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Annette Betté Kellow – Burlesque performer
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A couple of shots taken at the recent Halloween Burlesque ball in The Button Factory in Dublin. I was invited along to take some shots for the organiser and so could use flash if I wanted, but I found that flash for the most part destroyed the atmosphere. So I bumped up the ISO to 1600 and shot mostly at around 1/50 using the Nikkor 18-200 VR mostly at around 35mm or thereabouts. This gave me far more interesting results.
I’m considering forking out for a quality mid range Nikkor zoom like the 24-70 2.8 to get that extra sharpness in lowlight and to allow lower ISO. Although I’m pretty impressed with this lens and the way the D300 deals with high ISO. I suspect on my D80 these would have been noise fests.
A little audience reaction…
For this one flash was used, but I think for this type of shot it worked fine
Thanks for looking as they say :-) Comments always welcome.
Cheers
Robbie
That first one looks great-
a bit more space might have been good,
but looks great nonetheless-Nice colour too-
Does the sharpness on the face stand up to enlargement?
Not sure of the conversion on the last, looks a bit heavy on the red filter…
Love the first too, she really fills the frame, both physically and with
the sheer gusto of performance. Good colour too…How come I never get invited to parties like that?
Thanks guys :-)
Joseph..I wouldn’t say it’s pin sharp at 100%..not by a long stretch..but it’s not bad considering the iso and shutter speed. But I wouldn’t want to be making huge prints from it ;-)
Rob..I’m sure you get invited to more than your fair share of exotic parties…;-) You’ve probably played at a few..hehe!!
Hi Robbie,
In my opinion, this set of pics is without a doubt
one of the the strongest we have seen on the site.I think you may have found something very original
to follow here and it might be a good idea to explore
the concept a lot further. I’ll try and explain.There aren’t many (or any?) photographers in Ireland
that I know of who are covering this kind of lifestyle.
Yes, there are people who cover theatre work, drama
and concert events but I think you have given us a
flavour of a side of life/entertainment to which many of us
have not been exposed – and therein lies its appeal.To my mind pics 1 and 2 capture the essence of
burlesque BECAUSE they are less than sharp and
BECAUSE they have unusual colours (as JB said)
which really suit the mood of the entertainment.Rob is quite correct to say that the gusto of the
performance has been well captured. The sense of movement in the
first two pics serve to convey the energy and element of
risque which a burlesque evening should bring.Have a look at number 2 and you can see that the
audience are really enjoying the show. Their faces are not sharp either
this complements the movement of the dancer. It is an image with
great life, energy and interest. Just look at the woman with white-makeup!
Pictures within pictures.The 3rd pic is almost Weegee-like in its capture.
It is more 1950’s reportage in style and is a
fabulous photo in it’s own right. The 3rd picture
is facscinating but does not belong in a set with first two.And not because it is weak. Far from it. It is just as strong
but in a completely different way.
Interesting that you feel that flash kills the atmosphere.
I’m not sure it does. It’s just that it gives an entirely different
feel to the event because it freezes movement.Of course there are styles of flash photography which can convey
movement too…slow synch etc…and maybe that is something you
could experiment with?All in all you have a few decisions to make.
1. Do you take on more social/nightclub/burlesque reportage work?
2. How do you want your ‘look’ to be?
(Colour with movement, softness and pre-war look)
or
(Flash documentary style reportage – a la Weegee style)
3. Maybe some other look.
Whatever, I think you’re definitely on to something here.
8)
Hey George…thanks for that very considered reply…I’m truly chuffed :-)
This was actually my second time to photograph a Burlesque event..and although I enjoyed the first time, I was a bit at a loss about how to go about it..I think this time around I had a better idea of how to photograph it to make it as interesting as possible to the casual viewer.
Surprisingly, at this event I was the only person there with an SLR, that I could see anyway, but usually there are one or two photographers that attend the events, usually at the request of the organisers.
It is something I really enjoy photographing, and not just for the obvious reasons..when you’re shooting the performers you rarely get time to actually “watch” their performance.
But you are right, in that it has a lot of possibilities, I could produce a set of shots solely on each individual performer that evening, as they all have unique characteristics that make them interesting in their own right.
I agree that No.3 doesn’t really sit with the other 2 and I do have one shot that sits perfectly with the 2 shots of Annette, but I was unsure whether to post it here, as it is semi nude, but would not be really suitable for the Nude forum imo.
You can check it out on my Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/expresbro/4076767564/
Anyway, thanks again for the comments…I will keep them in mind…and I do hope to do more of this in the future, although unfortunately, the lady who runs this particular show is relocating permanently to London, but I have made contact with quite a few of the performers and hopefully this set of shots will lead to other invitations.
It is actually quite a vibrant community in Ireland as far as I can see, but as you point out, not one that you come across in everyday life.
Robbie
Expresbro wrote:
I agree that No.3 doesn’t really sit with the other 2 and I do have one shot that sits perfectly with the 2 shots of Annette, but I was unsure whether to post it here, as it is semi nude, but would not be really suitable for the Nude forum imo.
You can check it out on my Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/expresbro/4076767564/
Robbie, that is an amazingly good image and I hope that you send these to Annette…I’d say she would be delighted.
There is no reason why that pic should not be posted up in this forum as part of your set as there is more nudity in someone’s holiday photos from some French beach than in this, yeah?Anyway, thanks again for the comments…I will keep them in mind…and I do hope to do more of this in the future, although unfortunately, the lady who runs this particular show is relocating permanently to London, but I have made contact with quite a few of the performers and hopefully this set of shots will lead to other invitations.
I’m glad that you are in contact with the performers as they will get to know you and trust your work. This will make it much easier for you to gain access to other aspects that need to be photographed such as their behind the scenes preparations, rehearsals, what they do for day jobs etc…a whole host of stuff could be documented.
Finally, don’t forget to take plenty of audience pics too. After all, burlesque is more about the audience/performer relationship than anything else. Audience reation, whether it be amusement, amazement, delight, shock or whatever is what makes burlesque (especially in pic 2) so appealing isn’t it?
Great stuff.
Funnily enough George, I’m far more reticent about photographing audience members than I am about photographing the performers. They are after all performing and I’ve found that Burlesque performers in particular LOVE to be photographed. Sometimes when you point the camera in Joe public’s direction the reaction is less than amiable.. ;-) But that is a good point and I’ll bear it in mind.
When I started doing this, I hadn’t really thought about it as a project, more just an interesting event to photograph..but it really does grab you after a while :-)
Really top class photos. I love the way the various audience member’s expressions have been caught in the 2nd shot.
Hi Robbie. I find that each of these shots has it’s own individual appeal. #1 is really about the performer’s act and catches it perfectly IMO. #2 is about the audience reactions and participation in the event. I find this is very strong and there is a clear division to be seen in the male / female reaction to the performance. #3 I feel is a very good portrait of the performer and shows what she’s all about (for want of a better phrase). Excellent job. Well done
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