Belly Dancers, Beautiful Women, Beautiful Photographs

I recently had the photo shoot of a "Middle East" experience at the Casablanca Hookah Lounge in Sarasota the other day.  I got to meet the lovely Bethsheba Almah and her beautiful Goddesses of Sisterly Love.  These ladies have a unique bond that Bethsheba Almah has brought into her teachings of the art of belly dance.  There is a camaraderie and love that these ladies not only share but express in their incredibly sensual dances that would make it tough for any photographer not want to shoot.
That being said, you can see more of these photos at my website www.imagesbydavidtaylor.com look for my Folder "Things Sarasota" and you will see "Belly Dancers".
So how do you go about and shoot "Belly Dancers"? It is a little more complex than just point and shoot, especially if you are in a lounge environment that has a number of patrons watching the show.  Of course the shows venue was not lit up like one would like, so we have to go to the ISO factor.  Yep, I had to shoot on ISO3200 to get some shots of the girls dancing, especially interesting where shots of the girls dancing with veils.  Now these photos being shot at that high of an ISO will have a lot of noise (pixalation, as it is called in the business) and will not have much value unless you go to your photoshop type program and start doing some extra work.  And that is a another story, so how did I take these shots. Of course the shot in the upper left, I used my flash (SB-800), shutter speed of 60th of second, aperture of F/8, straight forward stuff, right?!!  So for the belly dancers to have motion in there photos, I was using an F/stop of F8,  ISO of 3200, shutter speed of 3 seconds... yes I know that was a long time but in that time,  I got some amazing photos, like the shot below, of course I am using the Nikon D90 and my 18 to 105mm zoom lens, a good D-SLR does help!
In looking for a different type of subject, look out for any belly dancers, the costumes are very colorful, the dancing is amazing and the people are wonderful. Use your camera to capture a "moment in time" of a belly dancer doing her exotic moves and you will have some spectacular photos!!  And as always, have fun shooting!!!