Thanks for the inspiration. (Readers' Forum).

It's been well over a year by now since the article "Capturing Emotion in Motion" by Jack Mitchell [see Dance Magazine, December 1999, page 66] was published, but I've never been able to thank you for the inspiration it gave me to go out and buy my first camera right before Swan Lake. I was a student at Butler University when I came across the article. After having some black-and-whites developed on a little point-and-shoot, the retailer suggested if I was ever thinking about getting serious that I buy a Canon Rebel G. So I did, right there. I've been in love with it and dance photography since. I can do an entire ballet, go home, and relax. But if I shoot one roll of film while offstage, it's almost impossible for me to move. My breath is absolutely taken away. I find it unfair for a normal photographer to come in and try to catch the moments without knowing height of extensions or which way a dancer will be facing when love is torn away. It absolutely blows my mind away when it's all there, but you don't know until the development process is finished. The rush is just as high if not higher than being suspended onstage, coming off, and not being able to remember what just happened, but it felt good. Thank you for all of your great articles month after month and the inspiration and hope they have given me that someday I'll make it.

Joshua Dobbs Hebron, Maryland