One of the performers was calling out for photographers in Facebook and I had no plans for the Saturday morning so I thought why not go and shoot at the Studio Move Spring Show 2018. I hadn’t shot any pole dance events for 5 or 6 years now and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get some decent shots for my portfolio. So I sent a message and got a free pass to the show. Thanks, Henriikka. 😉
I had to two main options for the gear:
1) Olympus E-M5 with my usual 40-150mm f/2.8 lens as main camera and another E-M5 with my newest lens, Olympus 75mm f/1.8. or
2) Olympus E-M5 with my usual 40-150mm f/2.8 lens as main camera and Lumix GX800 with the Olympus 75mm.
Since I knew Henriikka Roo would be using a flying pole (instead of a traditional, fixed one) I was afraid my 6-year-old E-M5 might have problems focusing fast enough because of the dim stage and moving target etc. So I opted to take my GX800 (or GX850 as it’s known in Finland) instead.
To be honest I haven’t used my 75mm lens often enough and wanted to test it properly. Unfortunately I have to say that mounting it on the GX800 was a mistake. I did use 1/500s shutter speed with Auto-ISO (with really low values) yet the photos still disappointed – a lot. It can’t be the lens since it’s supposed to be super sharp so it must be the camera itself. Every setting was supposed to be correct but somehow the images are too noisy and by far not sharp enough. I’ll need to look into it later…
The E-M5 and 40-150mm f/2.8 combination on the other hand didn’t disappoint. I’ve had it with me on numerous occasions and it always delivers. If the room isn’t completely dark I know I will get good shots with this setup. This time I made a small mistake by using too long shutter speed which I noticed too late. The lighting was far better than I’ve used to in these kinds of events and I could have easily shot with 1/500 s shutter speed instead of the 1/200 s. My mistake is evident in the pictures as the toes and fingers aren’t sharp (enough). The good thing is that next time I know not the do the same mistake again: I’ll start with 1/500 s and see what kind of ISO I get.
So… Came here for the pictures and got nothing but blabbering? Don’t worry. Here’s a few samples from the album and the rest can be found on my Flickr album: Studio Moven kevätnäytös 2018.
The two talented artists in these pictures are Terhi Tavi and Henriikka Roo.
I also got a bit carried away in the post processing part and made a few totally unrealistic versions of some of the pictures I took. Here’s a few examples:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bit51Y-jG9a/?taken-by=teemupaukamainen
https://www.instagram.com/p/Biv1U29AoRJ/?taken-by=teemupaukamainen