Watching the work of Joe McNally’s dance series has always inspired me. Yet, I have never taken the time to photograph dancer on my own. When I had the opportunity to photograph members of Vols en Pointe this past January, I was super excited.

As I was prepping the studio and my subjects were getting ready, the beautiful light outside gave me a spontaneous Joe McNally-esk idea. I took my subjects to a sitting area, outside the building, that over looked Neyland Stadium. The light was rapidly disappearing, so we had to move quickly. I worked a table into position and had my first subject pose on top of it. I set up my light and snapped a few photos as the sun’s rays faded away. All of this happened in just a few minutes.

The sun may have been down but the ambient light was still available in the sky. I moved the framing of my background from the stadium to a clean sky. This allowed me to get a couple more images before things went completely dark.

After our impromptu session outside, we returned to the studio. I began with some inspiration from an image created by Alexis Cuarezma. I’ve followed him for a few years and the dude is an amazing photographer. I love his use of lights and color. I hope I did it justice.

For those that know me, my ADD game is strong. Soon after starting, I began mixing and matching ideas on my shot list with those in my head. Here are a few of the following images we created.