Square dancing still exists… who knew?

This weekend the “Vankleek Hill Square Dance Competition, Showcase & Dance” was held at the Vankleek Hill Community Centre. The organizer said this years attendance was their best ever, so maybe this is the start of one of those “sweeping the nation” moments.

I was just happy to have something to shoot. I missed the first four hours, mostly because I had no idea it was happening. But I arrived just in time to take shots of the ‘Lachute 4-H Senior Team’ and the ‘Vankleek Hill Square Dancers’ — snappier names, in my opinion, would help attendance.

This was the first time I’ve ever taken photos of people square dancing. The main problem is, these kids can freaking move. Everything is spinning here or spinning there, faster than a top. So, with the craptastic lighting they have in the Centre, there’s not much chance of getting anything without a flash.

Which is problem two… the kids are stomping on a plywood floor. When I use flash in a snow storm, or in the rain, the flash reflects off the snowflakes or raindrops. It makes things annoying.

With the kids stomping, the air was filled with dust. So some shots came out great, everything’s in focus, and perfect… except for the dozens or hundreds of reflecting dots.

This is the Vankleek Hill team, and the only way I managed to get this in focus was to shoot on the ‘multiple exposure’ setting and hope for the best.

Combined, I managed to get fifteen usable shots (decent enough to send to the local paper) out of 260 shots taken. Yikes.

…I had to crop the guy’s head off because of the intense glare coming off his head from the fluorescent lights.