Bollywood comes to Silicon Valley

aktse

I attended (and shot) my first Bollywood theater production over the weekend staged by Project Pulse, a bollywood dance start-up in the <st1:place w:st="on">Silicon Valley</st1:place>. They’re a mixture of professional dancers and volunteer dancers in the valley (mostly software developers and engineers) performing Indian/lyrical dancing/hip-hop/ dancing to Indian music. My friend danced in the production! However, I had a difficult time recognizing her with all of her stage makeup and costumes! Project Pulse stages one production a year and it benefits a charity in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> focused on education since the rate of the country is about 26% (so low)!
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I’ve spent some time looking over Rutt’s posts about Ballet and picked my seats to the side of the theater. Unfortunately, the seats were much closer than I anticipated (2^nd row) and my 135 mm f/2 was too long for wide compositions. I really wished that I had a second body with a 50mm or better yet, an 85mm. I know now why Rutt shoots with both the 135mm and 85mm.
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</o:p> The lighting was very challenging since it was very uneven (and really needed some work). Rutt stressed the importance of making the dancers look good on their terms. I don’t have a clue what looks good in Bollywood dancing, but I hope that I captured some of the energy and movement that makes Bollywood special.

Overall, I enjoyed my first Bollywood experience! It's quite unique. I am very thankful that they allowed me to shoot it from my seats!

ShepsMom

What fun!!! Wonderful shots, you did very well with lighting and i love how sharp most of the came out. Good work!

JimW

Good job for being there and doing it. Dance is very challenging to shoot. It's hard enough with freedom to move, let alone from your seat. I think you did well.

aktse

ShepsMom wrote:

What fun!!! Wonderful shots, you did very well with lighting and i love how sharp most of the came out. Good work!

Thanks for looking. The sharpness is due to the lens! The 135mm f/2.0 is known to be extremely sharp and worth every penny. I still can't believe that it was my first lens that I ever bought! I thought I should be placed in the crazy house for buying it!

If I had to do this shoot again, I want an 85mm on another body. Although wonderful, the 135mm isn't enough for some of the group dance numbers and it's too dark to easily change glass.

aktse

JimW wrote:

Good job for being there and doing it. Dance is very challenging to shoot. It's hard enough with freedom to move, let alone from your seat. I think you did well.

I agree that it's extremely challenging. I honestly don't know if it would be easily if given the freedom to move since I think I would miss things while trying to find a new position. However, I would have picked different seats!

And thanks for your compliment. I was studing the various dance posts, especially the ones by Rutt, before the event and am glad that the cramming paid off!