I was shooting a fundraiser for Nawantale or Uganda Community School Project at Taliesin in Scottsdale. They are working with the Nawantale village to create this school that will better serve that area of remote Uganda, about an hour north of Jinja.IN edition to a silent auction and presentation by student architects of their designs for the new school, a group of fire dancers provided a little excitement for the evening. Thus the question would arise.
Shall I use the fire as my only source of light and risk many, motion-blurred faces of performers or mix in a little flash to try and freeze and fill in the faces? Of course the dilemma is whether the flash would create a problem for people who were spinning balls of fire on the ends of short chains that would at times whiz within inches of their faces.
I tried a little of both and and decided that by shooting many frames with available light, to improve the odds of have some frames with sharp faces, it also created a more moody, shadowy atmosphere for the images. It also allowed for longer exposures which also allowed the painting of longer arcs of flame.I tried flash a few times, doing it in a way that it didn't create problems for performers, but didn't like the overlit feel that technique created.
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