This post is about more than just images, this is about collaboration with an unbelievable artist.  It’s about a long relationship with a sweet beautiful girl and watching her development in dance and in life.  Jessi is an amazing dancer and makes my life as a photographer easy…  no, really.  Jessi is so aware of the graceful lines she forms as a dancer and of her expressions it’s like working with a professional model or actress, and she’s a sweetheart!

  After seeing Jessi dance at her recital a few years ago I was floored (by the whole recital) these kids were pouring their hearts and emotions into dance and sharing it with the world, I teared up a few times during the recital (I’m a big softie!).  We asked Jessi (and her parents) if she’d like to help us make some unique images in some out of the way locations.  Stark contrast of beautiful dance dresses and costumes in the woods or grungy areas, sounds like a good idea…  It was a great idea!

  We started with Jessi at sunrise (in the middle of the summer, that’s really early) and a bit cool, but Jessi was a trooper…

  After our sunrise fun, we warmed up a little in the car and headed to the woods for more ballet themed images…

  These images are from a while ago and we contacted Jessi to go out again…  These are more senior portrait-like, but have a dance feel to some…

piercing eyes…

love the contrast of the red, and Jessi’s fierceness

breaking loose… loved the grungy wall… my favorite!

After seeing our work with Jessi (and the website), Divine Dance Studio contacted us to do portraits for their annual recital as well as group shots of all the dancers, this is for a later blog post, but I’ll share a few of Jessi’s here…

such elegance and grace and attitude to spare!

  We’ve already discussed another session when her dance schedule and our shoot schedules slow down, I’m sure it will be amazing!