This was my first time attending the Pas de Deux (PDD) Dance Conference. This year’s event was hosted at the Lost Pines Resort near Austin, TX. I heard about the PDD conference from Rachel Neville’s social media in 2021 and I really wanted to attend the next event. I was so excited when I heard that the keynote speaker would be Lois Greenfield! Her work is both captivating and intriguing and she’s a gem of a person. We were just coming out of the Delta variant stage of the pandemic when I purchased the tickets and I was nervous that a new wave might cancel the event. Thankfully, the Omicron wave had died down by the time of the event and everything went smoothly, despite the crazy Texas weather, which I’ll mention a little later.
SELECTING WORKSHOPS
Mentally preparing for the conference, reading about each workshop, learning about the presenters, and then signing up for the workshops on the PDD app, was overwhelming. Before the conference, I highlighted workshops that covered interesting subjects and then looked up the presenters’ Instagram pages. I signed up for workshops with photographers whose works had inspired me. Some wonderful workshops had conflicting times, so I had to make tough decisions. The topics were quite varied. As a newbie in dance photography, I wanted to attend many different workshops because I wanted to learn as much as possible, but I could only handle so many.
The ideal strategy would have been to identify the workshops that would benefit my business the most, and then add more from there. However, while I mostly do fine-art dance portraiture, I have also dabbled in volume dance photography, so I needed learn from a variety of experts. In the end, I think I picked a good mix of classes, and I included some just for fun, such as photographing with a rain machine, light painting, and aerial circus photography.
WHAT TO PACK
Let’s talk about what I brought to the conference. I always pack more equipment than I need, just to be on the safe side. I had signed up for an individual photo walk so I brought one Vagabond Lithium power pack (which can also double as sandbag for the light stand) for my Einstein 640 ws strobe with 64” black outer cover umbrella with a diffusion fabric. I didn’t want to complicate the lighting since my primary goal was attending workshops. The photo walk was a great portfolio building experience. I also packed my new Sony a7iii with 28-70mm and 70-180mm lenses a good choice because I ended up using both lenses! I also brought a tripod, which was handy during the light-painting classes when I operated the camera with a remote trigger.
Some workshops were crowded, which made it difficult to find a spot close enough to the dancers to use a short focal-length lens. Thankfully, I had included my zoom lens in my camera bag. Next time, I will consider bringing some fun lens filters to play around with. A few people used kaleidoscope/prism filters at the aerial circus workshops, and I thought that was a neat idea! For the outdoor individual walks, the polarizing filter was a must, especially for achieving a saturated blue sky.
For the indoor workshops that used strobes, they gave me a trigger to use for my Sony, but for continuous lighting setups I had to bump up my ISO (the highest I went was 2000) or shutter speed (up to 1/2000s).
- https://www.paulcbuff.com/Vagabond-Mini-Lithium.html
- https://www.paulcbuff.com/Einstein-Flash-Unit.html
- https://www.paulcbuff.com/SHOP-ALL/10-Air-Cushioned-Light-Stand.html
- https://www.paulcbuff.com/PLM-Black-Outer-Cover.html
- https://www.paulcbuff.com/PLM-White-Front-Diffusion-Fabric.html
HIGHLIGHT
The highlight of the conference was attending Lois Greenfield’s talks. It was amazing to gain insight into her artistry and techniques. I also enjoyed Andrew Eccles’ advanced lighting workshop. There are no intentional errors in his work. He is very methodical in his process and in his use of equipment. His contemporary lighting techniques class was also highly enjoyable.
I also loved the rain machine shoot and the aerial circus. I didn’t have these staged shoots in my portfolio and I could not have afforded to stage them on my own.
2022 PAS DE DEUX DANCE PHOTO COMPETITION
Pas De Deux posted highlights of the Photo Competition nominees on social media leading up to the event to get everyone hyped up. Last year, none of the works I submitted made it to the finals. However, this year was different. There were about 1000 submissions this year. I was really excited to learn that several of my photographs were selected in different categories! My proudest moment was seeing one of my works in 9th place, exhibited at the conference as a print in the Fine Art Portrait category. Another work garnered an 11th place in the Portrait Series category, while other photos placed among the Top 20 in the Grand Prize category. All the works by my fellow photographers were amazing and inspiring, and the winners were well deserving of their prizes.
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS
It was a great experience to have a one-on-one critique from an expert. Even for more advanced photographers, it’s always humbling to hear comments from peers. Sign up early because spots fill up fast! My one-on-one was with Vikki Sloviter and we had a great conversation.
INDIVIDUAL PHOTO WALKS
I scheduled the individual photo walk session for the last day of the conference, which worked out well. I had plenty of time to pick the location I wanted to shoot. A cold front came through Texas at the start of the conference with a lot of winter weather. Most of us weren’t able to go outside since we didn’t want the dancers to be outside freezing. In lieu of the canceled outdoor excursions, the conference host, Ron McKinney offered us an opportunity to do an indoor studio shoot, which was a nice compromise. Luckily, the weather warmed up on the last day and I was able to shoot outdoors on the resort grounds. The only downside was that the dancers I wanted to photograph weren’t available even though I had requested them ahead of time.
TAKEAWAY
Don’t be afraid to meet and talk with people. There were about 200 photographers in attendance and we all shared a love for dance photography. Whether you are starting out or you are well established, everyone is there to learn and share. You don’t need to be an expert in dance terminology or know a wealth of technical aspects. Don’t be intimidated by others. No matter your level, you can find something that is useful for you and take advantage of the great networking opportunities. Keep an open mind, you can always learn new things and advance your photography skills!