All images © Jerry Currier

Interesting photo opportunities often present themselves in unexpected ways; sometimes as a byproduct of something else.  


I have a friend, Marty Smith, who has been a tap dance instructor in San Francisco for many years.  He teaches under the nom de plume of “TapSmith.”  Although retired, he still teaches a two-hour dance class on Saturdays.  His students are a multi-talented and fascinating group.  A lawyer, a community activist, a film maker, a professional actress…well, you get the picture.  Tap dance skill levels are just as varied, from beginner to experienced.  

A while back he told me that he had a new beginning student that I might like to meet.  That I would certainly recognize the name, Carol Ruth Silver.  My response was, “Oh, wow!  Really?”  I asked if he sure it was the same person who had been a Supervisor on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for many years and was one of Dan White's intended victims?  (Dan White was a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in November of 1978.)  Was this the same Carol Ruth Silver who had spent 40 days in the Jackson, Mississippi jail for her involvement with the Freedom Rides in 1961?  I was assured that, indeed, it was the very same person.  

I have long admired the courage of the people who literally put their lives on the line in the efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination.  Because of this, I decided to take my camera to the TapSmith studio in hopes of meeting and, with a bit of luck, having the chance to get a few shots of Ms. Silver.  I did get that chance; she was very gracious about having a camera record her efforts as a beginning tap dance student.  I also had a chance to have a lively and interesting conversation with her.  

In addition to the thrill of meeting Ms. Silver, I found myself fascinated with the images that came to me, inspired by the rapidly moving feet of the dance students.  

Tap dancing is a percussive dance form that is primarily done with the feet, although the arms and upper body are also important for enhancing the dancer’s artistic message.  Metal plates known as “taps” are affixed to the heels and toes of the dancer’s shoes to augment the sound.  My photographic goal was to convey the “feel” of the dance in still images.  

Mr. Smith’s classes take place in the rehearsal studio of a local theater company, 42nd Street Moon.  The studio is a fairly large space that is lit by a number of north facing windows of frosted glass.  There are also industrial-style incandescent overhead fixtures hanging from rafters.  There is no ceiling, just the rafters, water and sprinkler pipes, electrical conduits, heating and air ducts.  The underside of the roof is above that is quite dark—making it very difficult to use bounce flash.  The floor is plywood that has been varnished, giving it a light golden/tan hue.  The ambient light is very "warm" (4000 to 4300K) as a result of the tungsten light from the overhead light fixtures and the “ruddy” reflection from the floor.  The light from the windows is subdued, but creates interesting hot spots on the floor that can be used to silhouette the dancers.  

My concept was to shoot images of just the feet and legs in such a way that I could visually convey to the viewer a sense of rapid, energetic motion.  There are several ways to suggest motion with still photography.  The method I opted for was to use a relatively slow shutter speed in order to create images with motion “blur.”  In addition, I didn't want a lot of background detail that would distract from the dancer's legs and feet so I opted for wide apertures (f/4.5 to f/5.6).  This combination of shutter speed and aperture allowed me to use the inherent high contrast created by the back lighting to isolate the subjects with background light and foreground shadow.  

I did the shoot with the intent of converting the resulting images to black-and-white.  All images were shot in the RAW format.  File conversion to jpeg was done using the RAW converter in Adobe Photoshop Elements.  I did the final image editing in Elements’ image editor.  In the color to black-and-white conversion process, I chose “Infrared Effects,” and then added extra contrast with the adjustment buttons.  I finally used levels and the contrast layers to create a high key effect in the background, thus intensifying the dancers' darker legs and feet while preserving the shadows of the legs in the foreground to add some depth to the images.  

Everything was shot hand-held, using a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi (400D) SLR with an EF-S 18-55mm IS lens.  The ISO was set at 1600 to enhance the grain (noise), giving a pseudo-impressionist quality to the images.  

All in all, the day was very successful.  Not only was I able to meet and photograph someone I have long admired, but an interesting creative opportunity presented itself to my eye and camera.  


Dancing Feet Portfolio:  http://cursmicon11.photoworkshop.com/

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