Sometime plans change and you gotta roll with it.
The weekend before the stay at home order was issued was just perfect. Something in me said it was time to go so I reached out to a few people to see who wanted to take advantage of it.
Now before you start going off about safety, please keep in mind a few things. I called these sessions Portraits with Precautions and it was for a reason. We stayed at least 10 feet apart and I used a telephoto lens to close the gap visually. We also didn’t touch anything. This included each other or anything else that anyone could have touched. I never shoot with a crowd so it was way under 10 people. Finally, obviously, we stayed outdoors.
Now, even though it was last minute, we still went in with a plan. I wanted to get some practice with a new light so I was thinking portraits. I would balance strobe with sunlight in some images and try to overpower the sun in others. This was, after all, the reason why I got this light. Taylor brought some outfits that would play well with nature and we would be off.
Well, something happened.
I was changing a setting on the light and talking to Taylor and started humming a tune. i had no idea what it was, it just happened. anyway, we got back to shooting and I’m still hitting the beats to this tune. And Taylor heard it and started to move to it. next thing we know, we’re doing a dance session. Shes moving to the beat and I’m firing off images while still sounding off the beats to the tune.
Da, da, da, de-da, da, da, da, da. Dun dun, dun, dun-dun, dun dun…
Holy crap its “The Hustle”.
And we are just rocking and rolling with it. She moved with grace, energy, and fluidity. There was raw energy in her free-styling. I quickly realized what was going on, turned off the strobe, and used available light to get the shots otherwise i was going to fry it. I’m doing my very best to keep her all in the frame and trigger the shutter at peak moments.
After a few moments we stopped and laughed our asses off. What an amazing time. As she caught her breath, I looked at the images, and let out a colorful term that caught her attention. She came over and took a look as best she could and also said a colorful term. The images were amazing. We decided right there and then portraits were out and we were going to spend the rest of the time doing dance.
Now, granted, it wasn’t the best conditions for such a thing but this was a breakthrough moment. She and I had just hit on something that was magical. We didn’t plan on it but we simply could not pass up the opportunity. So we rolled with it. She continued to freestyle and i continue to try my best to capture peak movement and energy.
I look at these images as a gateway to more amazing things. As soon as we get the green light from the powers that be, we’re going out and doing more of this.
Oh, and do The Hustle, people :-).
Photography by Mark K 