Swing, jazz and blues - Dance to the music

If you have been following this blog, you know that I like to do jazz photography and that almost every picture on this blog is made by me. I also like to do dance photography (mostly swing dances like lindy hop and balboa) but so far I haven't shown you much of it. Maybe that'll change later on, anyway, now on to the subject that I wanted to talk about.

Last summer at Herräng Dance Camp I met another swing dance photographer: Bryant Gover. Bryant Gover has been all over the world at dance camps and other dance events taking photos. He has released a book called "A moment in the swing-out" with swing dance photography and if you are going to the Herräng Dance Camp this summer (it starts today!) you can have a look at (and buy) his book. This edition contains just photos but later editions will include the stories behind and around the pictures.

Bryant Gover has also submitted a guest post to the blog Digital Photography School (maintained by Darren Rowse*) called "Dance Photography - Capturing Movement" where he shares how he works when he takes photographs of dancers.

I think the most important thing when it comes to take great dance pictures is timing. Like any other kind of action photography you have to to anticipate the peak moment and that is much easier if you know both how swing and blues music is structured and if you know how to dance. It's about knowing as much as possible about the subject you are shooting.

(*BTW Darren Rowse also has a blog called Problogger, which is a great resource if you're a blogger like me).

Do you have any favorite swing dance picture? Tell me.