HEATHER JEAN WILSON
My family is my favorite people - My parents knew that a large family may mean more tragedies, but it also meant more joys - We never left the corvette in the garage - I have learned to gather people and experiences in my life rather than possessions - I have no regrets...
I can learn to appreciate almost anything - except mayonnaise - And I don't play well with pessimists, festerers, and rotters - I adore hand hewn beams, red lipstick, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, camisoles, humor - sarcastic, black, you name it - I intend to acquire the deepest laugh lines, sage green and chocolate brown, plowed fields, singing like Judy Garland, log cabins, old pick up trucks, tradition but perhaps not the traditional, merlot, river towns and the color that inhabits them, pasta with seafood in a cream sauce, people who look you in the eye, whistling like an old man, when the Spring smells like caterpillars, kidders, cornflowers, the burn in your thighs and your lungs on your first downhill run, or as you get above treeline on Mt. Washington, root beer floats, curiosity, labor, my red biker boots, flexibility, antique furniture and antique people, chivalry, watching planes take off, or boats sail-
I have founded ballet schools, and have been teaching dance for 33 years - I also enjoy a mean two-step - I used to ride a violet motorcycle I called Bet, but sold her to by a motorcycle with a sidecar my kids could ride in -
Yes, coming from a big family, I have gathered a small troop myself – Dorothy, Jon, Katharine, and Christian – My pride and insanity!!
Growing up, we had a coat closet – but rather than housing coats, it contained shelf after shelf of photo albums – My 4 siblings and I would sooner choose browsing through the albums, than watching TV – There they were…all those people and experiences we learned were “most important” –
My first personal album began in Kindergarten, with a 110 camera – Evolving into dozens of albums that my children are ever “experiencing” - AND finally Biker Ballerina Photography! I get to help everyone document what is “most important”!!!
When I say my family “never left the corvette in the garage”, I mean it – My brother was married in a tree nursery where, shortly after the ceremony, my children, decked in their party dresses, were soon playing in the dirt and woodchips – some of the most memorable and stunning photographs – and moreover – memories of good times had – The kids had a blast with their cousins in the mud, and I was blessed with uninterrupted cocktails and conversation with my siblings!!!!
So – when we get together, out come the corvettes and party dresses - we will catch everything that is beautiful – including the toothless smirk, the 0-60 cry, and, yes, the goo goo marsh we missed cleaning on someone’s cheek!
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING… MY BIO
Heather J. Wilson brings her photography talents to Biker Ballerina Photography via a well travelled artistic road. Ms. Wilson has a 39 year history in dance - 26 years in teaching and choreographing dance, and 16 in founding dance schools and companies. She is the mother of 4 children, aged 8 to 12. Mixing her background in movement, light, costuming, and scenery, lent to her easy success with artistic and performance/studio photography. Candid Children’s Photography was a natural, considering her endearing magnetism and experience with children.
A native of New Jersey, Heather J. Wilson began her dance training at an early age. At age nine she began training at the American Ballet Center of the Joffery Ballet, New York City. While studying in New York, she continued studying in New Jersey with the Monmouth Ballet on a full merit scholarship. She then performed for five years with the Princeton Ballet Company II, studying at the school on scholarship. Ms. Wilson received her modern dance training at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and gained musical theatre experience performing in numerous musicals, among them, Oklahoma!, Pippin, Annie Get Your Gun, Sweet Charity, A Chorus Line, and Annie.
Heather has choreographed and taught dance throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania for over twenty years. In 1995, she founded the River Ballet Academy and Company, and in 2001 founded Bach Ballet. Heather’s inspiring and personal training methods have created vibrant dancers who have been accepted into prestigious dance schools and companies, including Boston Ballet, School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Joffery Ballet School, Kirov Washington, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Nutmeg Conservatory.
Upon founding her first dance company, Ms. Wilson began photographing her company dancers, her tripod set up next to her at the lighting and sound booth in the rear of the auditorium. Aware of movement, she was able to catch the dancer in their peak execution of the step. As Heather began her family, she was ever following her children with a camera around her neck. Her choice of vantage points, awareness of light, and ability to catch expression are talents obviously gained from her years in the theatre.
Heather Wilson specializes in candid portraiture, candid performance and studio photography, and artistic photography. She also covers modeling portfolios, producing the perfect shots for your comp cards. Heather will occasionally direct, but prefers to follow her clients around, shooting their spontaneous reactions. Heather's approachable demeanor makes this simply a couple hours to “butterfly” around and enjoy each others company.