Capturing the magic of dance with a digital camera

A simple twist of fate or the result of one’s talent and dedication. Whichever way you put it, Art of Light photographer G-nie Arambulo is getting the fulfillment to a lifelong dream.

Now on her 10th year as a professional photographer, G-nie gathers her years of experience into a big event of her own, Dance With Me, a digital photography exhibit featuring Ballet Manila on view from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19. This is in connection with the inauguration of the new Aliw Theater at Star City, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd, Pasay City.

The idea of dance as her subject came to G-nie a year ago when she was doing advertising photography work for a baby milk product. The ad featured Missy, daughter of world-renowned ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde.

"We have to shoot Missy dancing. And for her to dance, Lisa must dance with her. We shot the ad in Lisa’s dance studio, and that’s how I met Lisa," recalls G-nie.

Impressed by the photographer’s exceptional talent in capturing the right dance moves, Lisa invited G-nie to Ballet Manila’s Dracula to take pictures of the performances. By the time the show was over, G-nie was sure, she is going to do an exhibit on dance.

All the right opportunities were on her side. Lisa was enthusiastic about doing photography featuring Ballet Manila. G-nie’s mentor, John Chua of Adphoto, had been encouraging her to an exhibit. G-nie was definite the time has come to showcase her talent and hard work.

The young photographer could not conceal her excitement on this project.

"This is something I can really call my own. It’s doing photography purely for art. All the concepts and art direction are mine, of course, since I don’t dance naman. Lisa and Sash of Ballet Manila were there to help out with the choreography," she says.

Despite the tight schedule G-nie acknowledges the advantage of working with two allied advertising photography studios, Adphoto and Art of Light, Inc. She is able to harness her talents and skills as a photographer, and more importantly, master digital photography, which the studios said greatly advocate.

G-nie said even with her years of experience as a photographer, it would be twice as difficult to do an exhibit on dance if it were not for the digital camera.

Dance With Me is one year’s worth of hard work. But for G-nie, it is 10 years in the making – a product of her talent, passion, and creative experience as a photographer. Culminating her 10th year with an exhibit on dance, she is ready to take on a new challenge.

"My ultimate goal is to do travel photography. Everytime I go places, I always bring home a lot of stock shots with me. Travel is not possible to do at the moment because of my schedule, but someday that’s definitely what I’m going to do," shares the passionate photographer.