Tracey, held her Ottawa Centre Class Party recently, and I was invited to shoot the event. It gave me a chance to try my photography skills at a dance event that isn’t as dimly lit as my previous attempt.

I rented a 70-200 f2.8 L IS II lens (retails for $2500+) for the event from Lens Rentals Canada and they were amazing about quickly shipping the lens, and I had it earlier than I was expecting so I was able to learn a bit about it before using it at the event. Thank goodness I had it though as the event was still really dark, much more than my little camera likes.

Anyways, I jumped at the chance to shoot the event, and I am happy with how it turned out. I hate to say it, but because I was so focused, I really didn’t get to watch and enjoy most of the show, but I am sure I’ll have other opportunities to do that.

Looking through the photos I took, I’m pretty impressed with many of them. At some point down the road, I’ll post a few for everyone to see, but currently, only those invited to see the set are able to see it, to respect the privacy of the dancers.

Photographing belly dancers is very difficult. The light is always changing, they are moving around, and there were up to twenty people on the stage at one time. My goal for the event was to try to get as many good shots of each person as possible so that they could have something to hold on to that they can remember their inclusion in the event. This meant trying to get decent pictures of groups of people in less than four minutes, while they are moving around and the light is changing.

I was also shooting from two placements where I was out of the way of the audience. The first position was high up from the stage, and near the back, and the second was from the stairs, near the bottom, much closer to the stage. I ran up and down the stairs all night switching lenses, trying different angles, attempting to get the best shots I could.

I learned a great deal at the shoot, and I am happy that I went. I’m happy with how some of the photos turned out. I couldn’t have done as good of a job without the lens I rented, and I will definitely be renting again in the future. There are two types of stress in my life, a good stress and a bad stress, and shooting the OCCP event. I would do it again in a heartbeat, and I hope those that have looked at the hundreds of pictures I have posted privately, are happy with the results.

Thank you again Tom and Tracey for letting me shoot the event. I really appreciate it.