Attended MFF this past weekend. I took some pics at the dance competition. I did discover how much better my photos could be when I have a bitchin powerful external flash unit.

This is  apollonighthusky. This suit was a photographers dream come true! NO BLACK (OMG photographing black is SO HARD in low light like this)! A powerful color that stands out and has perfect clashing contrast with the red background. More will be forthcoming as I edit them.

I used my YN560 flash to bounce off of the ~30 foot ceiling to illuminate the subjects from above (took me a few dancers to realize I needed to use the bounce technique and had enough power to do it at those distances). A good high flash power (max not needed though) with a high shutter speed and smallish aperture let me darken the background while giving the subject good illumination so that they POP out (things I figured out a few dancers later, so not on this image). Was using my 80-200mm lens on this, so you can imagine my surprise that the flash had enough power to bounce those kind of distances and achieve this much illumination in this horribly illuminated room XD