The Canyon View High School spring 2010 dance concert photos are posted. View the whole event and order digital downloads and prints.
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Welcome to my blog!
I love photography! Pretty cliché I know. There is just so much to learn and explore. So many things to try. But the main reason I love photography is this "Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second." - Marc Riboud
I am a portrait and wedding photographer based in Cedar City Utah. I also love landscape photography, but every great landscape I encounter, I can't help but think how much better the shot would be if I stuck a person in it.
CVHS Dance Concert – Cedar City Dance Photography
Monday, May 24th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance | 1 Comment
Poster shoot highlights
Friday, May 21st, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance, Featured | 1 Comment
Here are the highlights from our little poster shoot.
I forgot to mention, my wife made the costume that Heather is wearing. The costume was for a dance called “Boing,” choreographed by my wife as well. The costumes, well, they were designed to “boing.” That hoop in the dress totally bounces around and looks really stinkin’ cool.
Another note, be prepared for a barrage of blog posts related to this concert. There will likely be a few more:)
Dancer Motion Blur
Friday, May 21st, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance | 1 Comment
I’m in the middle of downloading all the photos I took at the CVHS dance concert in the last two days. It will be a while before I can process them all and do a more complete post. As I was scanning through them, this shot stuck out to me. I just really like it. Sometimes motion blur is a really cool thing.
Spring Dance Concert Poster Shoot
Thursday, May 20th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Behind the scenes, Dance | No Comments
After the last dance concert poster, I decided that shooting new images specifically for the poster is the way to go. My wife is the dance teacher at Canyon View High School in Cedar City, UT. She has two dance concerts each school year. One in the fall and one in the spring. I’ve designed her posters from as long as she has been doing these concerts. I used to just pull a dance photo from my archives and use that. Now I’ve evolved into doing a new shoot for the poster each time. Much more fun this way.
I don’t claim to be a graphic designer. I know enough about graphic design to be dangerous I guess. I took a graphic design class in college. My professor was Henry Brimmer. I ended up being hired by him to be his assistant for the semester. It was fun. We both shared a love for photography. This was when digital cameras were just starting to gain a big hold. I would bring my DSLR to class. Everyone was envious of it. They were not so common then as they are now. It seems just about everyone has a DSLR now.
Henry designed many of the dance concert posters for the College of Performing and Visual Arts at SUU. Sadly, he is not there any more. He moved on to another university somewhere. I learned a lot from him in the one class I took. He left a big impression on me. I’m not bragging, he probably wouldn’t be too impressed with my graphic design skills. Like I say, I’m not a graphic designer. I’m a little afraid of what Henry would say if he saw my posters.
This is the poster my wife, Jennie, ended up printing. I did three different designs. We held an informal poll on Facebook, Twitter, and in Jennie’s classes. This design and one of the others were almost even as far as votes go.
The initial idea for the poster was actually quite different. Jennie had several of her students show up for the photoshoot. I took a variety of photos. I was planning on doing something that involved multiple photos, but things don’t always turn out the way you initially envision. Heather was the last dancer to photograph. I wasn’t excited about the light when we started. We took an hour break and then resumed the shoot as the sun set. With the whole shoot combined, we got many great shots. Any one of them could have made a great poster. As Dewitt Jones says, there were many right answers. I kept looking for the next right answer. The shot above was it.
Another “right answer” was this shot.
This was taken during our hour break while we waited for the sun to go down a bit. I had Heather stand in our front room. I stuck a Vivitar 285HV flash outside pointed through the window with the blinds slightly open. What you see is right out of the camera, with the text dropped in there of course. This one was probably a more solid “graphic design.” I think it probably communicates “dance concert” more clearly than the other poster.
From what I hear, the first poster (the one that was printed) has drawn a lot of attention at the school. That to me says that it was successful.
CVHS Dance Company 2009-10
Monday, March 15th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance, Featured | No Comments
The Canyon View High School Dance Company of 2009-10.
Stephanie – Dance Portraits
Friday, March 5th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance, Featured | 2 Comments
Stephanie came by the studio the other day to get some head shots and a few dance pictures that she needs for an up-coming audition. I love these two dance pictures. Flinging hair and a dancer jumping will never get old. BTW, no trampoline involved on the second picture. She can just jump like that on the spot. Pretty cool.
A tip for you if you are shooting on white seamless like this. The lens you use makes a HUGE difference. My 50mm 1.8 lens is horrible on white seamless. Actually the 50/1.8 or even 50/1.4 does bad things when pointed at a bright light source. That white background is a big bright light source. A wide angle lens, 18mm or 24mm, does okay but I’ve found I usually end up cleaning up the image more in post. I don’t have a technical reason why, but I usually end up having to dodge (lighten) the floor around the area the subject is standing. My favorite lens on white seamless is actually a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. The result is really clean, almost no post processing. A little bit of black point adjustment is all. The only tricky thing with that lens is that you have to have plenty of space between you and the subject. At least a good 15 – 20 feet. That can pose a problem if your studio is small. With this whole setup, it took 12 foot ceilings (backdrop was about 11 feet high), 10 feet between background and subject and then another 15-20 feet from subject to camera.
f/3.2 @ 80 mm, 1/250,ISO 200
f/3.2 @ 70 mm, 1/250,ISO 200
Cinderella Ballet – Highlights
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance, Featured | No Comments
I love living in Cedar City. For being a smaller community, we have a wide variety of arts, sports, entertainment, and outdoor activities available to us. There is always something going on at Southern Utah University, sports, music, art shows, dance, etc. My wife and I have season tickets to all that the College of Performing and Visual Arts has to offer, and we attend most events. Then of course we have the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which is always fantastic. But, in addition to that, we have organizations like the Cedar City Junior Ballet, who annually put on a full-length ballet production. They just finished their production of Cinderella and it was fantastic. If you didn’t see it, you really missed out.
I was able to photograph them during their final dress rehearsal. The full galleries, including studio rehearsals can be found here. I’ve put together a slide show of some of my favorites here on the blog. I have to say the the step sisters are my favorite. Chris and Lise do such a fantastic job, they are a hoot to watch. They cracked me up every time I saw them perform.
Cinderella Studies Vector Analysis
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance | 2 Comments
Cinderella wasn’t just a pretty face. She was smart too.
I’ve been shooting photos at the Cedar City Junior Ballet’s rehearsals of Cinderella. The photos were used for promotional material and the program for the ballet. This photo I had to share because it just struck me as funny. In the opening scene, Cinderella starts out sitting on a stool reading a book. The audience just sees the outside cover of the book which appears to be just a pretty book. I was shooting right next to her and glanced over and saw this photo. I chuckled inside. I said to Cinderella, “reading a math book huh?” She replied, “yeah, I opened this book and thought ‘how am I supposed to read this?’”
Cinderella Ballet Rehearsal
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance | 2 Comments
A few favorites from the Cedar City Junior Ballet’s final studio rehearsal. They moved into the theater on Monday and perform this Friday and Saturday nights. We will have the official photo call at the final dress rehearsal. I can’t wait.
Dance Concert Poster
Friday, December 4th, 2009 by Parker Grimes Cedar City Photographer
Dance | 2 Comments
Twice a year I get to design a poster to advertise the Canyon View High School dance concert. In the past I’ve just pulled a dance photo out of my archives to use on the poster. I have a bunch to choose from. This concert, I wanted to try something different. I wanted to do a photoshoot specifically for the poster. So, I took my white seamless to the school and we had a quick photoshoot. I really mean quick too. We did one pose. I took maybe 8 frames. That is all we had time for, but that is all we needed.
Copyright © 2009 - 2010 Parker A Grimes
mandiimae - May 27, 2010 - 3:37 pm
that was so much fun!
thanks for the blog comment. the reflection picture is my mom’s favorite too.