Readers’ wildlife photos

Today Doug Hayes of Richmond, Virginia, has sent a batch of pictures showing the primate H. sapiens engaged in a ritual of unknown evolutionary signifiance; it’s called “dancing”. Doug’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Here’s my latest photoshoot done for Starr Foster Dance to publicize their next show, Page To Stage III at Richmond, Virginia’s Firehouse Theatre December 5th – 8th, 2024. This will be the third Page To Stage presentation, a cross-disciplined project combining the art of writing and dance. Writers were asked to submit short works of prose or poetry, which would be interpreted in dance by chorographer Starrene Foster and her dancers.

The dancers pictured here are the core members of the company: Shannon Comerford, Molly Huey, Fran Beaumont, Angela Palmisano and Madison Ernstes. Other dancers, drawn from the Richmond dance community, will be added as needed. The show will consist of eight pieces, of which three pieces have been choreographed and are in rehearsal.

In addition to the choreography, Starrene is also designing and sewing the costumes as well as collaborating on the original music and lighting design! For more information on the company (and more of my photos), visit www.starrfosterdance.org. The Firehouse Theatre’s website is www.firehousetheatre.org.

Core members of Starr Foster Dance (L to R) Fran Beaumont, Shannon Comerford, Molly Huey, Angela Palmisano and Madison Ernstes:

For this group shot, the flash units were aimed at the ceiling and bounced down on the dancers. Starr loves shadowy and mysterious looking lighting similar to stage lighting. Dresses designed and sewn by Starrene Foster:

Another group shot, this time, Angela and Molly were asked to come up with a unique move while Shannon, Madison and Fran jumped in the background:

Angela Palmisano executing a leap. Each dancer was encouraged to execute a different jump for the individual photos:

Angela Palmisano, Molly Huey and Madison Ernstes:

Fran Beaumont and Shannon Comerford:

Molly Huey in flight!:

Madison Ernstes levitating:

Angela Palmisano, Molly Huey and Madison Ernstes execute a group jump:

Shannon Comerford:

 Another double jump by Fran Beaumont and Shannon Comerford. They are actually off the ground, not kneeling:

Fran Beaumont does her jump:

Photo info: All photos were shot with the Sony A1 camera body and Sony FE 24-105 lens – usually set at 35mm for group and duo photos, 50-90mm for solo shots. The camera was set to do a burst of 15 shots per second for the action photos.

Lighting was with two Wescott FJ400WS battery-powered monolights set to “Freeze” mode which allows burst shooting at up to 20 frames per second, enabling the flash to keep up with the camera’s burst speed. The camera’s flash synch speed was 1/350th of a second which eliminates motion blur from ambient light – a problem with older cameras and flash units when photographing fast action. Until recent improvements in camera technology and flash units’ electronics, sync speed was limited to only 1/60th of a second.

The flashes were triggered by a wireless FJ-X3 S (for Sony cameras) radio transmitter capable of controlling 20 flash units per channel simultaneously (32 channels with the capability of independently programming six groups of up to 20 flash units). Photos were shot at ISO 400 and edited in Adobe Photoshop and Topaz Photo AI (noise reduction and enhancement)