DanceSport calendars: the artist

George Pytlik sold his first piece of artwork at the age of 14. As a teenager, he was heavily inspired by impressionists like Cezanne, expressionists Van Gogh, Monet, Max Herman Pechstein, and by the mastery of light and shade demonstrated by Rembrandt and Renoir. His charcoal drawings of ocean scenes proved both popular and a source of confidence for his creative ability.

In high school, George discovered that photography was also an art. He worked with a number of top fashion and commercial photographers to develop his skills. As he moved into a career as an advertising creative director, he sought new ways to combine his artistic skills and love of photography. He began using brushed painting techniques to enhance photographs, but struggled to find subjects that made good use of this technique.

After he took up the sport of ballroom dancing, these passions all came together. George saw great potential in applying his photography with the specialized brushstroke artwork he had perfected. "Adding brush strokes to dance photos lets me emphasize the drama and motion inherent in the sport," he says. "I can also bring attention to the lines and other parts of the image that I want to highlight."

When shooting DanceSport, George loves to capture the emotional drama of the dances. "There is so much drama on the competition floor," he explains. "Most DanceSport photographers focus on lines, but I love to capture the emotions on the faces of the competitors -- the intensity and passion they have for this sport." You can see the results in the images on these calendars.

George is a competitive dancer, so he knows how to shoot ballroom dancing.

Since it takes time from the moment the mind decides to take a picture until the image is actually captured, the dance photographer needs to know when the right moment will take place before it actually happens.

This involves a remarkable understanding of how each move will transition into another, including knowledge of which way a woman's head will turn, how bodies will rotate next and other aspects of dance movement that ensure strong photographic images.

Above-average awareness of these qualities have helped make George's photos among the most sought after DanceSport photos in the world.

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