A Dancer in the Park
My first time photographing a dancer
I recently reached out to a local Nashville dancer, Lizzie, who is also a choreographer and dance instructor here in town. I expressed interest in photographing her and capturing some beautiful poses in Centennial Park in Nashville near the Parthenon, which she responded with excitement to collaborate on this with me.
Being my first time capturing a dancer in motion, the learning curve was steep, yet we found our groove quickly and created a ton of beautiful content. I decided during post processing to crest a few copies and convert those copies to black and white to add a minimalist artistic touch to the content. Many have stated that they actually prefer the color original over the black and white, but each to their own and how they view the art we created.
I captured these images using my Sony A7RII camera, with the 85mm 1.4 GM lens, which always my main setup, that lens creates such beautiful bokeh, as you can see the separation between the subject and the background is perfectly smooth! For lighting I was using my single light setup, a Godox AD200 in a Godox 32”in. softbox octagon umbrella and my Godox Pro trigger for remote control over the battery powered strobe. This setup is perfect for all types of portraiture work and I highly recommend it for all photographers! It’s a mobile and light setup that is ready in less than 3 minutes and breaks down just as easily for transport! I have taken the time to put together a list of equipment I use if you would like to purchase this equipment yourself, by following this Amazon link below.
During the session we had minimal interruptions from people passing thru, including a young man who also studies dance and wanted to jump in for a moment and get a jumping photo too, lol. I obliged and provided the edit to him for free just for "jumping" in like that! (See below for his photo)
I am always eager to meet new people as that is just part of who I am, I enjoy the smiles and connections that we make and I seriously miss that on a larger scale during this pandemic. I long for a day when we can all get back out and connect safely with one another without the terms "social distancing" and "mask required" being everywhere, as I am sure everyone else does.
If you are a photographer, I challenege you to get out and try something new, or put a different spin on your current type of photography, you may surprise yourself and love the results as I did here. I usually do cosplay photography, which is what my IG is mainly made up of, but I am eager to learn and challenge myself to create other types of amazing photos. I can honestly say that I am hooked by the shutterbug and addicted to photography. I have found it to be my "calm" and my place to let go of the routine stresses of the day and just get creative! If you aren't a photographer yet, I challenge you to pick up your camera phone and attempt some different view photos in different sorts of lighting and just have fun with it! You never know, you may be an amazing photographer and just haven't found it inside yet to invest the time...that was me 4 years ago before I purchased my first camera!
All in all this was such a fun session and I cannot wait until we meet again soon for an indoors studio session with brighter colors and a reflective floor where my lighting control methods will really shine! Thank you for taking the time to read my first post and I look forward to writing and sharing more here in the coming months! If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me, I am always happy to help out another photographer, doesn't matter if you're just getting started or it you've been doing it for decades, we can all learn something new and network with other photographers.
If you would like to see more of my work, you can find me on Instagram @jeffjenkinsphotography
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