A Picture I took 2016

Congrats on your second! And thanks for the compliments.

Why do all hospitals have the same lame pale green furniture? ;)

I always find your pics of your first very good, and its been fun watching him grow into toddlerhood, and now big brotherhood, on these pages. So I find it interesting your shying away from people photos given your talent. With that said, however, being an engineer I can relate to the lack of people skills. ;)

The biggest problem with my focus was the use of zonal focus rather than spot. I was using my 24-105 F4L, so the dof wasn't REALLY short, but it was short enough to not handle the poor technique of the operator. :) I hadn't used the 70D for portraits yet, so now I know.

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I like your work with dancers. Just curious Anh, paid work or are you just finding people that need dance photography?

I'm trying to build the dance section of my business, but it's hard to get awesome people without paying them and of course it's nearly impossible to get them to pay you without a dance portfolio. I can tell the caliber of your model by her fitness level. She's clearly a professional (whether successful career wise in dance is another story).
Location wise, I'm in a good place, since really the only focus on dance in the US is all LA/NY. Probably more NYC than LA, but I probably have access to the second largest competitive ballet dance market here.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
I like your work with dancers. Just curious Anh, paid work or are you just finding people that need dance photography?

I'm trying to build the dance section of my business, but it's hard to get awesome people without paying them and of course it's nearly impossible to get them to pay you without a dance portfolio. I can tell the caliber of your model by her fitness level. She's clearly a professional (whether successful career wise in dance is another story).
Location wise, I'm in a good place, since really the only focus on dance in the US is all LA/NY. Probably more NYC than LA, but I probably have access to the second largest competitive ballet dance market here.
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Actually I paid the ballerina. I've wanted to photograph dancers after seeing the NY Dance Project. As an amateur photographer with no dance photography portfolio (or even a good portfolio in general lol), it was tough to get the good ones interested. I looked around for local ballerina that do modeling, and came across her profile on MM. This ballerina is very experience, had been top soloist when she was with a dance company, but now do mostly modeling instead. Being new to the genre, I thought it was better to work with a more experience dancer to learn the right poses, what looks good not only photography standpoint but from a dance/ballet point of view. I was pretty nervous since I'm pretty inexperience with lighting setup, and working with movement. It was great that she was very good, 80% of the shots were great poses and usable, which I cannot say for most of my work T_T. I'm glad that the experiment with lighting also turned out well. :)

I remember listening to a podcast about dance photography. The photographer said that the main source of money is from the students that applying to dance school or company, (i.e not the best one to work with). And the ones you want to photograph, want you to pay them.

I think with your experience and awesome portfolio (even if not many dance images), local dance studio would be interested if you would do a TFP. :)



JStamsekPhoto said:
Very impressive Anh!
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Thanks James :)
 
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Anh N. said:
Actually I paid the ballerina. I've wanted to photograph dancers after seeing the NY Dance Project. As an amateur photographer with no dance photography portfolio (or even a good portfolio in general lol), it was tough to get the good ones interested. I looked around for local ballerina that do modeling, and came across her profile on MM. This ballerina is very experience, had been top soloist when she was with a dance company, but now do mostly modeling instead. Being new to the genre, I thought it was better to work with a more experience dancer to learn the right poses, what looks good not only photography standpoint but from a dance/ballet point of view. I was pretty nervous since I'm pretty inexperience with lighting setup, and working with movement. It was great that she was very good, 80% of the shots were great poses and usable, which I cannot say for most of my work T_T. I'm glad that the experiment with lighting also turned out well. :)

I remember listening to a podcast about dance photography. The photographer said that the main source of money is from the students that applying to dance school or company, (i.e not the best one to work with). And the ones you want to photograph, want you to pay them.

I think with your experience and awesome portfolio (even if not many dance images), local dance studio would be interested if you would do a TFP. :)
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Some notes:

First up Anh, don't sell yourself short. I think your work is great. Change your mindset. Believe in yourself and what you do. It starts there. If you can do that, you'll realize you have way less limitations then you thought you did. It's not arrogance. Or being puffed up. Or having an ego. Or saying you're the best. None of those things. Just simply believe you're good at what you do. It will change your perception, and as cliche as it might sound: that perception of yourself will change your reality and what you "think" you are capable of, and therefore what you actually "are" capable of.


Second, in certain aspects dance photography, especially ballet, is VERY simple. For the reasons you note. Even with a less experienced client.
Ballet is completely designed. It's literally all about form and technique. Because of that, and because it is a visual art form (dance), it is inherently aesthetic. By simply doing the forms of ballet, it will produce a beautiful result.

You'll never take a bad shot of an arabesque or grand jeté (of course provided that your client has advanced training). Even from any angle (Heck experimenting with uncommon angles might be half the fun). It's like photographing a sculpture (which is another 3d thing that from it's design is supposed to be pleasing if viewed from any angle).

Therefore shooting ballet is easy in a lot of ways. You just have to learn some of the language. Know how to build report (like you would with any subject). And allow the dancer (which is really a type of performer) *ahem* perform.

You're off to a great start I would say. Continue! Be encouraged.


Finally: I think the market is much bigger than that podcast suggests. With the caveat that you have to live in a city that has enough work to support multiple dance companies. I think it's probably WAY easier to start a dance photography studio in Europe (especially eastern Europe), than anywhere in North America. There are just so many companies and professional dancers you trip over them. Conversely, it would be hard if you were some place rural.

And naturally a big component is your prestige in the market place and if you're viewed as being that premium photographer. I think my dance photographer idol: Vadim Stein, has no problem getting high end clients. https://500px.com/stein He's in Russia. I hope he never comes to the US, I cry at his awesome techniques.
There are a few other ones that are NYC based that also I think are working with the best of the best that I follow on Instagram.
The market is definitely there. It's just you have to have the career, positioning, and leverage to support it. But that is ALWAYS the case no matter what career or job you're pursuing.
 
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Quartz-1 said:
The way the dancer's skirt appears to be caught on her knee spoils this photo for me. It screams out, "This is not a crotch shot; I repeat, this is not a crotch shot." The white patch in her armpit doesn't help either.
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Good point. Especially the light patch on the armpit. I missed that completely for some reason.
 
I've worked with a computerized mount a bit this year, and had some time to throw my DSLR on top of it. Ambient lighting was not good with nearby lights. Just a stack of a few 300mm f/4 mid to high ISO 30 second exposures of M31, Andromeda Galaxy.

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michalrz said:
Hey man, nice picture. Did you have to attach a filter or something to have the rainbow show up so well? Is this a CMOS or a CCD sensor you got rockin'?
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For this photo, I was literally driving along the freeway in the middle of the desert and the rainbow appeared that strong.
No filter was used. Just a Canon 6D and the 24-105L lens. Minor editing in Lightroom.
 
Nice. I've wanted to do Zabrinskie Point for some time now. That and Badwater Basin. Thanks for the reminder. Now is probably a good time to go.
 
UnknownSouljer said:
Nice. I've wanted to do Zabrinskie Point for some time now. That and Badwater Basin. Thanks for the reminder. Now is probably a good time to go.
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Absolutely, it's a great time to visit, altho temp can drop down in the 20s at night. Can also do some nightscape too. The moon didn't rise when I was there until after 9pm, so have about 3 to 4 hours of total darkness to see the Milky Way.

I stayed in Beatty, NV for much cheaper acoomodation and drove 30 min to the park.


Light on Zabriskie Point by Anh Nguyen, on Flickr
 
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