Dancing and movement

Alexandra retired from professional ballet dancing when she was 40 and then went on to become a fitness instructor. Now in her mid-60s, she is still incredibly fit and lithe.

We were put in contact via a mutual friend, and at the weekend she came to this corner of Scotland to collaborate with me in a series of photos for 2 separate projects.

When hunting for a potential venue for the shoot, I came across the Dumfries School of Dance, which is based in an old school house. With high windows and a wooden floor, it had just the atmosphere I was looking for.

The outcome of these projects won't be seen for quite some time to come. In the meantime, however, we were asked if we could do a couple of photos for the Dance School itself in exchange for the use of the studio, and I can show you these.

I was specifically asked if it was possible for some slightly abstract ones of the dancer, and a black silk scarf was left with us if we wanted to use it.

I figured the best approach would be to put the camera on a tripod and take some slow shutter-speed images - between 1/3rd and 1/5th of a second. This meant there would be a lot of movement blur which, if we played it right, could create some interesting photos.

I was really quite pleased with the result.

















As always, feel free to click on the images for slightly larger versions.