Weekly Artist Post

(http://www.dancersamongus.com/photos)
This weekend, I am heading out to photograph a rehearsal for a local musical, so for my artist post, I wanted to find a photographer who makes a lot of photos based on capturing motion in various forms. I found the photographer of Dancers Among Us, Jason Matter. Matter photographs dancers, shifting between the usual images of his subjects frozen in an interesting leap, and the less common images of blurred movement that capture the speed of his subjects as they dance.

My favorite image is the last photo, which combines the two techniques of freezing and capturing motion. Matter uses a slow shutter speed to capture the surrounding movement on the subway platform, while simultaneously capturing a sharp image of his primary subject (it makes me wonder how long the dancer had to freeze like that).

While part of me wishes the left building in the middle photo was not there, the rest of the photo's composition of color and light along with the movement of the water and the dancers if very interesting. It seems that Matter used a fast shutter speed to sharply capture the dancers in air, which results in an intriguing photo. It shows that there is something really mesmerizing about capturing a moment that can't be observed quite the same way with the naked eye.

The first image interested me because of its depiction of the relationship between the subject and nature. The frozen capture of the seagulls and the dancer reaching through the air gives an interesting repetition of the theme of flying and the relationship between man and nature.

These images have inspired me to be discerning when it comes to capturing motion. As I go out today to capture people in motion, I'll definitely try some of these different techniques to see what results I get.