Dance Photography the Hard Way

Marlee dancing. Fuji X-T20, 75-150 f4 Olympus lens with adapter.

 

My granddaughter Marlee has been dancing since she was six, if I'm counting right. She's now 17. I first photographed one of her dance recitals in 2011 and have brought my camera to her performances as often as possible ever since. Since 2017 I've been using the Fuji XC 50-230mm 4.5-6.7 lens, which, although slow, has excellent autofocus and image stabilization. My Fuji X-T20 (a very underrated little camera) and X-H1 do just fine at ISO 6400, so I've been able to make pictures that please Marlee and me, not to mention her mother and grandmother.

Unfortunately, the X-H1 with the 50-230 lens attached recently fell from a chair onto a carpeted floor. The camera suffered no damage, but the flanges of the plastic lens mount broke. I had intended to send it to Fuji for repair, but the realities of a full-time RV traveler's life made that a somewhat complicated option. Meanwhile, Marlee had another dance performance coming up on May 7th.

Renting a lens was not a good option either, also because of our traveling lifestyle. Nor was finding one to borrow. That left me with one possibility: the 75-150 f4 lens for my Olympus OM2n film cameras. Fortunately, I had an adapter to mount the lens on my Fuji bodies. The 75-150 zoom gave an equivalent range of about 112 to 225mm on the Fuji crop-frame bodies, but with manual focus only, no auto-exposure, and no image stabilization.

The stage was dark, with a black background and spotlights on the dancers -- difficult shooting conditions at best. With the lens wide open at f4, I used the focus magnifier to focus on the dancers at what I thought would be an average distance. Because of the black stage and background, I set two stops of minus exposure compensation, prayed, and made a lot of exposures -- your basic pray-and-spray. Not many were acceptably sharp, but a few were. I liked this one best.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My most recent book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is a 304-page soft-cover with more than 200 color photographs. Published by Countryman Press, it is priced at $22.95. Signed and inscribed copies are available directly from me at (423) 240-2324 or djphoto@vol.com.

Sunrise at Tybee Island

The sun rises over a deserted beach at Georgia's Tybee Island.

Louise and I have been to Tybee Island many times through the years, so I'm not sure when this photograph was made. But it was shot on film, which means it was before 2003, the year I made the big (and not entirely happy) switch to digital. (More about that some other time.)

We like the Savannah area in general, and especially like the seafood. I first had low country shrimp boil in Savannah, and my life has never been the same since. The Crab Shack, just off U.S. 80 as you enter Tybee Island has been voted Savannah's best seafood since 1998. The super-casual atmosphere might make you think you’ve stumbled upon a pirates’ hangout, but the food and service are worth walking the plank for. If you’ve never had their low-country shrimp boil, you are going to hate yourself for all the years you’ve wasted.

                          Outdoor dining at the Crab Shack, Tybee Island.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My most recent book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is a 304-page soft-cover with more than 200 color photographs. Published by Countryman Press, it is priced at $22.95. Signed and inscribed copies are available directly from me at (423) 240-2324 or djphoto@vol.com.

Roses in Snow

Louise's roses in snow. Hasselblad camera, Ektachrome film.

Louise loves flowers and plants of all kinds. Before we moved to our farm in McLemore Cove we lived in a subdivision where she managed to find space in the back yard for a garden. It was only about 15 by 15 feet, but was so productive that my dad called it "Louise's mini-farm!"

Even now, when our home is an RV, she manages to keep some small plants in pots. They go wherever we go.

She also has an uncanny ability to keep cut flowers alive in vases far longer than would seem possible.I say uncanny, but it may be that she just has learned some of the techniques florists use. But it seems uncanny to me.

Back in our subdivision days. I had given Louise some roses for her birthday, which is on March 8. It was early April when she finally decided they had exceeded their shelf life and put them on a table on the deck, probably intending to dry them and make potpourri of the petals. (She also doesn't like things to go to waste.) However, an unseasonably late snow dropped a few inches on the roses in the middle of the day and quickly melted away.

But not before I made a photograph of roses in snow. (Hasselblad camera and Kodak Ektachrome 64 film.)

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My most recent book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is a 304-page soft-cover with more than 200 color photographs. Published by Countryman Press, it is priced at $22.95. Signed and inscribed copies are available directly from me at (423) 240-2324 or djphoto@vol.com. 

Three Barns at Sunrise; McLemore Cove

Three barns in McLemore Cove

 

These three barns and a shed sat in a field on GA Highway 193 just north of the intersection with West Cove Road in north Georgia's McLemore Cove. The long ridge of Lookout Mountain is in the background. Sadly, all are gone now, victims of neglect. The white barn on the left is the same one pictured in the April 27th post.

A barn may last for a hundred years or more if the roof is kept intact. But if a leak starts and isn't fixed promptly, the wood under it begins to rot. If the roofing is nailed back down, but is nailed to rotten wood, the nail won't hold. Soon, entire sheets of roofing are blown away and the decay accelerates.

This photo was made about 35 years ago. Now all the barns are gone.

Traveling note: Tomorrow we are leaving Florida and heading north to Chattanooga for a few days, then on to Knoxville.

Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo

For the glory of God alone

My most recent book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia, is a 304-page soft-cover with more than 200 color photographs. Published by Countryman Press, it is priced at $22.95. Signed and inscribed copies are available directly from me at (423) 240-2324 or djphoto@vol.com.