Little Ballerinas

Little girls love ballet and my daughter is no exception, so I was delighted when I got the chance to shoot her pre-ballet class at the Dance for Joy Studio in Santa Fe.

Their teacher Allegra Lillard is enthusiastic and caring, and the girls were clearly enjoying themselves at the same as learning a lot.

Most of the dancers were five or six years old, and in the images there’s a great mixture of the more grown-up elegant moments when they look like tiny ballerinas, and the more relaxed times when they’re just kids having fun.

Good Light, Good Subject, Can’t Lose

Warm sun filtered through the shades on the windows and was reflected by a huge mirror on the opposite wall, creating a flattering light, and with a class full of cute little girls it was hard to go wrong. The class is an hour long and there were around 100 images in the set I showed the other parents.

I shot mainly with the very nice 135 f/2 L (that I’d rented from borrowlenses.com), using my 50mm f/1.4 for some of the wider shots. I was looking for close-ups of faces, full-body shots of individual dancers, and interactions between the girls (with a few detail images thrown in).