Tinkle Toes

The second full week of this month was devoted to the large dance studio in the next town. We've done action shots for them for nine years :::gasp::: and all of their costume pictures for the last eight. So you have to figure that we've been watching this year's senior class since they were nine years old. :::gack::::


The costumes are cute, the kids, for the most part, cuter. Even most of the moms shirk the whole stage mother complex - although the ones that have it REALLY have it. Again, they should know that your Goddess is the only entitled one around. Fools.


Some of the older kids, knowing my DH's skill, do very fancy-shmancy jumps. Some of them are freakin' incredible....and some of them take a few shots at it to capture the image. The discards can be a source of much hilarity at times, especially when they involved girls who are champions at the National Level. Yep, these are talented kids.


Every year, on the weekend of recital, we sell the action pictures on the last day. These are shots that we take during the dress rehearsal - very intense shooting, and a lot of emotion, too, as we see the dances for the first time. We set up the tables with books of all the action pictures, arranged by costume, and throw every employee we have into the fray. And it IS a fray, or as we like to call it, The Sharks Are Circling; Every Employee For Themselves. Feeding frenzy commences at 11 and we'll be five deep at every section of the table. The DH and I are off to the side, taking orders from the costume shots. One over-priviledged-in-her-own-mind doctor's wife tries every year to get us to let her look at the pictures earlier than everyone else. Every year she has a new 'reason' why she should be allowed to do so. Every year, I tell her, in far more polite customer-speak, to sod off. It's more fun than I should be allowed...but I manage to deal with it.


So, the hordes come down a long corridor to get to the area in which we're set up, and are now programmed to be blown away. For the last few years, we've taken one of the most stunning jumps, not always by one of the biggest headliners, just to mix it up, and blown it up BIG. Framed and put on an easel, it's our signature image for the year. Yeah, we always sell it, but even so we sometimes keep one in the studio too. Just yesterday a parent commented on last year's shot in pride of place in our reception.


This year's shot is of a young lady who, with her siblings, is one of the most polite kids we get to see. Their parents have done a great job. I thought you might like to see what we selected before all of them get to...don't you feel special? Imagine it as a 20x30 portrait framed in white.

Feelin' like a couch potato now, aren't you? LOL