I was fortunate a couple of weeks ago to do a shoot for a photo essay for Oi Vietnam Magazine with a group of dancers from a show called The Mist which is running at the Saigon Opera House. The show depicts contemporary dancers performing scenes from traditional village life. The idea for the photo essay was to capture dance moves in a traditional village setting as well as in a modern setting in a luxury hotel with the dancers performing mundane tasks while doing dance moves. The photo essay appears in the February issue of Oi Magazine.
The shoot was a lot of fun and the dancers were super talented, incredibly athletic and great to work with.
There were a few lessons learned on the day also. 1. Shooting two locations on a hot day when pressed for time is too much. Better to choose one concept and shoot that at a more relaxed pace. 2. Don't have too many subjects, less is more. We had eight dancers for this shoot plus hair and makeup, props and management, which was, in hindsight too many people. 3. Keep props to a minimum. We had a lot of props from the show and in the end didn't use many/any. The dancers did the talking without the need for props. Keep things as simple and streamlined as possible. 4. If you get an opportunity to do anything like this GRAB IT!
A few of my favorite photos from the shoot are below. some made it into print while some others did not.