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.