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Watch how this photographer defies gravity in this inverted room set

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Portraying things in photographs that shouldn’t be physically possible fascinates a lot of photographers. They love to smile proudly when they see people post “Photoshopped, lol!” in Facebook groups in response to their work. Defying gravity is always a hot topic for this kind of thing, particularly levitation.

But in this mind bending shoot, there’s no Photoshop trickery, no erased wires or cloned out supports. Just good old fashioned ingenuity and photography. Created by photographer Daniel DeArco with the assistance of a rather talented dancer and crew, these images and video are just fantastic.

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Capturing motion in-camera using flash, with Manuel Cafini

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I recently came across the work of Italian photographer Manuel Cafini over on Facebook, and I was instantly blown away.  His Chronophotography project particularly intrigued me, as it’s a look I’ve attempted and failed to create myself a number of times.

Chronophotography is defined as “an antique photographic technique from the Victorian era (beginning about 1867-68), which captures movement in several frames of print. These prints can be subsequently arranged either like animation cels or layered in a single frame.”

Manuel has updated the basic principles and brought it to the present day.  So, we reached out and contacted Manual to get some insight into his process.

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How To Shoot Photos Of Dancers and Flour

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One of the many types of people photography that I love to do is anything involving dance. I love the motion, the grace, and the positions dancers are capable of. I try whenever I can to do something a little different with dancers. Something where they are out of their normal dance studio surroundings. There are so many different things you can do. One thing that can be a lot of fun and really make your dance images stand out is to photograph dancers along with some form of flying powder. Dance is so dynamic and adding flour, talcum powder, powdered paints, water and things like that can really add to an image and make it really vibrant.

I’ve done these sort of dance images a number of times and have used various powders. My favorite is plain old flour because you can buy so much of it so cheaply. Talcum powder just seems too fine and is more expensive. Tempera paints are a lot of fun and add a lot of color to your images. Just be aware that these powdered paints can get all over and into everything and can be hard to remove. Some of my lights are still covered with yellow from years ago! For any images using powders you will want a lot of room and be in a space that you are not afraid of getting covered with the powder. Clean up can be a nightmare! Outside in the dark would be a good option if it’s not windy if you can find a place.

These sorts of images are not very difficult to do (except for the cleanup!) I will describe what I have found to work for me and talk about one of my more recent powder images, Dark Angel. This is a concept I had tried years before but was unable to get the wings to shape properly and was more fortunate a couple weeks ago when I tried again.

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Enrapturing Portraits Explore The Athelticism, Strength, And Form Of Dancers

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Dancers are known for their gracefulness and poise, for the great stamina and strength. A study of the human form wouldn’t be complete without visiting the a dance studio. There’s a level of dedication and perseverance in great dancers that sparks an inner connection between the physical and the mental–a culmination of beings that only great photographers can capture. [Read More…]

Dutch Photographer Shows The Athletic Side Of Pole Dancing In Original Photo Series “Pole Fitness”

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It’s pretty safe to assume when someone hears mention of “pole dancing” their mind automatically starts thinking of dark, smokey strip clubs. There’s some fairly negative connotations, and for the most part, the stigma attached to the term is not necessarily a prudent one. However, a Dutch photographer by the name of Bart Erkamp is on a mission to show the other side of pole dancing.

You see, pole dancing isn’t just something found in sketchy clubs on the outskirts of town, it’s also a the basis of a rapidly growing fitness movement. In fact, gyms all around the globe are beginning to offer pole dancing classes as a legitimate way to get fit–no sultriness required. There’s classes for men, women, children–people from all walks of life are invited to get in on the fun. There’s also a world championship and governing body, the International Pole Sports Federation, that is trying their darnedest to make pole dancing an Olympic sport.[Read More…]

New Interactive Video Uses 9 Nikon D750’s To Let You Pick The Perspective

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Finally, a less annoying use of annotations on Youtube! The creators of the video below, produced by Nikon Asia, put those annoying pop up annotations to work as a way to make the video an interesting piece of interactive  media. Featuring the dance crew, Morning Of Owl, the clip is a five minute long break dance session that was filmed using 9 different Nikon D750’s.

What sets this video apart from other multi-camera videos is that viewers can switch between all nine of the different camera perspectives at their own free will, simply by clicking on one of the camera icon annotations that appear throughout the clip. Upon clicking a new camera, the YouTube loader will automatically switch the perspective at the same time stamp where you left off.

It’s similar to a choose your own adventure story, only this one uses cameras, which of course makes it better. [Read More…]

Revisiting Shinichi Maruyama’s “Nude”; 10,000 Photos Of Nude Dancers Composited Into One

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A well made photograph never gets boring to look at. As proven by the images that make up Shinichi Maruyama’s Nude series, which features gorgeous photographs of nude dancers. The photographs, however, are not your average studio shot and that beautiful display of the dancers motion wasn’t captured using long exposure techniques as you might suspect. Rather, Maruyama photographed the dancers using frame rates near 2,000 frames per second. In total, each individual image you see is actually made up of about 10,000 frames that were composited together during post production.[Read More…]

How Six Of The World’s Most Difficult Ballet Moves Were Captured In Slow Motion

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When we came across this video, we were captivated. I’ve always been in awe of ballet dancers. They possess the most amazing hidden strength, machine-like precision, and grace beyond words.

What happens when you ask six incredibly talented ballet dancers to show you their hardest move and film it in slow motion? You gain an even greater appreciation for the skill they possess. This is exactly what Jason Aldag from the Washington Post’s PostTV did and the results are fascinating.

Aldag told me he wanted to show the Washington Post audience “something unexpected.” But, in doing so, he’s shown the world what these dancers can do. He even admitted that he “knew that ballet dancers were athletic but [he] was blown away by what the Washington Ballet crew showed [him] that day.”

Check out these amazing performers in the video after the jump

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