Long Exposure + Flash: How I Photographed Dancing Meditation

Alex is a bodywork practitioner and runs an event called Dancing Meditation. It's meditation through dancing, set to good music, without the spiritual framework.

I’ve been working on Alex’ materials for a while: his websites, print materials, branding and more. 

When we started developing the branding for the new event Dancing Meditation, we needed photos. Photographing the actual event though didn’t seem appropriate. People needed to be able to dance freely without being watched or feel like they’re being judged - and oh, how judgmental can a camera feel, right? So, we needed a different way to visualise the event. 

We wanted images that captured the essence of the experience without documenting the event itself. Photos that showed movement, presence, individual expression - the feeling of Dancing Meditation without violating its intimacy.

While developing the brand, I used stock photography as placeholders. I gave this a minimum viable product phase, while Alex started setting up a Facebook group and events. None of the stock photos ever felt completely suitable though. I would search for somewhat suitable images for a long time and even then I cropped them quite a bit to just give an essence of movement. It's hard to find images of people dancing that aren't either professional dance setups or party scenes. None of those felt intimate or grounded enough. None of those captured the emotion we wanted to display. But I was mesmerized by some long exposure shots of dancers in studios I'd seen.

I pitched Alex an idea: what if we did a staged shoot with some of his regular participants? Long exposure to capture the movement as trails of motion, combined with flash to freeze their faces and expressions. Movement and presence in one image.

There was just one problem: I didn't actually know how to execute this technique properly.

So I learned.

The Learning

For this project, I knew the concept - long exposure plus flash - but I didn't know the technical execution. So I reached out to an experienced photographer friend and colleague. I showed him some sample images I'd found and explained what I was trying to achieve.

He walked me through rear curtain sync - a flash setting I'd never used before. The default setting for flash photography has the flash firing at the beginning of the exposure. With rear curtain sync, the flash fires at the end. This means the long exposure captures the movement as blurred trails first, then the flash freezes the subject sharp at the end of that movement.

This creates a specific visual effect: the blur shows where the subject has been, and the sharp image shows where they are. When you fire the flash at the start, the motion trails that happen afterward can make the frozen image less sharp - they're layered on top of it. By firing at the end, you get the sharp frozen shot on top of everything else, which gives you a clearer, crisper final image. Perfect for what I wanted. You see the dance happening, but you also see the person's face, their expression, the presence in that moment.

We decided to shoot in the actual event space at the time and set up black paper on the walls. It was experimental and a bit makeshift, but we wanted to keep costs down and since Alex had already booked the space we had time without needing to book a studio.

The Shoot

We invited three of Alex's regular Dancing Meditation participants to the shoot: Mikka, Marie, and Sylvester. Alex played music and tried to recreate the feel of an actual Dancing Meditation session - but we also gave some direction. Each participant needed something slightly different.

Mikka was very open to experimenting for the camera. He gave us a lot of different movements and was very precise in his execution. His images turned out almost geometric: sharp angles, deliberate poses - but they also felt transcendent. There's a clarity to them.

Marie needed to get into the flow first. We let her move more freely, find her rhythm. Her movements were flowing and her images have an almost melancholic quality, very feminine, very otherworldly. There's a softness to them that's quite different from Mikka's precision.

Sylvester gave us simple, slow movements. His images are the most minimal of the three - quiet, introspective. They look like he's just stepping out of his body. There's a stillness even in the movement.

The unpredictability of long exposure meant we took a lot of shots. Over 100 in total. Some worked beautifully, some didn't work at all. You can't fully control what a 10-second exposure will capture when someone is moving freely. That's part of what makes the technique interesting. There's an element of chance.

We also did a bunch of group shots with all four of them (Alex included). One of those became the money shot. All four dancing together, the long exposure capturing their movement in different directions, but all their faces sharp and clear. Joyful, relaxed, excited. They're all in completely different poses but it all works together. That image represents everything we wanted to say about Dancing Meditation.

After the shoot, I had significant editing work to do. The black paper didn't cover everything perfectly - I'd walked outside the margins while shooting. So there was a lot of background cleanup. Color correction and refinement. But the core of the images: the movement, the expressions, the feeling - that was all captured in camera.

The Result

The long exposure creates something unique to still photography. You see both the movement as ghostly trails and the person's face frozen sharp and clear. Joy, concentration, peace - you can read it all in these captured moments.

And they're functional. We use them on the website, on posters and flyers, on Instagram. They're striking enough to stop someone scrolling, and they actually represent what Dancing Meditation is.

People have responded strongly to them. They stand out from other similar event promotions.

I'm also not done with this technique. I want to refine it more, maybe with a proper studio setup, cleaner backgrounds, more controlled lighting. I'd love to work with contemporary dancers or ballet dancers and see what happens with more choreographed movement. This project was the beginning of learning something, not the end of it.

How I Work

I do photography, video editing, motion design, branding, web design. When a project needs a specific technique I don't know yet, I figure it out. I consult people with specialized knowledge. I experiment. I execute.

That's the work: understanding what a project needs, learning what I need to learn, connecting with people, and executing even when the process is experimental.

The technique serves the concept. Long exposure + flash was the right solution for capturing movement and presence without disrupting the intimate space where Dancing Meditation actually happens.