The best-laid plans often go awry. That could have been my motto yesterday. I was scheduled to meet with two clients back-to-back,and then shoot with the second client, and then photograph the Lighting of Ledoux that I wrote of in my blog entry from Friday. The first client was late, potentially cutting into the other person’s time. The weather was forecast called for snow (good), but instead it rained (bad). The rain was not really giving me the look I was after for my shots of Lighting of Ledoux, so on to plan B. My wife and I met with some friends and enjoyed an evening at the historic Taos Inn listening to some great music and watching Flamenco dancers.
I shot a few hundred frames of the dancers in low-light (no strobes), hand-held, with the 5D Mark II and either the EF24-105 f/4L IS or EF17-40 f/4L lenses. Not exactly ideal conditions to test a new camera but it was fun. All images shown here were shot ISO 3200 and up to achieve an acceptable shutter speed for hand-holding the camera. Yes, there is noise visible in the images, but it is a noticeable improvement over the original 5D and I was quite pleased with the results considering the low light and speed at which the dancers moved across the dance floor.
Please click on any image for an expanded view.
Adam Schallau is a photographer whose work explores a variety of topics that
include the landscape, culture and people of the American Southwest and Rocky
Mountains. It is with a profound respect for the land, its people and their
history that Adam sets out to recapture the spirit of a place to tell a story
through his photography.
Adam is a recipient of the Luminous Landscape Endowment Award and was an Artist-in-Residence
at Grand Canyon National Park.
I like the 3rd shot from above showing the dancer and the audience, her movement against their rapt attention.