Joe and Lisa make a convincing partnership. They are resting actor friends of mine and were up for the test shoot.

It came to me in a flash. My mind was on a roll while we were brainstorming the next wave of picture opportunities for portrait photographers. Then I remembered back to 1998 when Julie and I shot a ballroom dancing competition at Osmington Bay holiday park. It was an inter university event with several teams from the USA taking part too. I had a blue background roll set up and 5 Bowens monoblock flash heads.

I used a mobil head pointing through coloured gel and a bit of dingle to light the back wall. The couple were lit from the left with a strip light softbox fitted to a Mobil head and a Fresnel fitted Mobil backlight from the right.

I shot couples in their feathers and sequins on 35mm film while a local minilab worked through each of the four nights to deliver the prints by breakfast that we had shot between 8pm and 12pm the evening before. It was tough and very few sales were being made. I couldn’t fathom out why at the time but then on the last day we had a rush on our prints and it became apparent that there was nothing else for the students to buy at Osmington Bay so our prints at £10 each were the perfect memento.  All those students are now in their late 20s and early 30s and most have kept up some sort of dancing activities.

It is important to get the 'lines' sorted. Legs hands and hold all have to be spot on.

I contacted a friend of mine who teaches Latin American and Modern Ballroom dancing in Bristol to find out the lowdown on the leisure dance industry. He teaches dancing to over 1000 people a week and over half of the students come as couples. What’s more, they are A B C demographic with disposable income. This struck me as an opportunity.

My first step was to find a unique location for the project and to arrange a test shoot. The location took some time to find but is ideal for this kind of shoot. It is located within half an hours drive from the three major population centres of Bath, Bristol and Weston Super Mare. It is just a couple of hundred meters from a really good pub with fine food and accommodation, and just 15 minutes from Bristol Airport. Now, if this thing takes off I see no reason why couples can’t come for a shoot from just about anywhere.

Next it was time for a change of building and dress. I created the sunlight by firing a mobil fitted with an orange gel through the ivy clad window. The light from the left was my softbox fitted Mobil.

I ended up with the empty buildings of a disused coal mine – nice! Anyway they are dry, full of pigeon poo, have no mains but are ideally crusty for this kind of shoot. I photographed the wedding of the land owner a few years back and by now my networks are starting to work well for me on this project.

The shoot was a great success. It was bitterly cold and the models spent most of the time in the car while Martin and I rigged the Mobil kits. Martin is on my Evolve programme and I try to involve the Evolvers as much as I can in shoot sessions for the experience. We had just 2 hours at the mine before we set off to the pub for a hearty lunch.

Luke, our new picture editor and graphic designer edited these pictures using our 2 minute method. When I start shooting for real in April he will be adding textures and sketching to take this style of image to the next level.

I just had to take my light cube. It has a Mobil head fitted inside and was the only light source for this shot. I'm not sure if I will use it for the 'Strictly' project but I like this shot.

I’ve registered www.strictlyportraits.com and strictlylovegrove.com etc and now I await the warmer weather for phase two of the product launch.

Damien.