SUNDAY SCHOOL

Two hours taking photographs followed by a good three hours post-editing on a Sunday afternoon is by my reckoning time well spent.

I love working at weekends for there are no deadlines, no having to rush off to the next job. I can take my time, put everything into the pictures and most important of all I get to meet the most wonderful people.

I like to think that my work is instantly recognisable as being mine, be it a cheque presentation or in this case a dance rehearsal.

As always preparation is everything, batteries are charged in advance and lenses cleaned. Always check lenses for fingerprints smears, it will save a lot of time in the long run as I learned to my cost many years ago. Though it was a lot harder to rectify mistakes in the romantic days of a darkroom, TRI-X, black and white prints, multi-grade paper and retouching brushes. I once spent almost a day retouching or spotting 200 7x5 b/w prints of a young lady because their had been a hair on the lens.

The older readers of this will be salivating at the thought of those bygone days.

The shoot was at the Octagon Theatre for a dress rehearsal of Helen Laxton’s forthcoming show Everybody Dance 2013, a celebration of dance styles interpreted by over 200 young dancers.

There was no time to settle, just enough to set the white balance and ensure I had the optimum enough shutter speed set to capture the intense dancing I was to witness.

The trick is to not get riveted to one spot, move around the auditorium, use wide lenses ensuring full coverage of the stage and long lenses to home in on individuals. I always come away exhausted from these shoots and am sure I have walked further then they have.

It is important to finish the shoot with a variety of compositions not hundreds of the same view. You do want to be thinking, oh I had done this or that.

Look all around the stage not just at the dancer in front of you, look beyond them, keep an eye on the wings for people peeking on the stage. But most of all I find that you should try pre-empt movement not wait for it to happen else you will inevitably find –as with sport- you have missed it.

I like to think that my photographs work not because of the people in them but for the use of colour, strong shapes and most importantly natural looking lighting. This is not always the case but it’s not for want of trying.