Paul Distefano is a graduate of the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and I was very privileged to do a shoot with him on Portobello beach. He is the first world class dancer I photographed. I could have said world class athlete, because it is absolutely amazing what he can do.
We were very lucky with the Scottish weather, as there was a gorgeous blue sky this late afternoon. After some warm up shots that didn’t pan out (I never worry about getting it right the first time around, the most important thing is to get started), we shot a “West Side Story” style sequence of jumps.
I noticed Paul wore a dark yellow sweater under his leather jacket. Yellow provides great colour contrast with blue, so I asked Paul to take off his jacket. In order to rest his feet for a while, he showed me some incredible balance tricks.
It was then time for another series of jump shots. I never got so many keepers on other shoots, and I believe it is because Paul is able to control his movements with great consistency. Once I had my timing right, I could press the shutter at precisely the same time over and over again catching Paul at the “decisive moment” as Cartier-Bresson would put it.
Paul then offered to jump from the stairs, which I thought was a bit mad, because I know I would have injured myself badly trying this stunt. He told me he could only attempt this jump two or three times, as it is quite tough on his feet. No kidding. I had my camera on burst shooting mode and I got the picture I was looking for on the first try.
That was enough jumping for the day. Paul then showed me some ballet poses. As you can see, world class dancers are not only top athletes, but also incredibly graceful in their movements.
Finally, as the sun set, we did a quick sequence of shots against the evening sky. The picture below is my favourite.
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