Ella's spring ballet recital. 

Photography

As so often happens, the start of the dance recital was an announcement for no flash photography.  No surprise to me- though I did watch my brother and a few others scramble to figure out how to use their cameras in auto mode without a flash.  Not only are the flashes distracting to the wee little dancers, they are absolutely UNNECESSARY!  The stage is lit with plenty of light to properly expose a photo.  A flash will actually mess up your composition by providing light in the foreground- ie the audience sitting in front of you- where you don't want there to be any light.  (And, chances are, your flash on your camera isn't powerful enough to illuminate all the way to the dancers anyway.)  Notice in my images above, the distraction of the audience members in front of me is minimal.  They are blacked out in the foreground, so your eye naturally falls on the well-lit dancers.  If this same shot was taken with a flash, the audience would be much more of a distraction. Using the darkness is just as important in composing your photo as the light!