Lately I’ve been motivated to make the most of the assignments I shoot. Not that I wasn’t doing so before, but I find sometimes I’m content with shooting a publishable photo from a lame assignment and then moving on to the next thing. I’m trying to push myself to bring back something worthwhile and different from even those visually-lacking situations I find myself in more and more of late.

These photos are from a recent (yet another) dance competition/recital. While not lacking in visuals, I’ve never really gotten excited about shooting these. This time I forced myself to stay until I made photographs that went beyond safe and ordinary. I tried some long exposures and liked how it made the dancers appear ghostly. It’s a start in what I hope becomes a more consistent routine.