Shining Stars Photo

09/10/2026

09/08/2026

Black and white dance images have a kind of purity.

But creating photographs in black and white is very different from an amateur taking color photographs and removing the color afterward.

These images were conceived, lit and photographed specifically as black and white. Neither the dancer nor I ever saw them in color.

Without color to separate things, light has to create the separation. Highlight and shadow define the dancer’s body. Contrast defines her against the background. Her lines, extension, hands, feet and the negative spaces she creates become the composition.

That changes the way I light, and it changes what we look for as she refines each movement.

Black and white isn’t an effect added to these photographs. It is how they were created.

And when dancer, movement and light all come together that way, the human form can become almost sculptural.

08/19/2026

It is simply too much work to do well unless you genuinely love it.

A great dancer can make mediocre photography look impressive.

That should concern dancers, parents and studio owners, because sometimes nearly everything worth admiring in a dance photograph was supplied by the dancer.

An extraordinary leap is still extraordinary when somebody merely records it. Someone can catch the peak of the movement, keep it in focus and produce a perfectly usable picture without contributing to the art.

Great dance photography requires more.

It is about light.

Timing matters. Camera position matters. Composition, background and color matter. A dance photographer also needs enough knowledge of dance to recognize line, placement, technique and the moment when the dancer looks her best.

But light is the primary creative tool.

Whether the source is modified natural light, continuous lighting or strobes, the dance photographer has to shape it. Light defines musculature. It reveals line. It creates dimension. It separates the dancer from the background. It directs the eye. It can make movement feel powerful, delicate, dramatic or quiet.

A dancer can perform exactly the same movement for two photographers and produce two completely different photographs because one photographer has mastered the use of light and the other knows how to record what happened.

That difference can be easy to miss when the dancer is very good.

Put an accomplished dancer in front of an ordinary photographer and the dancer will carry the entire picture. Parents see the extension. Teachers see the technique. Friends see an impressive leap. Everyone compliments the photograph.

But strip away what the dancer contributed and ask what the photographer actually added.

Often the answer is very little.

This becomes more consequential for a dance studio than it may appear on picture day.

Once the galleries are delivered and parents begin buying photographs, the studio owner loses control of where those images go. They are posted on Instagram and Facebook. They are shared by dancers and parents. The studio is tagged. Other dancers see them. Other teachers see them.

The dance world is large geographically, but the dance community is surprisingly small. Photographs travel.

Those pictures become part of the public record of the dancer and, whether the studio intended it or not, part of the public record of the training that studio provides.

Good dancers can make mediocre photography look better than it is.

Mediocre photography can also make a good studio look more ordinary than it is.

There are far more dance studios than there are experienced dance photographers. Some communities have no real dance photographer nearby at all. A studio hires whoever is available and familiarity builds loyalty that can be a liability. Photographs are produced every year, and eventually everyone becomes accustomed to what they see.

That may be a problem.

If mediocre dance photography is all you have seen, mediocre dance photography looks normal.

You cannot recognize a standard you have never been shown.

Creating better work requires specialized knowledge and specialized equipment. Dance movement is fast, but simply freezing it is not enough. The photographer has to control exposure and shape light while giving the dancer enough space and freedom to actually dance.

There are excellent photographers who deliberately create beautiful work using natural light. There are also photographers who use the term "natural light photographer" because they never learned to shape or use light to create. A dance photographer needs enough command of light to choose the right tool instead of being limited to the only tool he knows.

The equipment becomes substantial very quickly.

When I build my full studio on location, I bring backgrounds, flooring, lights, heavy stands, modifiers, computers, cameras, lenses and support equipment. It takes about four hours to assemble before I photograph the first dancer.

Then I have to know what to do with all of it.

I have been a full-time professional photographer for 38 years. I still train, just as dancers do. I still study. I still invest in education. I still replace or add equipment when it gives me the ability to create something better.

Experience is valuable. Staying current requires work.

Dance photography keeps changing, and the standard keeps moving.

Dancers, parents and studio owners do not need to become photography experts. They do need to learn to look beyond the dancer in the images.

The next time you see a dance photograph that seems spectacular, temporarily ignore how difficult the movement was.

Look at the light first.

Look at how it shapes the dancer. Look at the dimension. Look at the separation. Look at the lines it drew your eye to. Then look at the composition, background, timing and camera position.

Ask yourself what the photographer contributed and you'll know if this was a dance photographer.

Then look at photographs that have represented you, your dancer or your studio in the past.

Did you receive great dance photography?

Or did a great dancer make ordinary photography look impressive?

Dance photography requires too much technical knowledge, too much specialized equipment, too much physical work and too much continuing education to do well casually.

It is simply too much unless you genuinely love it.

I do.

08/19/2026

You've worked too hard at your art for the photography to be an afterthought.

I've spent 38 years as a full-time professional photographer, and I still do the work: learning, training, and continuing to raise my standard as a dance photographer.

Whether you've been following my work for years or just found this page yesterday, this is what we are all about. No rushed sessions, no arbitrary time limits, just respect for the art.

Dancer:

08/17/2026

08/17/2026

A dancer’s book is a working portfolio used to show choreographers, agents, and casting directors who that dancer is, what she can do, and the range she can bring to their work.

Because the book belongs to the dancer, the story it tells must belong to the dancer as well. My role is to help tell that story visually.

Ella used her inspiration folder to communicate what she needed from this session: colorful backgrounds, vintage and moody imagery, contemporary movement, technical work, artistic images, and black-and-white film.

These are some of the color images. The black-and-white study will follow.

Dancer: Ella Barss

08/13/2026

A very good day in the studio with Ella yesterday.

08/09/2026

We pedaled 58 miles through Nelson and Amherst counties yesterday, with 3,799 feet of climbing. On days that hot, it helps to choose routes with plenty of places to stop for water.

This one passes the kind of small, old-fashioned rural general stores I remember from a time when I was only four feet tall. Inside, you might also find home-baked goods, auto parts, bait, and camping gear.

Cycling also helps me stay ready for long studio picture days. It takes stamina to unload and build a full studio, then give the last dancer of each day the same focus and energy as the first.

08/08/2026

In Virginia, an eight-year-old takes dance lessons.

In St. Petersburg, a child of the same age may already be considered for professional training.

When people think of state-funded ballet training in St. Petersburg, they usually think of the centuries-old Vaganova Academy. The Boris Eifman Dance Academy is the new kid on the block. It opened in 2013.

This photograph accompanied an announcement inviting children, beginning at about eight years old, to apply for entrance testing.

A child who is accepted enters a complete system of education. The state provides academic instruction, ballet training, housing, five meals a day, professional dancewear and medical care. The academy has residential staff, a medical center, a swimming pool and fifteen ballet studios.

The state has fulfilled its obligation by providing everything required for training. The academy must deliver the result: professional dancers.

The academy needs only children whose bodies, minds and abilities can be developed into dancers whom professional companies will employ. Every admitted child occupies a place for years. A place given to the wrong candidate consumes instruction, housing, food, medical care and the working lives of teachers. It also denies that place to a child who might have reached the stage.

At age 8 to 11, applicants face three rounds of evaluation. The committee studies the child’s face, spine, pelvis, legs, feet, turnout, flexibility, jump and proportions. It applies height and weight standards and considers the parents’ height and build to estimate whether the child is likely to develop an employable body.

The child standing before the committee is unfinished. Puberty may change height, weight, pelvis, proportions, strength and line. The parents provide evidence of what is likely to emerge.

Training develops technique within the structure selected at admission. It cannot lengthen limbs, rebuild a pelvis, change skeletal proportions or make a fragile body durable. Present talent has no value to the academy if the expected adult body falls outside the professional standard.

Medical screening removes bodies unlikely to withstand the workload. Psychological evaluation measures whether the child can endure separation, residential life, correction, repetition and sustained pressure. Musicality, coordination and artistry matter only if the body and mind can carry them through training and into employment.

A remarkably talented child may therefore be refused. Promise at ten does not compensate for an adult dancer whom the academy believes a theater will reject.

At graduation, the theaters accept the dancer or reject her. Effort, affection and childhood promise have no weight in that decision. Every graduating class is a public judgment of the academy and its leadership. Unemployable graduates are failed results.

Education, housing, nutrition, medicine and psychological support all serve the same production system. The final measure is employability.

A child at one of the dance studios we know in America may dance throughout childhood and never join a professional company. Their education has not failed.

Eifman begins by asking whether a child can become what ballet needs and the dancers who reach the stage are the only results the public sees. The dance studios we know begin with the child and ask what ballet can give them.