The Nutcracker

When I was little our family traveled down to Iowa City, Iowa to see The Nutcracker performed at Hancher Auditorium for Christmas. I can't remember if we went more than one year, but I loved it. I never fancied myself a dancer (except I always loved the The Nutcracker music, which I would do my own improvasional dances to in our living room) so it was pretty great to see real ballerinas dance.

This  week I took photos for work of Main Street Conservatory of Dance's local production of The Nutcracker. Here is a link to the full gallery on the Marshfield News-Herald site.

Dance Photos

I like to photograph dance because I can't dance. Like really can't dance. I took a ballet class in college to improve my balance and finesse for climbing with a couple of my guy friends. They were so much better than me and definitely made fun of me to large groups of friends. And tried to deny it by demonstrating how bad I wasn't, but those jumps are hard!  I got over it, it was only a pass/fail class, so I passed, but I am not sure if my climbing improved....

I love take photos of dancers. I love how dance is graceful and athletic and I can very much appreciate how hard it is.  Here are a few of my favorite dance pictures.

 University of Iowa Dance Gala, 2005

University of Iowa Dance Gala, 2005

Main Street Conservatory of Dance, 2008

Main Street Conservatory of Dance, 2008

 Main Street Conservatory of Dance, 2008

Here is a link to an audio slideshow that I did about the Main Street Conservatory of Dance in Marshfield. 

http://www.lauraschmittphoto.com/multimedia/ballet/index.html

Photos copyright MNH or Daily Iowan

Work Photos

I hate it when life gets busy, but I like it when work is busy. I haven't had much time to blog or shoot my own stuff, but here are some work photos from the past few weeks.

Finally a baseball photo from this season that I actually liked. The game was a regional playoff between Spencer and Owen-Withee, which Spencer won. This photo isn't just an action shot, but also tells the story of the game. Owen-Withee was making lots of unfortunate errors, this was the first of two errors (that I saw) that were at home plate.

1952 Chevy Impala from a car show in Stevens Point. I love old cars, especially the interior design.

This from a photo shoot with Miss. Wisconsin Rapids, Lindsay Lobner, at the museum in Rapids. It was fun and she was super-easy to work with and had a lot of time to let me set up lights and try different things. There will be a photo gallery later this week that I will link to. I liked how her ballet costume worked with the background in that they both have similar tones.

Girl Scouts preparing for the Dairyfest parade. 

Handing out balloons at the Dairyfest Parade. I didn't get a chance to get this woman's name, so this just ran in online in a gallery. I was trying to get the scramble for candy, but I wasn't happy with any of the shots. I like this one because of all the kid's arms reaching out. 

Relaxing before Lincoln High School graduation. Graduations are always a challenge to try to get something different. Luckily the graduates are always pretty emotive, so you have a few different chances. I like this photo because of the waiting aspect. One last day of waiting in lines in school.... then freedom! Graduations bring back many memories. BTW, my 10-year reunion is next year! Holy cats time goes fast.

The Spirit helicopter came to Stevens Point air show and fly-in. I had to cover the air show.... blah, blah, blah, people looking at airplanes..... Don't get me wrong, I like airplanes for the most part, but sometimes air shows are visually boring. So this photo is me trying to do something different with people looking at airplanes, or in this case a helicopter.

So this is what I have been doing lately. I worked this weekend, so not a lot of down-time then. I did, though, run my first 10K! It was long, but I think I want to do another one this summer.