Dance Workshop

Have spent the day at Dance4U in Nottingham where Maria Falconer and Paul Hill were supervising a dance workshop. This was an opportunity for young dancers to perform for the camera and for the photographers to hone their dance capture skills.

The day did not start well for me when I got to the recommended car park only to find that it was full, and I was already late. Fortunately I was able to call Paul and find out that there was one last space in the dance company's car par - for disabled parking. I said, 'That's alright, I've got a replacement knee.'

It was all OK after that.

We spent two hours in the park across the road photographing the dancers, who had to prepare 20-30 seconds of material for the purpose, against various backgrounds, including a skate park and a children's playground.

After lunch, we split into Canon and Nikon groups and tried out the studio lighting. There were three scenarios: high key, low key and 2nd sync. Today's photo is taken from the 2nd sync set. Shutter speed one second, press the shutter and the flash fires when the shutter closes giving an impression of the dancer moving and leaving a trail. Several people had travelled a distance for this workshop including three people from London and a lady from Dorset.

Theatre experience tomorrow as well as another outdoor location. Grateful to the lighting techs who set everything up.