Dancing for the Stars at Cincinnati Music Hall

The ninth annual Dancing for the Stars event was held April 11th at Cincinnati Music Hall. Pairing eight Cincinnati celebrities with some of the area’s finest professional dancers to raise funds for Cincinnati Arts Association’s Overture Awards and Arts Education Programs.  I took more than 200 photographs, as the freelance photographer for Cincinnati Refined.  After taking some posed shots of people at the event, I found a spot on the dance floor hugging the sideline, and the dancing began.  First up, the professional dancers tangoed and fox trotted their way around the floor, entertaining guests with dramatic swings and finales!

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The settings on my Nikon D5100 were ISO 3200, Shutter 125 and Aper 5.6.  I knew a shutter speed of 125 can help stop action, and because I didn’t want to use flash, I knew I would need to have a high ISO speed and sacrifice some resolution of the photos.

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The Life of an Event Photographer

Before I even dreamed of becoming an Event Photographer, I was living the life of one.  Most everywhere I’d go, you would find me taking photographs of people, things, and the beauty around us, and it was something I truly loved!  They say, find something you’d do for free, that you’re good at, are passionate about and doors will open.  The door opened for me through Twitter almost 18 months ago.  A friend saw a tweet from a local online magazine for Channel 12 in Cincinnati and notified me.  I met with the Editor and was hired as a Freelance photographer and occasional Travel Writer.  With almost 40 events and 15 articles under my belt, it’s been a great experience and I continue to learn and grow.

Because I live about 35 minutes from downtown Cincinnati, I usually drive at least that far to an event, and spend about 90 minutes at the event, taking atmosphere shots and at least 20 posed photos of people.  At home, I upload the photos to Lightroom, do a little cropping, etc., and then upload them onto the magazine’s sight, along with captions and names.  I find the difficult part of the job to be writing down all of the names at the event.  It’s usually loud (i.e. music playing, etc.), and there are some funky (hard to spell) names out there.  As in life, you take the not so good with the great!  Here are some of the events from February and March.

Prohibition Party at The Woodward Theater

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Bockfest in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio

(my hands were freezing that day)

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Celestial Ball (a benefit for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital) at the Duke Energy Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

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Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Encore after party at the University Club Continue reading

Photo Shoots for iSPYCINCY

I love my work!  How many people can say that?  It took me a while to get here and it’s not just one job.  Not only am I a freelance photographer, I’m also helping an elderly couple (around 90 years old) organize and declutter their retirement village condo, and am taking people on trips to Europe!  I work with the husband, mostly on paperwork, because the wife has a touch of Alzheimer and is physically limited walking very slowly with a walker.  I’m finding this line of work very rewarding because I’m able to remain patient and let him make decisions about his things.  I offer suggestions.  I didn’t realize how patient I can be.

Anyway, last night I took photos for an event called Revel & Feast held at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati.  It’s was a celebration marking Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s 20th anniversary season.  My assignment was to take around 25 posed shots of people along with their names, and another 25 shots of the awards, a performance by teenagers, and some of the area where dinner was to be served.

The light glowing in the background really accentuated these beverages…

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The venue is gorgeous!

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There’s a place called Neon’s in an area of Cincinnati called Over-the-Rhine and I did a photo shoot for iSPYCINCY a couple of weeks ago.  They have a brunch on Sundays and an outdoor seating area.  Dogs and their owners were out soaking up the sun and enjoying the yummy food!

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Rhinegeist Brewery Prohibition Party

Accompanied by my husband, filling the roles of Chauffeur, security, and assistant, we drove 45 minutes from our home in Goshen, Ohio, last night..during a snow storm, to the Rhinegeist Brewery in Over the Rhine, Cincinnati for their annual Prohibition Party.  This was my third assignment for iSPYCINCY and my mission was to take between 40-50 total photographs to include..event attendees (including their names), some candid shots, and shots to show the event atmosphere.  In the course of 1 1/2 hours I was able to take a lot of photographs and narrowed it down to just over 60 to send to the editor.  The challenging aspect of this assignment was trying to hear people (while the band played) as they spelled their names for me.  For some of them, I just let them write their own names.

Here are a few of my favorites.  The young lady on the right is just glowing…

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Once I was home and looking through the photographs, I felt like I was back in the roaring twenties!

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