Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON
When you come face-to-face with a belly dancer, what’s the first thing you do? Emulate her moves? Naaah. You try and work out the best angle to take a photograph.
She was part of a celebration at Federation Square, here in Melbourne and it was a leisurely lunchtime when the light was great. I was struck by the vivid colours of her costume and of course by the row of miniature gold discs around her entire waist.
I wasn’t using a long lens, so I walked up and asked her if I could stand beside her and take some shots of the wonderful colours around her hips. She thought it was a hoot and told me to go ahead and take as many shots as I wanted.
One small problem. She figured that I wanted her to do her signature belly dance while I took the shots. Er, no. I wanted no movement at all, so I could get a shot without the discs shimmering and jingling in rapid motion.
I reckon I took half a dozen shots before I got this one of the discs as close to sharp focus as possible. Not so much a case of disc jockey, as a clear example of disc jerky.
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