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| copyright McKindles Photography 2013 |
By the way, if you have been reading the blogs and study my style of storytelling,
you'll start to notice that I like to give some back story or trail of thought that leads to my point. What can I say, I like a good story...Thanks for bearing with me...now back to more back story already in progress...
A couple months back, I was introduced to a women that had done something extraordinary. I mean, she was like Ren McCormick! (Footloose reference) Well...sort of... Jamie Shedlowsky had volunteered to chaperon at a school dance and had a reaction that would end up affecting thousands of kids. Well, not at that moment, but follow me some more...
Mrs. Shedlowsky was uncomfortable watching the "bumping and grinding" masquerading as dancing. She also noticed that if you weren't participating in this generations' version of dirty dancing, then you were probably standing up against the wall doing nothing. What good is that?!. So she did something about it. She started an organization called The Dance Project. The mission of the group reads "Changing the culture by promoting positive dancing". I could write an entire blog about what I experienced with The Dance Project, but let me just say that I have had my faith restored that the Miley Cyrus twerking will not become the status quo! I hated even giving her time on my blog, but I needed to make a point.
Starting out as a group of a few dozen, Mrs. Shedlowsky's openness to "letting God speak to me" has allowed her to become a vessel of positive change and has reached thousands of kids who have learned how to swing dance! Several alumni have asked to start their own group under the same name and High Schools are now requesting The Dance Project to come into their schools before events like Prom and Homecoming dances to teach kids how to dance. Oh, by the way... Mrs. Shedlowsky DOES NOT DANCE! That is the crazy part for me!!
Sorry for the tangent, but as I mentioned, I could go on and on about The Dance Project. The point was this: I was excited when Jamie had welcomed my offer to produce images for their website. I thought that it would be a good way to get my name out into the community having just moved to Brighton, and I really thought that TDP's website needed some really good images.
We gathered a handful of kids at the Rollerama (I learned how to roller skate here 418 years ago and the place looks exactly the same except for the new game area!) and worked on putting together images for their highly anticipated and highly attended Masquerade Ball event. I had also planned on tackling two birds here by starting on the website images, but the conditions weren't ideal so I just focused on the event promos. This was a great example of how I mentally plan out of what I want to do, but something happens and I come out with something else. At one point, I asked the DJ just to play music and let the couples all dance, which was not what I had intended at all, but turned out to be the right vibe for the event's promotional shots.
For the actual event, I wasn't planning on doing any actual dance photography as the light was going to be horrible and not at all how I like my dance (or wedding reception) images to look. So I had planned to create a red carpet arrival setup which I thought would be REALLY fun! Even though people kept turning on the overhead lights and I had one flash go down in the heat of battle, we still had some fun with this idea. I Decided that this could be a good idea to pitch around holiday party season...
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| copyright McKindles Photography 2013 |
But I still had yet to get the images I had originally intended to create. I knew that I wanted something specifically commercial looking (so not naturalistic at all!), full of energy and mostly, I wanted to tell a story! TDP holds themed dances throughout the year, so I thought that I'd take advantage of this idea and put that together with the knowledge that The Dance Project is growing and spreading like crazy! Then a thought came to me: I remembered being out one night a hand full of years ago, and my friends Michael and +Eve Johnson (who are incredible swing dancers) while waiting on the sidewalk just started dancing! Music was coming from the restaurant and they just started dancing right there on the sidewalk! It was SO cool! So I thought, "hey...these images need to show that these kids can dance anywhere and it'll always be cool!" So that's the story of the images. They will let anyone that goes to the website see that this fun and respectful style of dance (emphasis on FUN) can go anywhere you go! Sounds like an American Airlines commercial! Thank you to Jamie and all the dancers for your time and talent! Go Daddy-O!
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| copyright McKindles Photography 2013 |
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| copyright McKindles Photography 2013 |
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| copyright McKindles Photography 2013 |
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1 comment:
Great read, Robb. It is so incredible to consider the ways in which our paths change as God leads us in the "dance of life." I think of your own story as an actor and now photographer, the little I learned about your life journey with Jenny and God's Hand in that precious story. Your comment about how "Jamie doesn't dance" makes me smile at the transition from High School Math Teacher to Woman Who Coordinates Dances with Instruction (and is learning a few dance steps along the way). Still problem solving, yet different... :)
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