Dallas – Fort Worth  Ballet and Dance Photography with Alizah Wilson.

Alizah’s studio dance photoshoot was great. We created several unique images and some of my favorite pictures I’ve ever created. I met Alizah through Kaley Jensen. Remember her? If you haven’t read my blog about her ballet dance photoshoot, you can do so by clicking HERE. Kaley was so nice to recommend my photography to her ballet dance team members at Ballet Dallas.

Alizah and I got on a call to talk more details about the project and concept I wanted to do for her photoshoot, and she was on board right away. I wanted to do something with dresses that would flow with motion and movement. On the day of the photoshoot, we met at YSMD, a studio that I’ve been using a lot located in Arlington, TX. I had purchased several dresses for the photoshoot, and that would give us options for her to choose from.

We started the photoshoot with dresses, and we were able to create lots of beautiful pictures, you can see some of the images on the gallery below, however, one of the images that I enjoyed making is the one you can see on the right. I wanted to create a picture that had both positive and negative space, clean, simple, and that it would make Alizah stand out. I used two lights to make the background white, and then I used two black cardboard pieces taped together to make the black “door” looking area where she’s standing. I used a c-stand to hang the black cardboard, and I used one more light, which is the key light that’s making sure she’s exposed correctly.

This next picture I wanted to share on the left. We used a couch that’s a prop available to use in the studio. We pulled it to the middle of the studio and started thinking of posing ideas and also how to make the light and mood a little more dramatic. After several tries, we were able to narrow down the hand and leg position and also how the light would play a part in making this picture unique. For this picture, I used two lights. I have one light with a grid behind the couch, maybe 6 feet high, angled down to give her a beautiful hair light and also for the light to fall down soft on the back of the couch. I have one more light with a grid, which is my main source to light her.

These are just two of the many amazing dance pictures we were able to capture during Alizah’s photoshoot. This was a 3-hour photoshoot, and as usual, time flies by when you are having fun! Alizah will be going to New York for a little bit at the beginning of February, but I’ll definitely be working with her again when she’s back in town here in Dallas.

You can see the rest of her dance pictures in the gallery below. Also there are a few rapid-fire questions I asked her so you can get to know a little more about her.

“ Make sure to follow her on Instagram @Alizah ”

 

To check more of our latest work, see our portfolio here, or to see more of our blog posts, go here.

DFW Dance and Ballet Photography featuring Marisa Ellis and Libby West.

This ballet photoshoot was absolutely amazing. I got to work with two super patient and talented ballet dancers in Dallas, Marisa Ellis, and Libby West. We met back in 2016 when I took pictures for a company they were dancing with the name Ballet North Texas. Fast forward three years and here we are working together once again. This time they were recommended to work with me for their ballet photoshoot by the also talented ballet dancer, Kaley Claire. They all dance together with Ballet Dallas.

This ballet dance photoshoot took place in December 2019. We decided to work in a photography studio since the weather in Texas is very unpredictable, and we can have all four seasons in one day. Ha! Gotta love Texas. I don’t own a studio, but I rent a beautiful studio space in Arlington, TX named YSMD, and I really enjoy working there.

Before we booked Marisa and Libby’s photoshoot, we met at a Starbucks one weekend to talk more about ideas and concepts for their ballet photoshoot. I have wanted to create images with color and chiffon veils and a few other concepts that you’ll be able to see the final images we were able to create in the gallery below.

I have so many favorite pictures from this ballet dance photoshoot. Let me start with the picture of Marisa to the right. This picture is the result of several tries. We needed to make sure her posture and expression were perfect, but we also needed to make sure that the light position was correct and that the veil would do what we wanted it to do. There were so many elements involved in this picture. From fans running to ensure that the chiffon veil would create a wave feel to 2 strobe lights with yellow gels to make the background and foreground yellow and complement the red in her leotard and veil plus two more strobe lights on her to make sure she would stand out in the picture. I’m also leaving a small behind the scenes clip below so you can see us in action.

I now want to show you one of my favorite ballet pictures of Libby. This picture is just one of the many great ballet dance pictures we were able to create. This picture was made with 3 strobe lights. I wanted to bring color to the shadows Libby was casting in this image because I positioned the light strobes to the far right corner of the frame. This picture is a combination of red, green, and blue gels on the strobe lights. There’s a clip below that shows a little bit of the process it takes to create an image like this one.
We spent 4 hours in the studio, creating all the beautiful ballet dance pictures you can see in the gallery below. I had a great time working with them. They were both very supportive of the concepts I wanted to photograph, and they were real troopers with doing the poses or reshooting the images that needed to be retaken to get it correctly.
Marissa and Libby are not only ballet dancers, but they are also ballet instructors, personal trainers, and event planners.
You can see the rest of their dance pictures in the gallery below. Also, there are a few rapid-fire questions I asked them so you can get to know a little more about them.

“ Make sure to follow them on Instagram @Marisa & @Libby ”

 

To check more of our latest work see our portfolio here, or to see more of our blog posts go here.

Dallas – Fort Worth – Ballet – Dance Photography with Kaley Jensen.

Today I’m bringing you a blog post about one of my dance photography photoshoots with one of the nicest and talented ballet dancers in Dallas, Kaley Claire. Kaley and I met back in 2016 when she was a dancer with Ballet North Texas. I since then have been meaning to work with her, but we just hadn’t been able to make it happen until 2019. Kaley is currently dancing with Ballet Dallas and she has been super supportive and nice that she’s recommended my photography to her ballet dancer friends, so stay tuned for more ballet photography blog posts in the future. Kaley teaches pilates and she is also an instructor of ballet burn at The Ballet Burn Dallas.

Kaley and I scheduled our ballet dance photoshoot to take place outside The Eisemann Center for Performing Arts in Richardson, TX. We had initially thought about doing it at Perot Museum of Nature and Science, but we couldn’t find a date that would work since they get booked a lot of wedding pictures. We tried a few other places, but unfortunately none of them worked due to conflicts in schedule, so we decided to take ballet pictures on the streets near The Eisemann Center.

I met with her and after going through a few of her leotard collection we decided on a couple of soft colors to start with. I wanted to start with something basic and simple and use the sun as a main source of light on her. I am a big fan of using off camera flash or strobes with my photography, but since we were outdoors most of the times if I don’t have an assistant to hold my photography equipment accidents can happen. I’ve had to deal with a couple of flashes breaking during a photoshoot due to wind knocking them over. We decided to start with her in the middle of the street and use the lines to lead the attention to her after several tries and having to move back and forth away from the moving cars we were able to capture a picture that we were both happy with.

Moving on further to the other side of the block, I saw a sidewalk that cought my attention because of how the trees aligned. I’m a big fan of symmetry, so I’m always looking for symmetry on everything. After a few tries and also not being able to resist using an off camera flash I decided to have her do something in the middle of the sidewalk and also lower so that I could compose the picture with the trees framing her at the top. I was lucky that my wife Amy and my almost 2 year old daughter Zoey came along, so they were able to help me hold the light stand and keeping it safe so that the wind wouldn’t knock it down like previous dance photoshoots.

To your left you can see the beautiful picture we were able to capture. Personally I think it is one of my favorite pictures from that day.

We kept walking around the area and found a perfect location to take pictures. It had trees, grass, flowers and there were several halls from the buildings that looked like great options to take beautiful dance pictures.

I really enjoyed my time taking pictures of Kaley. She was super patient and was very easy to work with. I will definitely be working with her again in the near future to create more beautiful ballet dance pictures.

You can see the rest of her dance pictures in the gallery below.

“ Make sure to follow her on Instagram @kaleyclaire  ”

 

To check more of our latest work see our portfolio here, or to see more of our blog posts go here.