Image: Rachael McLaren (dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater).

As I continue to study dramatic movement and create images for my project, Modern/modern dance, I was especially fortunate that the gifted dancer, Rachael McLaren of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater accepted my invitation to come to the studio for a photo shoot.

Rachael and I worked together for several hours, in the very focused yet freely expressive way that I find works best, both for me and for most dancers. What she was able to achieve in such a concentrated way was more than I could have hoped.

This image was made in one exposure using a “rear-synch” flash set to go off at the end of the 0.6 second exposure, when this marvelous dancer was at the apex of her leap. Ambient light provided the recording (light painting) of her movement.

This image was made in one exposure using a series of four sequential strobes, each set to delay by 0.2 seconds from the previous one.

We spent some time making portraits, and each was so beautiful that later I found it nearly impossible to do the edit and choose one over the other.

This project moves forward, happily.