.
I refuse to let this current challenge beat me.
I will never be confounded.
Connection
Today’s image is another one from the High Park shoot with Dani, as she does a dancer’s stretch in High Park. Dancing (speaking as someone who is all too aware of his woeful ability or lack thereof in this area) is a discipline which requires tremendous focus and self-awareness. Also, I see a lot of dance photography where the dancer seems unaware of the camera, and I think the two are related: the dancer is not directly connecting with the camera or viewer, as she is consumed by the demands of her art. I really like this image because Dani is making a direct connection with the viewer, while practicing her art.
(Mamiya 645 Pro TL, 80mm f2.8 lens, Tri-X @ E.I. 800, developed in Diafine 3+3)
Time Warp Tuesday: The Dancers
I am reinterpreting Time Warp Tuesday again, by not posting an old image, but rather trying to go for a timeless feel. This image was taken at the Ballet dress rehearsal I mentioned in my previous post. By using black and white analog film I feel I was able to capture the timeless nature of the ballet; an artistic discipline that on one had is very proscribed and restricted, but on the other still manages to allow talented dancers to create something special within its confines. A ballet could be a hundred years old, but I don’t think I could ever use the term “period piece” to describe it.
By not trying to be “the new thing” art can liberate itself from the timeline.
My Third Eye 