Christmas at New York City: a portrait session with Shania Shields

Christmas at New York City: a portrait session with Shania Shields

Day 5, Part Two of photography workshop with Joe McNally in a New York City studio.

I was looking forward to this part of the workshop most of all as this involved photographing a professional dancer in a studio.

Shania Shields is a 2021 graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and she is a professional dancer, singer and actress who received her BFA studio training in the drama department at Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Acting School and Stonestreet Studios. @shania.aprill

Shania’s stage experience was greatly appreciated by everyone in our group and it was mostly up to our skills as photographers to work fast enough to capture every graceful pose and elegant move. Anyone who had ever modeled for a photography session would agree that posing is not an easy matter. You are asked to freeze and keep the pose or repeat a movement over and over, maintain precision in your position and perfection in your moves and while doing all that, your face needs to express ease and happiness at all times. Kudos to Shania for being a perfect model.

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Christmas at New York City: a portrait session with Danté Crichlow
Outdoor, Travel, Documentary Karina Outdoor, Travel, Documentary Karina

Christmas at New York City: a portrait session with Danté Crichlow

Day 5, Part One of photography workshop with Joe McNally in a New York City studio.

Danté Crichlow is an actor known for Netflix movies “See You Yesterday” (2019 and 2017)and he studied at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Dante was part of our photography group and he graciously agreed to pose for me. I was following Joe McNally’s advice from his book “Sketching Light” to always watch for dusty windows as they are some of the best light diffusers available in the real world. That Sunday morning we found ourselves on an abandoned and badly dilapidated floor of an industrial building with huge windows that hadn't been washed for at least half-century. The bright midday sun rays were bouncing from the opposite buildings and creating ice-like patterns on the glass surfaces. Just gorgeous.

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