Dance Rehearsal

Well, I promised you earlier that I would post some photos of ballet...so here they are.

I'm afraid that they are not great photos, because the lighting was bad, the dancers were fast, and to be honest, I'm not very good at taking action photography. It is hard. Oh well. It was my first time photographing ballet. :P
 

The performance I saw was a dress rehearsal. There were lots of comments and interruptions by the dance instructors, and it was fun to listen to :D

There were dancers sitting in the wings....people kept telling them to move! 

Little girls in bright costumes.

As I said, it was a dress rehearsal, and there were mistakes and laughing. Very fun to photograph! :D

Her dress reminds me of candy corn for some odd reason!

Cute little girl... the dancers worked so hard, and it was super hot in the auditorium. One of the lead dancers actually fainted during the rehearsal! 

The rehearsal was lots of fun to watch, and there were some good dancers in it!

 

And the end!

Taking photos for this was work. Fun work, but I actually felt exhausted after I finished taking photos. I guess it was late too :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cropping at the Joints

 Ballet is really hard to photograph.

REEALY hard to photograph. 

I tried it a few weeks ago, and didn't do very well.

It was dark.

People were moving fast.

And I kept zooming in too close and cropping off fingers, hands, or feet.

That is one essential thing when you are composing a photo.
DON'T crop your photo at a person's joint. Anything...elbows, wrists, fingers, knees, ankles! 

Why? Because it makes something look wrong. Doesn't the below photo look a bit weird?

Lovely, just lovely... I cut off 2 wrists and 3 ankles. :(

Really love this photo... but is pretty much ruined...look at her arms. I cropped the photo at her wrists. :( 

And their faces are blurry. *sigh* 

Well, I got a few decent photos which I'll be posting soon....

but the lesson to learn is:
DON'T CROP AT THE JOINTS! 

It looks weird.

New Testament Dedication

Here are the Bible Dedication photos I promised you :)
Our internet is finally working again, so I can resume blogging photos. (Yay!)

We had to get up at 4:30 to take the bus to the area where the dedication was to take place. I took some photos during the bus ride, but I'll just show you the actual dedication photos for now. I figured 24 photos was enough to give you for the moment ;)

There were many different speakers, most in traditional costume.

Lots of cameras there, including some pretty serious looking ones. :D

My family asked if I pasted these three faces together, but no, it is one photo!

There were TONS of people there... I'm guessing well over 1000. Old people....

...and young people!

Amazing dancing combined with cultural music, costumes, and themes.

Each person received a traditional necklace, and they were available to buy...aren't they gorgeous? Not that I'd be brave enough to wear one ;)

I saw this girl pointing her camera at me...(not an uncommon occurrence as a white foreigner) so I decided to take her photo taking my photo. Evidently the girl behind thought it was hilarious. :D  

There was reading from the newly translated Bible...

...and thoughtful listening. (or boredom?!)

Adorable little girls!

Many of the people who had worked on the translation were honored.

Another adorable little girl :)  (Look at those eyelashes!)

More dancing :)

Dedicating the New Testament in their heart language.

I was sneakily taking a photo of these girls, and they saw me. So I obliged and took a posed one of them. Then the girl in yellow whipped out her cellphone and handed to the girl in blue.  The first girl came over and sat by me and the girl in blue took a photo of us together.  Then the girl in yellow took the phone and the girl in blue had her photo taken with me.  I seriously felt like Cinderella at Disneyland having photos taken with excited kids!

Great shirt! :)

Our lunch!

While everyone was buying Bibles and eating lunch, this little boy hopped up on stage and started playing the drums with his hands :D

Awww....

My dad and brother "hanging out" ;)

Reading the Word

I love getting photos like this!

What a great costume...this woman worked so hard and so long on the project. It must have been a wonderful day for her; seeing the Bible finished at last!

 I'm so thankful for the opportunity to attend Bible dedications...Not many people have the chance to experience something like this!