It’s a very early morning in Morehead City NC on competition day. The hotel thought their breakfast area was for…breakfast. The studio troupes thought otherwise and won the day turning the area into a makeup and hair salon that occasionally also got used for the intended purpose!
These are the times that you truly learn to appreciate your tribe that’s got your back. Whilst the makeup and hair are a fair bit over-the-top for effect upon stage…I’ll be eternally thankful to the amazing and kind ladies who saved Katie from my efforts in that department that’d have her looking like the “Bride of Frankenstein” which really isn’t a look she can nor should carry off!
After the makeover session, it’s off to a very long day at competition which this one is kind enough to allow photographers to do their thing which was lovely considering that the stage lighting at Showcase wasn’t totally ideal with the occasional dark areas (but to be fair, it is a church auditorium which was never meant for theatrical productions!).
Most of the more “corporate” competitions have their own contracted photographers and will constantly sound warnings against photography and video from the audience. From what I could tell with the plethora of iPhones and occasional SLR in the audience, I was one of the few apparently dumb enough to believe those announcements. 🙁
This set of photos was easily one of the best I’d done to that point by locking the shutter speed at 1/250th of a second to stop action (previous sets I’d try to slow the shutter to get a brighter image but for fast moving dancers, you’d see a soft image or some blur which was no bueno!). You won’t totally eliminate some softness even at that speed thanks to the focus wandering slightly and movements from shotgunning the shutter release but it’s much less pronounced compared to the Showcase pictures.
