Dance photos

In an effort to make money as a photographer, I proposed to colleague Sandy Viola that we shoot portraits and group shots of the dancers at Taps N Toes where my niece's dance. It sounded like it would be an enormous task but probably quite lucrative. I got us the "go ahead" from the owner and took the day off from the full-time job in order to clean lenses, format memory cards,  charge batteries and pack the car up. I was excited to see how Sandy set up her lights and worked with the children. While the experience turned out to be a lot more chaotic than I'd anticipated and much less lucrative given that the dancers had to constantly change costumes and had little to no time for posing for a camera,  I still did gain insight into being a better photographer from working with Sandy. She gets down with the kids and convinces them to act silly and have fun with posing. She likes knowing what to expect from her light. She reminded me not to cut off the feet (a disaster considering we were shooting ballerinas). My task was to try and get the group shots which wasn't easy since many of the kids had to prepare for another dance number or two and many of them wanted to watch their friends perform, so they disappeared into the auditorium. In the long run I got SOME of the groups, not all and Sandy did a wonderful job capturing about 20 lovely dancers - a small percentage of the girls that were there. Perhaps some more will realize the lost opportunity and make their way to her studio. It was a learning experience for me. Should we do it again? Only if we can figure out how to control the situation better (or if our reputation gets out and they are actually looking forwrd to the experience).  As for me, I playd with my niece's images today:

I can still have fun with my photography even if I can't get rich on it!

Happy shooting, friends!