by Lucrecia Diaz
Dancer Monica Iglesias, photographed by Lucrecia Diaz
Just as soon as I started working with dancers, I fell in love with dance as subject matter, and from that moment on, the task of freezing movement became some kind of obsession to me. So, capturing the frozen figures in space, while trying to catch the “Decisive Moment”, very much in the tradition of Cartier-Besson, looking for some tense state of perfect harmony, has become my personal quest and professional goal as a photographer.
When I arrived to my new hometown in Madrid, Spain, I made contact with InnovaFoto, the Profoto sales reps in Spain. When they saw my specialized portfolio about freezing dance and movement, they immediately offered to sponsor and produce a shooting, in order to explore the capabilities of their new Battery-Operated ProFoto B4 System for this type of imaging.
I was tracking Dance Companies in Madrid, to continue with my work on movement, when I met with one of the most famous dance companies in Spain, Antonio Gades. They immediately got interested in running this shooting with their team. This way, I managed to get Gade’s best dancers for this project.
The shooting took place at the famous Daylight Studios in Madrid.
MVC photographer Lucrecia Diaz, during the shooting with Antonio Gade’s Flamenco Dancers
The ProFoto B4 characteristics include.
- Freeze motion at 1/25000 of a second
- Fire up to 30 flashes per second
- Huge 11 f-stop power range
One of the conclusions we got from this test is that it is best to shoot with at least 2 systems simultaneously, to better distribute light across the entire frame, and get perfect freezing of the image.
Dancer Conchi Maya, photographed by Lucrecia Diaz
Obtaining a great set of photos in this field, where action/movement is involved, is a true collaborative process, a situation in which good communication with the dancers, and the invaluable participation of a strong Art Director, willing to get the most out of the team, are critical for great results.
Miami Visual Collective 
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