Transitions
Time to take stock, and to set some goals going forward.
Looking back, 2021 was a year of healing and emergence, in fits and starts, from the COVID isolation. I started the year recovering from rotator cuff surgery. It wasn’t long before dancing resumed at Cinema Ballroom, gradually moving from no-touch practice and group classes to partner dancing. As my shoulder healed, I was gradually able to heft a camera and to maintain a decent dance frame. (Not at the same time.) I entered some DanceSport competitions and in June began offering my photographic services at several competitions. In May, I took a part-time job selling camera equipment at the National Camera Exchange in Golden Valley, Minnesota. And in late summer, I began teaching jujutsu one day a week at Shinzen Kai dojo. As the year drew to a close I got some headshot, portrait, senior photo, quinceañera and live performance clients. I edited some wedding photos, taken by another photographer, at the request of a friend. She said her daughter, the bride, cried with joy, saying I had saved her wedding photos so that she could now share them. Now, I am lining up a couple of studio dance shots for personal projects.
In short, my three passions — dance, photography and martial arts — have emerged from their COVID-enforced meditation period and are stretching toward 2022.
Looking forward, I plan to begin the year by performing at a dance competition in Bloomington, Minnesota. Then I head to Colorado to catch up with a friend I haven’t seen since 1982. In February, I will travel to Austin, Texas for the Pas de Deux symposium on dance photography. It features some of the best dance photographers in the country. I hope to shoot some ballroom competitions and other live performances throughout the year, and I’m eager to do more studio and location portraits.
I want to briefly talk about my last two photo shoots. I had the good fortune to photograph three generations of a family in a studio session. It presented some challenges, as two of the subjects are disabled, and we had to shoot in an unfamiliar studio. Even so, I think it was successful. I captured the deep, abiding love in this family amid the occasional chaotic interactions.
In the second session, I photographed a couple in their beautiful custom home. I was particularly nervous about this session because I admire both of them and wanted to do them justice. I brought a ton of equipment and used nearly all of it. The location presented some challenges. I wanted to show the couple next to a bank of windows overlooking their yard, but it was especially difficult to get the lighting correct without the lights reflecting in the shot. I remembered photographer Daniel Norton saying in his YouTube training videos that the “angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection,” and with some juggling, I was able to get some satisfying images. I am grateful for the trust put in me by those who hired me for their family portraits. they risked their egos, money and time to do so.
This will be my last blog entry for 2021. I wish you all a prosperous, healthy and joyous new year!
