pole dancer

Pole Dancer Model Portrait Session at Raw Vibes

Pole Dancer Marla in the Black Box room of RAW Vibes in St Petersburg FloridaSunday evening I had a portrait/model session with Marla, a pole dancing instructor at RAW Vibes, the art and performance space run by Saint Petersburg art community friend, Laly, whom last year exhibited my haikyo photographs.  

It was very easy to work with Marla, who posed very well on her own.  I do not believe I said a word to her about posing the entire time, she just went from great pose to great pose.  This allowed me to focus on just making and composing the photographs as best as I could.

The "DANCE" painting was already on the wall, so I cannot take credit for thinking to include it in the photograph.  I did of course notice it and tried to make best use of it for this photograph.  I position myself so that no part of Marla overlapped with the frame of the painting, and also to make it seem like the person in the painting is gazing upon Marla, unbeknownst to her.  I imagined the viewer of this image to be like the viewer in the painting.  

I chose the "antique plate" filter in Silver Efex Pro 3 because I wanted to really accentuate Marla as the subject of the photograph and put into shadow most of the background.  

How I made this photograph:

  • Nikon D300 with Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm lens handheld
  • f/8, 1/60th, ISO 200, aperture priority
  • strobist:  Nikon SB-600 Speedlight on light stand high to frame left triggered by commander mode on the D300
  • processing:  RAW file in Aperture 3, image clean up in Photoshop CS4, conversion to black & white in Silver Efex Pro 3