As my wife prepares for her upcoming dance competition in Hong Kong, I was granted the special privilege of joining her at the dance studio for a rehearsal guided by her teacher.

With camera in hand, I had the opportunity to document her hard work, but this visit provided a unique set of challenges that differed significantly from traditional stage photography.

Having never visited the studio before, I had no idea about the space and lighting conditions.

I brought two camera systems—a Hasselblad 907x 100c and the Fujifilm X-Pro3. The set of images I’m sharing here come from the Fujifilm.

I shot with ISO of 400 and 1/125 shutter speed. I relied on continuous AF and set the drive mode to 11 FPS using the electronic shutter to keep the environment quiet. This FPS was fundamental to capture the fast moves and the elegance out of her body and dress.

Both the Fujinon 18mm f/2.0 and 23mm f/2.0 (28mm and 35mm full frame equivalent) proved fast enough and adequate for the spatial conditions.

Yet the real difficulty was composition and background management.

Unlike a performance stage—where controlled spotlights and depth of field can easily isolate the subject—a working dance studio is visually chaotic.

Mirrors covering the walls created complex reflections, a low ceiling cluttered with HVAC and lighting paraphernalia was ever present.

Between the columns, panel joints, and random objects scattered in the walls and corners, it was hard to find a clean frame.

Lastly, I also had to make myself inconspicuous. I didn’t want to be a distraction to my wife; I wanted her to remain fully focused on her dancing.

Balancing the need to find the best angles with the necessity of being as invisible as possible added a significant layer of difficulty to the shoot.

All images above post-processed to taste in Lightroom. Fujifilm PROVIA film simulation applied.