Taiwan Dancer and Temple

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Here is one of the dancers from Jiazi Dance Troupe whom I had the pleasure of photographing for my Taiwan Review photo essay. I set up in front of the Beiji Temple in Guiren and waited while she got made up and dressed. I was going nuts while the golden late-afternoon sun dropped behind the buildings at my back. I missed that warm light but when I saw her dressed in her classical Chinese fairy dance costume (中國古典舞的服裝(仙女)) I forgot all about the light and decided I could make do with what I had. Not only did she look beautiful, she effortlessly nailed her pose every time. If I was sure of my timing, focus and lighting, I would have wrapped it in one shot. Instead, I was too worried that I was missing focus or the peak of her jump, that I had her leap 12 times! Back on the computer I noticed that her expression was relaxed and she held perfect poise in every frame!I only had these two dancers together for a couple of shots before the younger dancer wearing ‘中國民俗舞的服裝(俏丫頭)’ was recalled so I never did get a shot where everything came together.By the time I got my young dancer back I was starting to lose light and I began dragging the shutter to get background exposure, which blurred her body but kept her face sharp.Now, about forty minutes later I had lost so much light that I decided to just shut the background down to black. This final dancer is wearing the Dai Minority’s White Peacock costume(傣族的白孔雀服(靈雀雲飛)).