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Fire Dance by Starena.
Dec 31, 2018 11:29:54 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
Her name is Serena, I refer to her as Starena. Among the many qualities she has one major attribute is dance. Some time ago we did a set of fire dance for several nights in a row. These are a vary few of some of the thousands of photographs that we generated.
Dec 31, 2018 12:33:30 #
Dec 31, 2018 14:54:18 #
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Dec 31, 2018 14:56:11 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
Thank you so much. It was a true load of fun! Serena is just so much fun and she is so great to work with. I did nothing after we began, just followed were she went.
She is a trained professional dancer, she specializes in gypsy style Middle Eastern with an emphasis in belly dancing. This style is where beautiful women are hired by bars where well armed men go to drink, even getting smashed out of all senses. It is the job of these women to dance fully clothed in an alluring fashion. Then then work to disarm the patrons by taking their sabers, swords and knives from them, but they must dance with the weapons. Starena will dance with a balanced saber resting on the top of her head, moving and dancing the entire time, hands striking the zills (finger cymbals) while moving about a room.
Then Starena will drop the sword onto her hip and gyrate herself around a man, and just before she leaves him she will pop her hip into his, knocking him off balance. It is so much fun to watch and other women watching her preform delight in watching her maneuvers. That is why I caller her Starena!
She is a trained professional dancer, she specializes in gypsy style Middle Eastern with an emphasis in belly dancing. This style is where beautiful women are hired by bars where well armed men go to drink, even getting smashed out of all senses. It is the job of these women to dance fully clothed in an alluring fashion. Then then work to disarm the patrons by taking their sabers, swords and knives from them, but they must dance with the weapons. Starena will dance with a balanced saber resting on the top of her head, moving and dancing the entire time, hands striking the zills (finger cymbals) while moving about a room.
Then Starena will drop the sword onto her hip and gyrate herself around a man, and just before she leaves him she will pop her hip into his, knocking him off balance. It is so much fun to watch and other women watching her preform delight in watching her maneuvers. That is why I caller her Starena!
Dec 31, 2018 21:18:12 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
Much appreciated, she will love hearing about her popularity!
Starena (Serena) is babe-a-luscious in and out of her clothes. But it is fun when she puts on outfits. Starena is smoken' HOT!
A few more... the one with the hanging plants and feathered headdress, is the cover of a music CD she did. Yes, composes and plays her music, even makes musical instruments to get certain sounds.
She goes by the modeling name of Lalinn, as in Madam Lalinn, but she is more akin to the Vodon Goddess Ezili.
Starena (Serena) is babe-a-luscious in and out of her clothes. But it is fun when she puts on outfits. Starena is smoken' HOT!
A few more... the one with the hanging plants and feathered headdress, is the cover of a music CD she did. Yes, composes and plays her music, even makes musical instruments to get certain sounds.
She goes by the modeling name of Lalinn, as in Madam Lalinn, but she is more akin to the Vodon Goddess Ezili.
Jan 1, 2019 07:30:09 #
Jan 1, 2019 09:02:06 #
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Jan 1, 2019 10:29:38 #
Jan 1, 2019 12:17:32 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
Been working with Starena for well over ten years, we are buds! She is down in South America doing performances, not clear as to what it will all entail, but dance is for sure!
Starena was helping her bud Betty with her workshop. Yes among all the other things Serena does photography is one of the many 'items on her plate", use to shoot a 35mm film camera and a Hasselblad 500 ELM.
It was so much fun having Starena working with Betty, women work with other models in a unique fashion.
At the end of the three hour session we decided to do a group portrait. Serena told us to hold on she needed something out of the dressing room. What she needed was the ankle high platform boots! If you look at the last frame you can see that was ALL what she wanted! LOL!!!
I just love women who just can't seem to stay in their clothes.
By the by, the girls painted the backdrop image on a 9 foot roll of background paper, yea, she does tag art as well.
Starena was helping her bud Betty with her workshop. Yes among all the other things Serena does photography is one of the many 'items on her plate", use to shoot a 35mm film camera and a Hasselblad 500 ELM.
It was so much fun having Starena working with Betty, women work with other models in a unique fashion.
At the end of the three hour session we decided to do a group portrait. Serena told us to hold on she needed something out of the dressing room. What she needed was the ankle high platform boots! If you look at the last frame you can see that was ALL what she wanted! LOL!!!
I just love women who just can't seem to stay in their clothes.
By the by, the girls painted the backdrop image on a 9 foot roll of background paper, yea, she does tag art as well.
Jan 1, 2019 14:36:42 #
Great shots. For the first couple of FIRE DANCE shots, how long did you keep the shutter open ?
Jan 1, 2019 19:11:40 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
In making these images I either used the camera body on the "B" (bulb) setting or set it for a few seconds (like 2 or 4 seconds open for the shutter). While the ambient exposure was under way, I would trip the electronic flash open trigger so firing the two Norman 2000 watt second power packs. One of the power packs provided power to three heads that illuminated the background with light, while the main power pack delivered light to four heads that illuminated the main scene where the action was with Serena. The actual out put of the two power bases would be about 3000 watt seconds of power to the entire scene. Recycling time for the slower unit would be about six seconds. Modeling lights were only in use during set up.
The ambient exposure was based on the 'burning down' of the fire in the scene. As fuel was exhausted on the spinning (poi) or in the accessory locations the exposure needed to be extended. I found that at the start 1/2 to 1 second was good, and as the fuel burned down I had to extend exposure to several seconds. Most of the images here are at what I would call the mid way point of the shoot.
After the fires drew down Serena and I would review the images (quick chimping the camera screen) then reset the content of the fuel sources, often changing the ground fire locations. The fuel is white gasoline/kerosene. I acted as 'safety' with a wool blanket in a tub of water, ready to extinguish the locations by smothering but mostly if she got 'into trouble' with the fire. She never had to have me put her out, but we did extinguish the fires at the end of each run.
We did about five runs each night for about four nights.
In the end there was some post production in manipulating images to suppress upper exposure ad open shadows to work with the long range of the images.
Serena has both the post production, the untouched jpegs and Raw files. Post production took many days. These are just a few of the images. Each night we created thousands of images.
The ambient exposure was based on the 'burning down' of the fire in the scene. As fuel was exhausted on the spinning (poi) or in the accessory locations the exposure needed to be extended. I found that at the start 1/2 to 1 second was good, and as the fuel burned down I had to extend exposure to several seconds. Most of the images here are at what I would call the mid way point of the shoot.
After the fires drew down Serena and I would review the images (quick chimping the camera screen) then reset the content of the fuel sources, often changing the ground fire locations. The fuel is white gasoline/kerosene. I acted as 'safety' with a wool blanket in a tub of water, ready to extinguish the locations by smothering but mostly if she got 'into trouble' with the fire. She never had to have me put her out, but we did extinguish the fires at the end of each run.
We did about five runs each night for about four nights.
In the end there was some post production in manipulating images to suppress upper exposure ad open shadows to work with the long range of the images.
Serena has both the post production, the untouched jpegs and Raw files. Post production took many days. These are just a few of the images. Each night we created thousands of images.
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Jan 1, 2019 20:47:53 #
Timmers wrote:
In making these images......
Thanks very much for the information. I thought it was merely a long shutter opening, but your explanation detailed a lot more work. Great photos !!
Jan 2, 2019 01:48:44 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
Thanks! I will let Starena know how well her performances were received when she returns to Arizona.
Jan 2, 2019 13:15:22 #
You have to shoot on a tripod to mix long ambient with flash exposures. But you did very good. Very prolific shooting. Save some for later too.
travelwp wrote:
Thanks very much for the information. I thought it was merely a long shutter opening, but your explanation detailed a lot more work. Great photos !!
Jan 2, 2019 15:34:49 #
Timmers
Loc: San Antonio Texas.
You speak great truth with regards to tri pods. To do these images I used the Gitzo G1504 Tele Studex Giant with it's No.4 Rational head and it has a geared center column. Got it in a clearance sale 30 years ago brand new for just under $100. Yes, I live a charmed life. It is a beast of a tri pod but absolutely no tri pod comes close to this tri pod.
A close second if the Majestic all aluminum out of Hollywood. I use Majestic heads on my studio camera stand that can put any camera from floor to just under 6 foot in the air, counter weighted and on three dual castors, but it is no good in the garden.
The Gitzo tri pod is just super, it has but one flaw the plastic the frogs (French) use just sucks. The solution is a simple one, remove every handle from the head, take it to the work bench and strike a glancing blow to the end of the handles, off fly the shit plastic handles. Drill tiny holes into the remaining plastic and embed short small wood screws into the holes. Then form a comfortable round ball of Plumber's Repair Epoxy around the handle with screws in it. My Gitzo has this 'repair' for the past 30 years and it works flaws manner.
A side note, Gitzo is French, they made their money and reputation for supplying machine gun mounts during WW I. After that war they began making their mounts for surveying and camera supports. After WW II, Karl Heitz became the exclusive importer of Gitzo equipment to the US. Gitzo took the title of being the Zippo Lighter of tri pods. If anything happened to a Zippo Lighter or a Gitzo tripod sort of theft the respective company would repair or replace the unit no questions asked. I have herd of professional photographers back over their Gitzo crushing a leg or two, shipping it to Karl and receiving back their tri pod with replacement legs on the old tripod.
I have three joke tri pods, three Gitzo tri pods, one Linhof, a studio stand, Majestic tri pod, and two Manfrotto, the only one I bought was the Gitzo G1504 Tele Studex.
A close second if the Majestic all aluminum out of Hollywood. I use Majestic heads on my studio camera stand that can put any camera from floor to just under 6 foot in the air, counter weighted and on three dual castors, but it is no good in the garden.
The Gitzo tri pod is just super, it has but one flaw the plastic the frogs (French) use just sucks. The solution is a simple one, remove every handle from the head, take it to the work bench and strike a glancing blow to the end of the handles, off fly the shit plastic handles. Drill tiny holes into the remaining plastic and embed short small wood screws into the holes. Then form a comfortable round ball of Plumber's Repair Epoxy around the handle with screws in it. My Gitzo has this 'repair' for the past 30 years and it works flaws manner.
A side note, Gitzo is French, they made their money and reputation for supplying machine gun mounts during WW I. After that war they began making their mounts for surveying and camera supports. After WW II, Karl Heitz became the exclusive importer of Gitzo equipment to the US. Gitzo took the title of being the Zippo Lighter of tri pods. If anything happened to a Zippo Lighter or a Gitzo tripod sort of theft the respective company would repair or replace the unit no questions asked. I have herd of professional photographers back over their Gitzo crushing a leg or two, shipping it to Karl and receiving back their tri pod with replacement legs on the old tripod.
I have three joke tri pods, three Gitzo tri pods, one Linhof, a studio stand, Majestic tri pod, and two Manfrotto, the only one I bought was the Gitzo G1504 Tele Studex.
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