Back in the ides of December my niece Samantha had a big day.  She performed in a Christmas-themed dance recital with her dance troupe and then went home to have a birthday party.  After the party she went back to the stage for an encore performance with her troupe.  It was an important day for her and she was really keyed up, but did an excellent job during her numbers onstage.  Way to go Sam!

My sister-in-law Kris, Sam's mom, asked me to come to the recital and party to take pictures.  I packed some equipment up and made the long trip with equal shares of nerves and anticipation.  During the trip down Kris phoned me and let me know that the director of the show wasn't keen on photographs being made.  There could be no flash, and I could not stand close to the stage--she was concerned I would distract the dancers and block the views of the other patrons, which doesn't give me much credit but I could understand her concerns.  More annoying was that I would not be able to use a tripod (so as not to be distracting).

So the tripod stayed in the car and my nerves got worse.  How dark would it be?  Would I be able to shoot anything decent at all?  Would Kris be disappointed?

The answer to the first question was pitch black.  The stage was lit dimly but the room was black as black could be.  I went over my lens options and eventually settled on the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.  I had both the 35mm 1.4L and 85mm 1.2L with me, but I was nervous about confining myself to fixed focal lengths given the admonitions I had received--I didn't want to be moving around a lot.  Fortunately I spotted a place to the side of the auditorium where I would be out of the aisle and not blocking anyone.  I asked the person collecting tickets if I could stand there quietly and shoot and she said "I don't see why not."

So I cranked my ISO wayyy up (most shots at 1250 or 1600, a few at 1000) and took a boatload of shots.  The angle was less than ideal.  I really needed to be in the center aisle (and on a tripod!)  Despite all this I managed to snag a few dozen really great shots (IMHO).  Choosing the zoom was definitely the right idea... it gave me a lot of needed flexibility.

Afterward I got to meet the show's director and the first thing she said to me was "Was that you taking pictures out there with the flash?"  I assured her that was someone else and pointed out there was no flash on the camera.  Then I offered to get her copies of the pictures and she seemed agreeable.

Then the 70-200mm came off and the 85mm went on for portraits of Sam at the venue where the show was held.  Then it was back to her house for her birthday party where I shot over a hundred pix of her and her friends, using both the 85mm and the 35mm primes.

During the following week in rare free moments, I post processed the photos heavily in lightroom and photoshop, and prepared a CD for both my sister in law, and the dance troupe director.  The CDs included my business card and a text file discussing the shoot.  Hopefully the dance theatre director will be pleased with the shots and decide to contract me for future work.  That would be nice!!  I did hear back that Kris *loved* the pictures, and that she gave her permission for me to share pictures of Sam on flickr, and on my business website (which very much bare and under construction), and that definitely warmed the cockles of my heart.

Sadly I don't have permission from the parents of the other kids at Sam's party, or the other dancers during her show, so I am limited to sharing just pictures of Samantha, but that's okay, in my eyes she really was the star of the day.  I suspect if you check out the photos you'll agree.  Click the image above to check out the photoset in my flickr photostream.

Happy 11'th birthday Sam, and bravo for a terrific show!