An added bonus were special visitors in town. Not only was a special class taught by members of the Swedish performance group the Harlem Hot Shots (who gave the audience a brief performance), but Dawn Hampton was in town, celebrating her 82nd birthday. This wonderful lady is an inspiration to all with her charm and personality. Brimming with talent and musicality, she mesmorized the crowd with her dancing.

In the back room, we had the pleasure to capture some cool, fun images.

Below are teasers.

Click here to see the entire 920 Special Gallery. Password: 20100603

Here are a few favorites from last week’s shoot at the 920 Special.

If you’re in search of a wedding DJ and/or wedding first dance instructor, definitely check out Nathan’s site: www.SwingorNothing.com

We were on hand to cover Frankie’s Friday Night Talk at the Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center in Berkeley, CA.

Even though we’ve done this numerous times, it’s always a tremendous pleasure to listen to his stories (while getting some great shots) — the room is always filled with laughter as Frankie’s quite the storyteller and has a great sense of humor.

Of note was that this year, Frankie’s son, Chazz Young, was on hand (as he was here to teach for his dad, who’s still recovering from hip surgery).  It was heartwarming to also hear Chazz laugh at all his father’s stories as well.

It’s hard to believe the man is going to be 95 this May — that’s right, NINETY-FIVE.

After the talk, there was dancing to the lovely Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
It was great to see some old friends, and make some new ones, too.

Enjoy!

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning (r) with his son Chazz Young

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

Frankie Manning's Friday Night Talk at Ashkenaz

The event began Friday night at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, where the 94(!) year-old Frankie gave another of his signature telling of stories from his youth.

Saturday and Sunday featured the Lindy Hop Workshop with Frankie, as well as optional “elective” classes taught by a whole lotta local swing dance instructors. Saturday night also featured the 6th Annual Shiny Stockings Ball, with the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra.

The NCLS also presented its first ever Distinguished Community Service award to Chad Kubo, one of the long-time pillars of the San Francisco Bay Area Lindy Hop scene (bus ad notwithstanding).

Sunday night’s closing dance featured the Tipsy Gypsy Trio.

Here are some image from the weekend. Enjoy!

I used to be a regular when I started learning Lindy Hop, but now with running the photography business, leisure activities like this is often more rare.

It definitely was nice to to be back.

Here’s the scene at the front door.

The main crew out front: Mark, Nicole, and Jeff
Here’s a view of the San Francisco Medicine Ball Band

Corner Pocket from backstage.

Usually between Christmas and New Year’s, the dance venues have light turnouts — but not Thursday — pretty nice numbers.

MC Manu doin’ his thing.

A film is actually a series of still photographs played in quick succession (24 frames per second is the usual rate in theaters). When watching, the human mind will fill in the short blanks between frames to create the sensation of watching smooth continuous motion — a phenomenon known as persistence of vision.

As such, we have over a century’s worth of films, and wouldn’t you know it, many explore and employ concepts that we as photographers sometimes struggle with.

Yes, we have books, websites, videos and even live classes and workshops dealing with many of these subjects, but film is yet another tool at our disposal. Films can be used to supplement all the other learning material that’s out there.

Plus, it’s an excuse to go watch a movie — just tell your honey that you’re doing “research”. Now, whether or not you can write off the expense of a ticket or rental is up for debate.

In any case, many films can provide technical pointers such as:

• Composition
• Lighting

Others can also provide artistic ideas like:

• Costumes
• Makeup
• Concepts

The purpose of most mainstream films is to convey a story, and a lot of films will have stylistic features that enhance things like:

• Mood
• Emotion
• Tension
• Space

And other films serve mainly as inspiration.

In future posts, we will start exploring specific films and learn how to look for and understand technical and artistic concepts so that you can use them in your photography.

So Stay Tuned!

There’s an interesting piece on the CNN site about Bryan Berg, who builds houses of cards professionally. With just normal playing cards, he’s set a number of world records with his creations. The following links will have great examples of the myriad of designs he’s done.

Here’s the CNN piece:

CNN link

and his website:

http://www.cardstacker.com/

Photo from his website.

Apparently, he travels all over the world to build exhibits of card “houses”, many of which take days to complete. At his website gallery and in the CNN video, you can see his buildings include things like rotundas and stadiums, etc., not your typical run-of-the-mill structures.

He’s developed techniques that result in very stable structures, and, for skeptics especially, at the end of the exhibits he turns a leaf-blower onto his creations and everything comes crumbling down.

It’s like sand painting, but on a more…3-Dimensional level.

It’s amazing how he turned what was first a simple hobby into a full-time profession.

So cool.

They’ve entered and placed in a number of competitions, and they bring fresh new enthusiasm and passion that is noticeable by anyone dancing on the same dance floor.

They also happened to be Cal alums — go, Bears!

Thus, it was a pleasure to do a photo session with them to provide them with some high-caliber promotional photos.

Here are a few favorites:

Jean and Bromley can be found at many local swing dance venues (click here for more info).

You can also visit Jean and Bromley’s website at: JeanandBromley.com

It was a beautiful day, and my! the kiddies were out with their moms (and dads). After all, it was Mother’s Day.

Here are some favorites:

The complete set of my photos is at LindyinthePark.com