Time Flies
Pop Music
Black Lights
Taking photographs of dance recitals is a lot of fun but very challenging. The room is dark and the spotlights onstage tend to blow out facial features and cause harsh shadows. I try to get as close as I can to the side of the stage where the person I am photographing is performing. I find using shutter priority mode the most convenient because I want to control how I “freeze” the action.
These photos are from Courtney’s recent recital. The first photos two are of Courtney’s two dance numbers. The third was another dance group but I liked the results. They were dancing under black lights, so I slowed down the shutter speed to show a sense of motion.
I tried both lenses and found I liked the results from my longer zoom lens a little better, although using that lens I couldn’t get a wide shot of the whole stage without moving way back in the auditorium and doing so reduced the amount of light I had to work with. I used auto-ISO to see how well it worked. It was pretty much pegged at 1600 or 3200 the whole time so I don’t think the auto mode helped a lot in this case. I took a couple hundred photos over the evening in hopes I would capture a few good frames. I still need lots of practice, but the results were better than they would have been using my old point-and-shoot.
In the future I’d like to try a normal lens with a larger aperture to see how it affects the results.
Courtney received an award for being a part of Leapin’ Lizards for 5 years. It has been fun to watch her gain self-confidence over those years.