Honored to announce a teaching collaboration with Rich Harrington and the Think Tap Learn group. We have teamed up to produce a series of teaching videos–a five day assignment, parsed into five teaching videos. The idea was pretty straightforward–create the exact kind of assignment I’ve been doing my whole career–an interrelated set of portraits that has a unifying theme. In this case, working in the government driven environs of Washington DC, we set out to find folks who do, well, something different for a living. They are not bureaucrats, or government officials, and they certainly don’t go to an office on the hill everyday. They are free spirits, responding to their creative juices, and making a life out of their art, be it belly dancing, burlesque, fire eating (yikes!) as an example.
Cindy Marie Martin does belly dancing, among other entertaining and creative endeavors. A lovely lady, she embraced the art of belly dancing as a way of staying in shape, and it grew from there to become part of her entertainment repertoire. The essence of belly dancing is fluidity and movement, and that was what I keyed on photographically, right from the start. This will be the first video in the series. I blacked out the dance studio, used a mix of flash and hot lights, as well as strategically placed bicycle lights, to create a flow to the picture.
It was a complete day in the field, on video, from the time we unloaded the truck to the small amount of post-processing done to the selects. Here’s a sample clip from the day’s adventures:
Heading to Photo Plus Expo at the Javits for the next couple days, and I’ll be popping in and out of the Photofocus booth (Booth #869) Friday and Saturday. Drop by for more info, and a show special discount.
More tk…..
Jorge Alcocer says
October 19, 2016 at 2:40 pmGreat images Joe, she looks splendid!
Rudi says
October 20, 2016 at 6:13 amBeautiful work as always Joe! One question: “I religiously use back curtain synch but in this session I use front curtain sync.” Why do you used front curtain sync in this session and not back curtain sync? My first thought was back curtain when I saw the image.
Joe McNally says
October 20, 2016 at 7:52 amHi Rudi….what I found and I elaborate on in the video is that the delay during the shutter open period to when the flash went off was significant, relative to the movement of the veil. So, I switched to front curtain. That way I know the flash is hitting and freezing the veil right where I see it through the lens.
Iden Ford says
October 20, 2016 at 11:33 amwonderful photos and amazing capture of the motion, love the control of light with the egg crate….what’s the fill? or just one light…bicycle lights???? holy smackers I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Joe McNally says
October 21, 2016 at 7:47 amHey Iden…many thanks back to you! There’s no fill. Just the softbox. Tried to not spread too much light around. Hope you are well!
Rudi says
October 24, 2016 at 7:42 amThank you Joe for the explanation. Now I recognize it in the video. Time between click and the flash go off. I guess the hot lights are going on and off manually 😉 I always like to understand how to do but most important is just to see your wonderful images. Always magic lighting.
J says
November 1, 2016 at 6:31 pmWhat softbox are you using? Always love your work Joe Mcnally 🙂
Joe McNally says
November 3, 2016 at 9:35 amThe main softbox for the dancer is a Lastolite large Octa. It is designed to fit two speedlights into it. Heres a link! http://www.adorama.com/lsls2721.html
Jessa T. says
January 16, 2017 at 2:21 pmGood job joe! This photos are fantastic! The control of the lights are amazing, it adds beauty to the picture. The lights made the photo more appealing and artistic in a way people would love to look at these photos. Thank you for exaplaing and educating people about this in the video. Kuddos and Hoping to hear more from you.