Shooting it: Pole Dancer – Megumi Yuzuki

Couple of months ago I had this assignment to take some profile photos of a pole dancer, this was the first time for me to shoot someone doing this type of dance, and we did some very interesting stuff together. Her name is Megumi Yuzuki, and she is one of the best pole dancers in Japan, she is very professional and also very easy to work with. We have also done some other shoots after this one, but the result from them I will upload later! In this article I will explain the strobist setup of the edgy lighting I’ve been using for her, and you can see some of the photos below!

Strobist info:

Canon 580EXII in 80×60 Gridded Softbox – Camera Left-Back;
Nikon SB-26 in 90×20 Gridded Softbox – Camera Right-Back;
Nikon SB-26 with a snoot to trigger the background Nikon SB-26 (I had no more PWs available);
Nikon SB-26 with a blue gel pointed at the wall for the blue background;
The softbox flashes are triggered Phottix Atlas trigger on the camera;
The other two SB-26 flashes are triggered by Optical slave.

Before we start…, what is actually the pole dance?

Well, maybe from the influence of the Hollywood movies, but the pole dance still has the reputation of strippers in the night club. Actually it is getting popular as an excercise and something to learn, also it?is gving you the oppurtunity to practice and enjoy spins, acrobatics, floor movement and others tricky things!  She is teaching students from 16 to 60 years of age, so you can do pole dance no matter what age you are, and no matter what job you are doing! Megumi is organizing a party called PDN. It has a different theme every time, for example doing collaboration with salsa and samba dancers, capoeira, or even jazz and and other types of live music combined with pole dancing to create an interesting show, and deliver their concept. Approximately 20 dancers perform on each show, and they dance until late in the night. Pole dance is a way for every woman to polish herself as a beautiful woman in a healthy way. You don’t need to look like a celebrity or have amazing acrobat skills of an olympic player to do pole dance, it can be practiced by everyone no matter of social status and age!

Here is some explanation of Pole Dance in Japanese too in her words:

Lighting

Let me talk about the lighting, in this shoot after a talk with my model, trying to analyze her I decided to go with some edgy lighting, thus putting some emphasize on her beautiful body lines. So I decided to use my strip lights from both sides diagonally and shoot without any light from the front side. I think this really created some images that show in a really good way her body structure. Then after some shots with only the strip lights, I thought to put some life into the background, so here came the flash gels, on this shoot I used blue and purple, as you will see on the shots I’ve uploaded down in the article! And after setting that, it was just about to shoot, she was now posing that much as she was just doing it the way when she is dancing, so I didn’t have to tell her a lot what to do!

I was using my Canon 5DMII camera with my favorite Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L USM lens which gave me some really nice DOF in that small location. I am triggering both of the softbox flashes with a Photix Atlas trigger on my camera, as both of them have a Pocket Wizard II Plus attached! As I ran out of PWs, and the strip lights were pointed to the model with some really narrow light, it was impossible to fire the background flash with the optical slave from them, so I had to think of something tricky – I put another flash in front of her that was being triggered by the softbox impulse, which was pointed to the background flash with a snoot (didn’t want it to mess up the photo) and with this chain reaction I managed to put some color on the background wall!

Megumi Yuzuki Pole Dancer – Profile (Facebook page: Click)

Let me then introduce the model of this shoot, her name is Megumi Yuzuki, and she is a professional dancer, producer, party organizer and studio owner based in Kobe, Japan. She’s been dancing since 6 years old, and is working that for more than 15 years, and Megumi is in excelent pole dancer! In 2009 she choreographed the “Earth Wind and Fire” live show in Japan, and apart of that, Megumi Yuzuki is also an experienced dance teacher. She is also the producer and manager of WulaiKyoto. Megumi is also performing internationally as well as appearing in a various magazines, TV shows,movies and music videos. Apart from pole dance she is also performing street dance, samba and burlesque. Her style is exotic but delicate, passionate and sexy. Wulaikyoto is a wonderfully talented group of beautiful asian dancers with over 20 years of dance experience.

柚月恵プロフィール

幼 少よりクラシックバレエを習い、ダンス歴30年 国立大学ダンス部の非常勤講師を15年、フラメンコなどを習い、ストリートダンスのインストラクターを経て、現在はポールダンスのインストラクターと 、ダンスアーティストグループ、烏來KYOTO代表、柚來激龍波代表、マネージングをこなすマルチタレンテッドなダンスアーティスト。

2008年ブラジルに渡る。

二 十歳以降から海外でのダンスショウケースを数々こなし テレビ出演、雑誌掲載、様々なクラブイベントへの出演や 舞台、企業のパーティーなどで活躍。1999年に烏來KYOTOを立ちあげる。烏來KYOTOは毎年、海外ツアーへ参加し、国内外のVIPアーティス トらと共演をし続け 毎月様々なパーティーに出演。東京ではWOMBやageHaに出演、地方でのショウもこなす。フリーランスのダンスグループとしては稀な安定感で、毎 月出演依頼が絶えない。

Megumi Yuzuki – Pole Dancer

In the end…

One of the favorite things for me to do is to shoot people who are really proficient in the thing that they are doing, and shooting a dancer is a really good example for that! In this case they are really professional, and if you let them know a little bit about the lighting you will use, and how it’s gonna show them, then they will know exactly how to perform in front of the camera! Megumi is an excellent dancer, she she is fantastic when she is moving, so for me it was just pushing the button, after I properly set up the lights! In the end, I want to mention also the location we were shooting, it is a French restaurant in Cobe, called Caliente, you can check out their website here: http://www.calientekobe.com/ Thanks for stopping by on my journal, and stay tuned for more shoots of Megumi, believe me there is a lot more to see!

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