When it comes to my photography, the questions I get asked, generally revolve around: "What camera do you have? What lens did you use? What software you use for editing?" These are all important questions I guess, but they are actually the ones I think the least about when I am getting ready for a shoot. The most important question for me however are the lights I am going to use. As you can tell by now, lights make or break an image.. One of my recent dance shot was in collaboration with Sol Dance Center for their annual "Dancesanity" show. I have been working with their amazing dancers for a good number of years - they have granted me their trust and time from the humble beginnings of my journey as a photographer. We continue working together on great projects, continuously learning and pushing our boundaries as we go along. This particular photo shoot took some months of preparation - developing the concept, the feel, the theme, casting for dancers, the outfits, the colours, etc. As for the technical lighting challenges of the shoot, I have had some fantastic help from my good friend and mentor, amazing photographer David White (you can check out his work at davidwhitestudio.com). Probably this is the point where I should say "I couldn't have done it without him" - which is probably very true. He will say otherwise, but you will have to trust me on this one, :) Generally I like to keep my lighting very simple - for the simple reason - a lot of the times I work without an assistant. I always think being on set with the client only - somehow gives me a better opportunity to build a closer personal relationship allowing me to take some amazing portraits, that I would probably miss to take if a lot of people were around us. Anyways, that's just me, might be wrong about it, and this approach certainly doesn't apply to bigger projects like this one.
So without further ado, the gear used for these shots are: Nikon D4, Nikon 24-70mm lens, 2x Elinchrom lights (for main and fill light), software: Capture One and Photoshop. Next time I post, will make sure to include some behind the scene images and videos.
Dancer: Kiri Chapman
Dancer: Cristina Michalski
Dancer: Jani Joel - Karppi