2021 Summer Showcase Photographs
I know how he feels, should’ve had these done sooner – Galleries here: 2021 Summer Intensive Showcase
Cary Ballet Conservatory – 31 July 2021
When You Know
This image has been in my head since I made it.
Which was right after Gavriel Lipkind cautioned me to be careful near his cello.
He was right. My home equity line would have been woefully inadequate to pay for it’s replacement.
If you are born an artist, you are born an artist. Not so easy. But undeniable. And it nourishes, beyond food.
Nora Romanoff- Schwarzberg and Student
Side By Side, Cross Currents Chamber Music Festival
Cary Arts Center, North Carolina 7 August 2012
“U.S.”
Friday, 29 Sept 2017 – My ancient laptop, attached to the Internet with Google Voice forwarded to the land line in our Paris vacation apartment rang: “Can you shoot a a promo for 3D Jazz on Sunday? Okay, we’re flying back tomorrow, Saturday, so sure.”
Sunday, 1 Oct. 2017 – This is what Americans look like. The boys will figure it out. Eventually.
“Hush Up and Dance” – 3D Project Dance Company, Fall 2017
“Light As Air and Quick As Lightning”
Letter from Abigail Adams to her sister, Mary Smith Cranch. Paris, 20 February, 1785
“The first dance which I saw upon the Stage shoked me, the Dress’es and Beauty of the performers was enchanting, but no sooner did the Dance commence, than I felt my delicacy wounded, and I was ashamed to bee seen to look at them. Girls cloathd in the thinest Silk: and Gauze, with their peticoats short Springing two foot from the floor poising themselves in the air, with their feet flying, and as perfectly shewing their Garters and draws, as tho no peticoat had been worn, was a sight altogether new to me.”
“Their motions are as light as air and as quick as lightning. They balance themselves to astonishment. No description can equal the reality.”
“Shall I speak a Truth and say that repeatedly seeing these Dances has worn of that disgust which I first felt, and that I see them now with pleasure. … The art of dancing is carried to the highest degree of perfection that it is capable of; at the opera.”
Lighting Stand In
Setup for Dancer Photographs – Cary Ballet Conservatory Studio Recital 4 June 2021
I’d metered my lights but still needed a Stand In for a test shot.
Ended up with a Sit In but she worked with me!
Studio Dog aka “Lucy”
Dancer Headshot
I mentioned Grace Kelly and of course, she didn’t know who that was. Her Mom just smiled.
Julia Walden at Cary Ballet Conservatory 13 June 2021
High Key
He put up with me test driving home brew, hot rod lights for three hours
Willie Hinton at Cary Ballet Conservatory 13 June 2021
2021 Showcase Studio Photographs
Yep, they’re on line, T-Ball to Triple A
Galleries here: 2021 Showcase Studio Photographs
Cary Ballet Conservatory Studio Recital – 5 June 2021
Backlit II
Another photographer mistake as I ignored the limits of my lights
My bet is, she’ll forgive me
Cary Ballet Conservatory – 5 June 2021
Tough Customer
Bookings since late May (hallelujah!) have delayed the edit of these Studio Recital photographs until today.
Aiming to finish and post by late Saturday. This was the first of a long and unusual day. Which I loved.
I’m anxious to see them too and sure I better deliver – or else!
Pre-Ballet 4-6 Year Old
Cary Ballet Conservatory Studio Recital – 5 June 2021
Backlit
Sometimes, a photographer sets his main light to full power.
And knows it will take 1.7 seconds to recycle
But he gets in the moment and fires in .5 seconds. And pretends he planned it.
Cary Ballet Conservatory – 5 June 2021
Why I Know Everything Will Be Okay
Pre-Ballet 4-6 Year Old
Cary Ballet Conservatory Studio Recital – 5 June 2021
Just One More
When a Dancer asks, my answer is always, yes!
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Dancer Isabelle Burke
Cary Ballet Conservatory – 5 June 2021
Jump
Maiden voyage with converted theater light
“Chasing The Bird”
Refreshing my Portfolio site, I let go and reached back in the memory bank for moments when you just know. My hunch is, it happens to dancers and musicians too. It’s practice and planning and work and sometimes it all becomes something more. Alchemy.
I’ve put maybe 700 or 800 K shutter actuation’s on 11 DSLR’s since 2007. My Lighting Class students make jokes about all the light gear I haul into class. The Sales Manager at Mole Richardson in Hollywood emails engineering drawings of obsolete accessories. There are replacement reflectors heading my way for the ones I used to modify theater ellipsoids. Also in transit is a 10″ Top Hat from eBay and some Gobos for the Mole Focal Spot. And there’s a triple riser wheeled Junior in the upstairs hall next to my old tripod with a new quick release assembly that came via Royal Mail (wore out the casting). “The Bird”, Charley Parker understood it: “You’ve got to learn your instrument.”
And I took some more of Bird’s advice: “Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”
My work has changed in the 3 years since I made this but it was five years after my Epiphany. This is a fresh edit from the Digital Negative from the part of the session that was all improv, real jazz. Portraits are always a collaboration and when there is mutual trust, man, you can wail.
Studio Session with Ms Olivia Vessillo
Professional Training Program at Cary Ballet Conservatory – 26 Dec 2017
Stage Light #74
Cary Ballet Company Tech Rehearsal for “Don Quixote”
Online Galleries Here: Cary Ballet Company 2021 “Spring Works”
The Indulgence of a Muse – Redux
In 1979, MoMA in NYC presented “Ansel Adams and the West” [MoMA Exh. #1273, September 5–October 28, 1979]
It was a retrospective that included versions of prints he made from the same negative, over 20 years.
Like Eric Clapton sang, trying to “get the music right”
This only took me 3 years
Her patience and trust allowed the slower pace and uncertain outcome of film
I’ve been very lucky – when I needed a Muse, the Muse was there
Studio Session with Mikayla McKean – Cary Ballet Conservatory, 20 May 2018
Stage Light # 73
Online Galleries Here: Cary Ballet Company 2021 “Spring Works”
Dancer Kali Bartasavich
Photographer Pandemic Therapy #3
Sunday got busy so I watched 60 Minutes tonight. And heard a voice from long ago and one I thought impossible.
Today, I stood in the parking lot of a dance school discussing their outdoor recital and praised their endurance.
Two weeks ago, I photographed dancers in theater without audience – in masks.
And un-friended a sister-in-law who sniped about that.
A young woman who I greatly admire described her moment when she knew she was an artist
I was sixty before I had the courage
Art matters
Anthony Roth Costanzo of NC Opera with Brussels Chamber Orchestra
Cary Arts Center 10 August 2012
Cary Ballet Company “2021 Spring Works”
Online Galleries Here: Cary Ballet Company 2021 “Spring Works”
