Mad Man Mikey's Mondo Hafla

My apologies to the dancers in Zafirah's troupe

2010-12-11T16:18:00.000-08:00

To see the entire set of photos, click on this link.

The ladies performed a week ago tonight at the Mango in Nile, Il. It was, in fact, their first performance out. Zafirah had asked me to come down and photograph it for them. I did and promised I would have the pictures posted about 4 days ago.

My bad.

Ladies, download whatever you like - it's on me. You can get to the entire set by clicking on the link below the picture above. Of course, the links to all the dancers pictures are up.

Recently, when posting pictures I have decided to bore people by mentioning certain things - sometimes technical, sometimes logistical - about the set posted. I really don't have a lot to say about this set that does not duplicate what I have said about previous sets shot with my Digital Rebel T1i.

Simply put, either my abilities went down a notch or three the day I got the Rebel or the Rebel is just not up to working with me. My guess is that the Rebel was simply not made for quick, sharp focusing. Likely, it is underpowered for the number of shots I take at a sitting (typically over 500 shots per event).

My plan, photographically, is to get either a 60D or a 7D (there's about a $500 price difference between the two). Next plan is to get a USM lens - they focus more quickly. And the true D line tends to grab focus more quickly and sharply.

This will take a while - my resources are pretty limited. However, it's what I am determined to do, so it's going to be done. Hmmmm... Maybe a PayPal donate button>

Arabesque Belly Dance final hafla of 2010

2010-11-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

To see the entire set, click this link or the picture above

While this blog has set fallow for quite a while, that doesn't mean there's been nothing going on (either with local belly dance or my photographing of it). Most of the belly dance shots I have been doing have ended up on either my other blog - upyourasa.com - or my website - mikasiphotography.com.

While their next hafla is not scheduled till March, Sonya (owner of Arabesque) said they would be doing more shows instead of haflas next year. So you can count on more things happening there after the new year begins.

The stage lighting at Arabesque is a lot better than at other studio venues. The trick is catching the dancers while they are in the lights. For my part, I have to make sure to shoot faster for their next hafla. Too slow of a shutter speed made for too many blurred shots in this set. Also, I have a new plan for color balancing at their hafla - which is sometime in March.

Enjoy the pictures. Gank what you need. And drop a line if I can help you with something.
M.

The Hiptastic Photos are Up!

2010-09-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

to link to the website click here

The link above will take you to the website. From there click the Hiptastic link. That will take you to the pictures. This time they are separated into one gallery per dance act. All acts are identified by name.

None of the galleries have very many photos in them. This was intentional and in response to past suggestions that I pare things down, sacrificing quantity for quality. We'll see how this goes over.

May you enjoy the photos. There's a link on the top of every page making it easy to share them with people in Facebook, MySpace, and other web 2.0 sharing sites.

To the dancers, thanks for all your hard work your great performances. Nilaja, thanks for having me. I really enjoyed the opportunity to get all snaptastic with a gaggle of bellydancers gracing the lenses.

Mango Hafla, September 2009

2009-09-07T02:04:00.000-07:00

I had promised myself I would finish these photos before bed. They are uploading now, and now is 4am. From now on I only make myself happy, pleasant promises - like "I will finish the pictures by Wednesday", or "I shall have cake."

I hope you will enjoy the pictures. It's time for bed.

Please click one of the ads to the right. Every click helps. Thanks!

Checked my stats today and noticed...

2009-09-02T09:29:00.001-07:00

that were were a big group of visits from Pelotas, Brazil. Why? That I can't tell you, but there is one thing to say -

Pélas de Grettings, Brasil! Aqui de Contente de vê-lo!!!!!!

Shaia Fahrid and students at a Milwaukee benefit...

2009-08-13T20:40:00.000-07:00

Please click on one of the ads to the right.
It helps me keep the lights on. Thanks!

Originally shot in Mid April of this year, this set of shots was relegated to the bottom of the pile until recently. My aplogies to Shia on that, as she and her students deserved better treatment.

The venue was incredibly small, and so was the stage. But the women (and one man) filled it with grace.

I took over 225 shots at this event. My goal in editing this set was to whittle it down to 50 shots. I was unable to do it - there are 62 shots here. There was just too much stuff,and I know some good shots hit the cutting room floor along the way.

Expecting a shorter show I was a doofus and did not pack enough batteries to power the flash through till the end. It died with a couple of dancers left to go so the end of the performance went unrecorded.

If you are interested in learning more about Shaia's Milwaukee school you can get information from www.milwaukeebellydance.com/ . At the very least you should check their performance schedules. The shows are more than worth attending.

If you're reading this you already know...

2009-08-13T20:22:00.001-07:00

that this blog is unfortunately updated on the most irregular of schedules. The last update was four months ago and the update that will go up shortly is of pictures that should have been processed and posted in the middle of April.

Suffice it to say that my work schedule - two jobs, one of which is physically tiring and the other which was just a pain in the ass - took up a lot of my energy. In the hours between I either played video games to unwind (yes, I am such a guy) or worked some freelance photo jobs to help make ends meet.

Things have changed a bit in the last two and a half weeks now. I've abandoned one of the jobs and cut down hours on the other. Photography -which I love doing and working on - is taking up more of my time, though not enough yet. As it is, I finally have the time, energy and motivation to start putting out some photography.

And that means I should start having more time and resources to update this blog.

To make it easier on the few of you who visit here I have opted to cut down on the number of photos I show in each set. My goal is no more than 50 shots per set. That saves you time and helps make sure the quality of what you see is better.

Anyhow, it's time to stop blathering and end this. I have another set to post.

Mike

Erika Ochoa at the Chicago Botanical Gardens...

2009-08-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Erika led a class of volunteers into the world of Belly Dance 101

These were edited with my laptop. As you might know, the brightness of a shot varies depending on what angle you see the picture from. I was hoping to get these right, but am afraid they are a bit too dark (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 stop).

My apologies if they are. This week I don't have time to fix them so you have a big mea culpa from me on this one!

2009-04-19T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wanted to thank Rowena for looking so good in this photo - her "shine" got me invited to join a belly dance photo group on Flickr.com where I host my photos.

Thanks Rowena!

MidNight Tribe with Mother Grove at Ballydoyle Downers Grove

2009-03-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture above to see the photo set.

Thanks to the women of MidNight Tribe, a tribal fusion belly dance troupe from Chicago's northwest suburbs for inviting me to this gig.

The Ballydoyle in Downers Grove is no small place... not unless you pack it full of a Celtic band - Indianapolis' own Mother Grove - a troupe of belly dancers and a huge group of folks who destined to enjoy themselves.

Manoeuvring the crowd was tough and there simply weren't a lot of angles to shoot from. But I did what I could.

I even tried a new shooting style to see if I could take advantage of the band's lighting. For a first attempt it worked pretty well.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pictures - and ladies, thanks again for the invite.

Mikasi

March Halfa at the Sphinx - Mango

2009-03-09T16:16:00.001-07:00

[to see the photo set please click the picture.

to see about purchasing pictures click here - the event password is "mango".

please click at least one of the google ads to the right - it helps support this blog. thanks!]

It's been a while since I was last at the Sphinx to enjoy the belly dancing and food – so long that they'd changed the name and the buffet. What was then the Sphinx is now the Mango, a Latino dance club I believe. And, unfortunately, what was a Middle Eastern buffet is not Mexican.

Lord, but I miss that hummus.

But while some things changed some remained the same. Fifteen really excellent acts filled the floor and I was able to reconnect with some dancers who I'd known in passing, including the hostess, Zayna.

I snapped loads of pictures, but due to a pinched nerve never ventured from my seat. The one angle made the shots repetitious. For this reason I've limited the number of pictures posted – instead of putting things up en masse, I've elected to post just my faves from each performer. That means that some people got as few as 3 shots while others got upwards of ten.

So if my flash misfired – and it did a lot – or the focus was off – and it was often – then you were short changed here. And for that I apologize.

Ladies and Essam, please feel free to use any of these shots on your web pages or for other personal reasons. If you need them for professional reasons please email me and we can arrange something.

Thank all of you for sharing your time and your talent. We all look forward to next month.

2008-12-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

These are the rest of the shots from the Amarain Student Showcase, December 13th (for the first set see the prior posting, Dance the Huda).

This is a mixed batch of photos, ranging from the very good to the very bad. Most of the ones I consider bad were shot in flash. Flash, especially the on-board flash, can be harsh. In some cases here it really ruins the picture.

On the bright side, the ambient light shots worked much better. And in some shots - notably Hafiza's - the shots were really good. Anyhow, enjoy the shots and ladies, again thanks for having me!

Let's dance the Huda...

2008-12-18T12:12:00.001-08:00

Or however it is spelled

This past weekend was the Amarain Student Showcase, held in Kenosha at the Ruether High School Auditorium.

The ladies - and one gentleman (hey Jim) - worked their bottoms off for this one.

The Huda was the last student number in the show. The 20 shots linked to this entry (and to that picture) are from the preshow last minute practise of the number.

I'm far from a great photographer so these shots don't do the dancers justice. But I hope they at least give and idea of how much energy and fun went into this performance.

FYI - there's another set of photos coming being posted, hopefully tomorrow, from the dress rehearsal held earlier in the week. You'll get an email when they get posted.

Enjoy!

Hiptastic 2008

2008-11-14T12:25:00.000-08:00

One of the bad things about the workaday world is that it gets in the way of what you really like to do, in my case photography. Because I work Saturday and Sunday I miss a lot of the belly dance shows in the area. Hiptastic, held about three months ago, was a show that I sort of missed. Because my wife was in the show, though, I did my best to catch it.

Normally, I shoot about 200-400 shots per show. But on this show I came in after the midway point and just decided not to stress about it. That's why there are so few shots. To catch the other 16 shots from this show click here or on the picture above.

Enjoy!

Jim Boz Show...

2008-09-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week here, belly dance wise. Hiptastic was in Round Lake this past week and the week before was the Jim Bozz show. All in all, over 8Gb in photos were shot along with well over an hour of video.

An therein lies the problem - there's just too damned much stuff to post in a timely manner.

If you see your video in here and it shouldn't be, email me right away and I will remove it. On the other hand, if you want a quick copy of your performance in a higher quality email me about that too. Hopefully I will have time to put your pictures up here in the next week.

Thanks!
Mikey

Belly Dancers perform and the Wisconsin State Fair...

2008-08-06T05:16:00.000-07:00

These pictures were taken on the night of Sunday August 3rd at the Wisconsin State Fair over at the World Stage area.

Belly Dancers from around the area were scheduled to do a series of shows on the evenings of Sunday until Tuesday I believe. Frankly, I am buried under about a thousand more photos and can't spare the time to get all the facts.

There's a lot of repetition in these photos. To the casual viewer I say "sorry" but this was done hopefully to be helpful to the women who performed. I hope you can find something you like so you can either put it on your web page, your MySpace or even just show your S.O. or family what it is you spend such time on, working hard.

See you girls next year.

Veils of Light pictures... finally

2008-03-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Had a world of problems with the coloring in these pictures - the entire photo took on the cast of the dancers' outfits. Trying to get these to color balance correctly was a bitch. Good thing nobody's getting charged for anything , eh?

Anyhow, These shots are from last Saturday's Veils of Light belly dance fund raiser held at the Kenosha Woman's Club. The event raised money for Women and Children's Horizon, a group dedicated to helping domestically abused women and children.

Organizing the event was Lori Dale along with her student body from Amarain Belly Dance Studio and some other belly dancers from throughout the area . The evening's special guest performance was by Christina King of the Blue Lotus Tribe. Ms. King's performance was a fantastic topper to an already great evening of fun, dance and food.

I am hoping to soon get permission from Ms. King to post at least some of her pictures here. If/When that happens I'll send ya'll the link.

Veils of Light Part II...

2008-03-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Jut finished all the pictures in the first program only to find a conflict in the second. I will have these pasted by tomorrow mid-afternoon. would work on them more today, but work just called me in on a day off.

I appreciate your patience.

Veils of light pictures...

2008-03-12T16:03:00.000-07:00

Folks, please forgive me for being so late in getting these up. At events like this I shoot a format that needs extra work before posting. But while it is time consuming to work with it also very forgiving and allows for lots of variables.

Know that right n ow I am in the middle of 380 photos editing my brains out. I will have these up by tomorrow night. And then I will send out the link.

Thanks for your forbearance.

Mad Man Mikey

Sphinx Hafla Pictures, March 2008...

2008-03-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

(This post was first published on Monday, March 3rd, 2007 in Piczilla)

For your enjoyment this picture links to over 225 photos of the dancers at the March Hafla over at the Sphinx. These have been posted so the dancers might have a chance to grab some shots of themselves performing if they wish.

Feel free to pass this page link or the email I sent you on to friends or family - I could use the hits on my counter! And if you need to contact me about any of the pictures, just leave a comment here or drop me an email. I'll get back at you as soon as possible.

If you would, please click on at least one of the ads on this page. It helps me keep the lights on. Thanks!!

Picture Uploads from the Feb 08 Sphinx Hafla...

2008-03-07T05:38:00.000-08:00

(This post was first published on Friday, February 3rd, 2007 in Piczilla)

Hello Ladies and Gentleman,

My name is Mike (as in madmanmikey, the guy who sent you the email inviting you here) and I am the man who sat on the floor of the Sphinx shooting an unGodly number of photos of the lot of you at last night's Hafla.

Thanks for your performances. My wife and I enjoyed all of your work. Please know that if I was in your way (or in the way of one of your loved ones) you have my apologies. I hope the following photos justify your annoyance.

Now before you skip to the link I have to ask a favor. To the right you see some ads. Please click on at least one of them. The clicks help me keep the lights on here, so to speak.

Thanks.

Now here is your photo link. Enjoy!!

Autumn Belly Dance

2008-03-07T05:34:00.000-08:00

(This post was first published on Friday, February 3rd, 2007 in Piczilla)

The last month and a half have been pretty awful - anything that could go wrong did. That's why it took so long to get this set of belly dance photos from the Jasmin Jahal Autumn Hafla done.

But finally they are done and delivered. I posted 30 of them on my Flickr site. Click on the photo to take a gander.

This one's for the girls... and one guy

2008-03-07T05:28:00.000-08:00

(This post was first published on Friday, October 9th, 2007 in Piczilla)

My wife and I went to the Sphinx in Niles last Saturday to join in the Hafla (Arabic for "party"). I took the camera, promising myself I wouldn't shoot wild like always. While not the best at sticking to my resolution, I at least only took less than 100 pictures. And that's not bad as a start for tapering off.

(Click on the picture to see the entire set!)

Anyhow, here's a sampling of the pictures shot that night. To be honest, I am far from thrilled with the results, getting only two or three I liked. But my percentages will get better under bar lighting - or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Thanks to the dancers for all their hard work - my wife and I appreciated it - and we look forward to seeing you all again in November.

A quick plea and reminder - if you could, please click on one of the adds to the side. It helps me keep the lights on. Thanks!

Heather's First Hafla

2008-03-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

(This post was first published on Friday, August 31, 2007 in Piczilla)

Well it took long enough, but finally I had a morning in which to go through Heather's hafla pictures and get them posted. Heather is no newbie to public or even solo performance. But this is her first hafla at this particular bar. And assuming patrons and owner alike enjoy it this may just become an every week thing.

For my part, all I have to say is thanks for the fun evening Heather, and here's to hoping there are many more!