Since my last blog on Fabric Dancing I've been trying some new techniques, in particular, using masculine poses and actions. It may seem like an impossibility, since fabric dancing has traditionally always been associated with female photoshoots. But when you think about it, fabric dancing is much like ballet, which is dominated not by women, but men and women equally.

 

I've gotten great feedback and I'm now scheduling fitness and dance-inspired shoots using fabric to accentuate the motion of men and women in the balletto form. Below are some of the latest from a shoot with Zach Castro, Sarah Parker, and myself as well.

 

In all cases, there are three themes that are working very well:

 

1. Balletto: Combining dance, especially ballet type movements, while turning or waving the fabric mid motion.

 

2. Freedom: To show how one can be freed from the lightest of bonds. Jumps work well with this.

 

3. Wings: Flapping the fabric gives great likeness to wings, alluding to flight and freedom

 

The light setup has been the same, shown here. It's a very simple setup shot in my home studio using a continuous roll of backdrop paper, one softbox with a high-speed Einstein light up high, and opposite that a large silver reflector.

 

Here's a raw, behind-the-scenes test shot. Note how high the softbox is on the right, which makes for the nice shadowy effect, softened by the reflector on the left.

 

And here is the collection so far. Click on any picture to view full screen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look like something you'd like to try? I'm offering this at no extra cost, so give me a holler if you want to schedule a shoot using this new technique.

 

To see more of these and other stuff I've been working on, you can follow me on Facebook where you can also stay updated on offers, tips, tricks, and other fun photo stuff.

 

-Nathan