Professional Photos -- A Worthy Investment!

This past weekend I finally took the plunge and invested in a professional photo session with my dear friend Liora K Photography. Liora's been getting a lot of attention from the media lately for her feminist photo series and the Attractive + Fat photos that she took for The Militant Baker, and for good reason. She's great at what she does.

It's hard to make the decision to invest in professional photos as a semi-pro dancer. The majority of my gigs are still unpaid, and my main investment of course has to be my education, followed by the occasional new costume piece (or, if I'm at Tribal Fest, a whole BUNCH of costume pieces since I could try them all on). However, I felt like the time had come to make sure that I had a great headshot (see above!!!) and plenty of beautiful photos for my website, blog, and any promotional materials I might need to make. Since I had a bunch of great new costumes and Liora and I both had a weekend free, it was time.

The great thing about Liora is not only is she a true professional with a dedicated home studio, professional backdrops and lighting (not to mention training and mad skillz), but since she's also a bellydancer, she gave great directions, like "Channel Mardi Love" or "Give me a really big right maya." She knows the terminology, she knows what looks good on a dancer's body, and she didn't try to direct me into any cheezy stereotypical Egyptic poses.

I love the above photo, because not only is it pretty, but I think it really captures my dance persona, ethereal, mysterious, and probably daydreaming or plotting something.

I am really excited to share more of these photos with you in the future. And be sure to come back tomorrow to see what else we did while I was in her studio! I think you'll love it!