From the Nominator

"Photographing dance performances in a way that presents something new or unique--something different than the usual dancer floating through the air or a high kick or a synchronized hands-up stop action frame--is a challenge all photographers could impose upon themselves. What can I do differently? How can I tell a story in one frame?

Each year for the past eight years, Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Institutional Marketing and Communications photographer Stephen Speckman shoots the spring and fall concert rehearsals for SLCC Dance Company. For the photo submitted, Work it!, Mr. Speckman sought to capture the energy and fierceness, the power and strength of the group with a bit of technical wizardry. Using a Nikon D500 at the front of the Grand Theatre stage on SLCC's South City Campus, he employed a 24-70 mm, 2.8 lens, exposing at 1/8 of a second at f/4.5 and ISO 125 with changing, variable light (auto white bal.), using the slow exposure to zoom in and out for each frame.

The result is a stunning, bold, and inspiring image of just how hard the dancers work and how much energy they bring to the stage. The editor of SLCC Magazine ended up using it as a panoramic on the inset of the Summer/Fall 2021 edition for a bold beginning to a reader experience."

From the Judges

The judges kept coming back to this dance photograph. The image does does an exceptional job of capturing the high energy of the dancers in a unique way via the long exposure. The vibrancy of the red background contrasting with the green pants of the dancers makes this image pop, along with the expressions and movement of the dancers.