I see a lot of ballroom dance photos on social media. Posed photos. Action photos. Photos of amateurs. Photos of professionals. Photos taken by amateurs. Photos taken by professional photographers.
And some of the ones you post are SO BAD. Maybe it was caught at the wrong time. Maybe your friend took it and tagged you unknowingly. Or maybe you thought it was good.
But your pictures on social media are killing me.
My first instructor made me pay him money* for every bad photo he saw (this was before the interwebs and mega-digital, when there would be huge racks of printed photos at the vendor booths). No doubt I paid him a few bucks before I smartened up. Here's what I've learned:
Rules for Posting Ballroom Dance Photos on the Web
Please post it if...
- You look good. Now you might need a little training in this area (just because you think you look just like Yulia in that picture, doesn't mean you do), but if your first impression is "I look good in this picture" that might be enough. Unless you're not very humble. Or self-deprecating enough. So let's move on...
- You were having fun. Regardless of technique, sometimes, there is a picture that really captured your joy of movement. This often happens when there's a photographer at a social dance and you were whooping it up and not giving a rat's ass about your turn-out.
- It was a once in a lifetime event. You're dancing your father/daughter dance, or your pro is leaving the studio, or you're retiring from competitions, or WHATEVER. If there's a real emotional bit going on, you can give the finger to the rest of my list.
Don't post it if...
- You have two flat feet. This is never a good position to be caught in, both in motion or on camera.
- You had to make up some kind of closed frame to face the camera. This happens often in front of a competition's backdrop for a posed pic with your partner. Both partners want to show their beautiful smiles to the camera AND be in dance frame... to prove they are dancers? Unless you're going to do a legit promenade, same foot lunge (A LEGIT ONE), or counter-promenade, it's not going to happen. Pose like you're at prom and take the damn happy picture.
- You're looking down. There's not many moments when you can truthfully say, "I was being coy" and therefore were purposefully looking down. Again, it's not the best position to be caught in, neither in action nor on camera.
- You're... not... quite... there. A few people look great in the middle of any movement, but for us mere mortals, if you haven't quite gotten to the end of your New Yorker or contra-check, you might have a baby dinosaur arm or a wonky head position, or it might just be so-so looking. Hopefully, the photog was a budding paparazzi and took another shot 1 beat later that you really dig.
- It's blurry, fuzzy, or too far away. Even if you zoom in on a distant one, it isn't a great picture. And we always strive for greatness!
- Your head is in the middle of your frame. This one is a little harder to nail down, if you're in the beginning realms, but if your head angle is parallel, or worse - acute, to your partner's, it's a bad picture.
- Your instructor or partner looks bad. OF COURSE your instructor never looks bad, but there was that one time he really had to sneeze... And sometimes it's hard to tear your eyes away from the beauty that is yourself, but please glance at least once at that person who is holding you and make sure they look normal-ish.
- It has a damn watermark on it. OMG, people. You're stealing. Those photographers are up earlier and stay later than you and are in the ballroom all damn day and you're going to steal a $50 MOST BEAUTIFULLY CAPTURED, PINNACLE MOMENT FROM THEM?! You just paid thousands of dollars to get that move perfected and now you're unwilling to spend the pocket change to have it documented? Boo. Hiss.
*Note: it was $10/bad picture. I'll be making invoices for all of you.
