Viking Zumba! Benefit for the Viking Hall in Silvana…

What’s that?  Viking Zumba?   Yep.  But without the funny metal helmets, or long blond braids, or loud singing.  Makesha Kinney teaches a class there three nights a week, and this last Sunday she put together a fund raiser for the Viking Hall in Silvana.  More information about her classes can be found on her site, here.  Although the Viking Hall will never get my 5 star rating for the available light (there is none), it does have a low white ceiling (yea!).   I had great time shooting all the folks shakin’ it for a good cause.  Here are some of my favorites!  Huge turnout and from what I hear they are over $1,500 in total funds raised from this event to help with some much needed restoration work.  You can rent the hall too, check out their site here! It may be just right for your party!  Here are some of my favorite photos from the event!

Raffle items!

Makesha had several other Zumba instructors hop up on stage and give everyone a run for their money!

I know it’s not a good idea to tell a group (especially one that’s 99% female) that you need a wide angle lens, but look at this turnout!

Loads of folks having a good time!!

Thanks Makesha for letting me help out the SVH!  Photos of the event will be available with all proceeds gong to the Silvana Viking Hall!  Contact me for the link!

Zumba Stanwood!! More energy than you can shake a stick at!

What a blast!  I had the chance to shoot the grand opening for Studio Z in Stanwood last night, and it wore me out!  I’m glad I was able to hide behind the camera, if I had to participate I don’t think I would have been able to walk the next day!  It was obvious that these ladies love running these classes, and they really pulled all the people in.  I could feel the energy pouring out of the place from the parking lot, and they didn’t let up one bit!  I’ll point you to their site for all the details it’s here: http://www.studiozstanwood.com/.  I think half the fun of shooting this was the energy level.  It is always so much fun to take pictures when people are having a good time, there is lots of energy and emotion.  Helping out was Chris with Your Song DJ, he MC’d and ran the sound for the night, fun to see him out of his tux!

A side note; a lot of these photos are a little blurry, that’s on purpose.  Leme splain it to you…  Ever seen the dance photos that look more like people frozen in weird positions?  Yea we all have, I am not a big fan, and as this (just like the dancing at a wedding) is mostly about motion, I was “dragging the shutter” and in some of them mixing flash to try to push a little more detail into the image.  Some blur, but with some definition.  Flash with a fast shutter would have frozen them, looking like Mr. Roboto with dead batteries.  Some times fast flash & shutter looks great, in fact if you look at the post “White Seamless” (going live tomorrow night) you will see my little gal’s hair flying up, frozen with no blur.  Oh she was moving let me tell you!  But the flash froze her, no flash and she would have been a pink blob on the white..

But back to the photos- lots of people and lots of fun!!

Here are the instructors!

Now…  I’ve saved my two favorite images for last.  They are out of a series of like 7, but these two were my favorites.  Candie was wild, she would get this intense look on her face, and move around faster than I think I ever could, it got the class wound up!!  Nothing like 200+ screaming people working out to some great beats!

Looking back…

Here is a shot from the Benefit ride down at Pacific Raceways in Kent.  This is my buddy Greg Sicotte going through the twisties on the back stretch.  Light was better last year but it’s always fun to be able to shoot bikes doing 50 around an inside turn from three feet off the asphalt.  You can see more of the photos at www.photobby.com , and more here.