Ballet dancer turning shot by San Francisco fitness, dance, editorial and annual report photographer Robert Houser.
So I had this idea, could I shoot a ballet dancer twirling, from both directly above, and directly below? That motion and blur contrasted with the stillness of her face. I knew it would be a challenge to get the motion right and it turned out that I needed to shoot at a 1/200th of a second to freeze her face. She had to spot looking straight up. If you have ever done a panned blur shot, you know a long lens accentuates the movement, but with a dancer from above, a long lens was out of the question. I was at 29mm, so not an ideal lens length for panning. I augmented the rotation of the floor in post.