Yesterday I had a day off. It was awful, I had nothing to do- I woke up really late, I went for a swim in the Connecticut River, and went to Best Buy to buy Pulp Fiction. I came home to watch the movie and decided to read the paper first. In the calendar section I saw that there was a square dance happening that night in Newbury, VT, about 45 minutes north of my place, so I hopped in the car and when to that. I figured I would get a stand-alone out of it or maybe a solid story idea, I got neither- I got lost for about an hour on the way there and had just about given up hope when I saw some lights on at an old church on top of a hill, I got closer and could see silhouettes of people moving and bobbing around- I found it! I went in and met a women named Mitzi, she organizes the square dance every month, we talked for a while, I got my quote incase I needed to use this as a stand-alone, then I started shooting. It was a tough shoot, I had William Albert Allard on my mind- in the movie "National Geographic, The Photographers," there's a scene where he is stalking around a dance floor with his Leica, moving in time with the dancers and fluently firing one off here and there. I got into the rhythm of the place about the same time a new dance started, another partner was needed in the group for the dance to continue- then I heard, "Hey, you, put the damn camera down and get out here, you'll learn much more that way." "Okay, sure," I said, and I spent the next hour and half square dancing. It was a great night and I didn't come away with a single good frame. Next time I'm bringing a date, Linda was a little too old for me.
So that was Saturday, luckily I only had one day off this weekend. I worked today, I had one assignment, go out with the reporter and get a picture of kids on their last weekend before school starts.
I shot 4 kids, the above was my favorite shot from the day. I tried out my new flash technique, I think I like it.
Later in the day I went out to find a stand-alone. This is my favorite frame that I have made so far up here.
