I take during our visit to Marriott Playa Andaluza resort in Estepona Spain. I got lucky when they move the show outside to the restaurant terrace which has much better light and space than inside the restaurant. The show starts @ 8:30P while there is still plenty of ambient light ( sunset in July is closer to 10PM out here ). This allows me to shoot without a flash and work in continuous mode to grab some nice shots. Of course I'm working ISO 400 at 1 /50th sec which means I usually do not grab crystal clear shots, but that was the trade-off for getting dynamic imagery.
They move out some tables and lay a dance floor which sits astride a wind break canvas which frames a nice BG behind the dancers. Tables surround the dance floor and I'm kneeling on the floor at the front edge grabbing these shots.
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As the performance goes on, the light subtly diminishes & I'm working 1/30th to 1/40th as I'm working aperture mode trying to hold on to a little DOF in the moving shots. I discover that I catch a lot of stop shots with motion in them which is quite pleasing.
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I shoot two shows during the two weeks we are there. I learn from my mistakes the first week & figure out the better place to shoot from. I really love my Canon G-11 as I could tweak the EV to try to get better skin tones in the fading light while working via the LCD viewer to react to the dancer's moves and position. That backdrop was very photogenic as I try to frame shots, hold the camera steady. watch the performance ( it was electrifying ) and keep my leg from falling asleep beneath me.
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I shoot this image the first week from a different perspective. The images in this set has a very warm color cast to them & I correct this in Photoshop using a blue filter & doing a hue adjustment on the skin tones and desaturating the BG. Some of the images fro this shot require working with selections and tweaking levels -- much more work than I usually do with Photoshop, but still very satisfying as each work session with Photoshop adds to your insight and skill set as you address new problems/issues.
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One final image just as it came out of the camera with only some cropping. I could tell that the dancers were curious about me as they were the same dancers both weeks ( using different costumes ) and they were trying to figure me out as I'm holding the camera at floor level shooting up and moving the camera to different POVs. I'm about 18 inches from the guy's foot here. Both they and I had a good time. When they get to the end of the show, they always pull a few folks out of the audiance to dance ( usually badly, which I'm very qualified at ). The gal was motioning to me at the end, but when I try to stand up, I almost topple over as my leg is now asleep. I hobble back to our table and order another glass of wine to heel my leg.
belt on! She could have been hurt if the ride got bouncy. But glad you made it OK.
