Artists Statement

We are completely dedicated to dance photography as art. We believe that the extraordinary athletes that become dance artists are the highest expression of human perfection.

We have been honored to collaborate with some of the most elite dancers on the planet. These moments have been some of the most memorable of our lives.

We are very active in the dance community and we are social activists.

We do not make our living from photography and therefore we are free to shoot with who we want without regard for their ability to pay. When money is removed from the equation there is a creative freedom that is unparalleled, we are only limited by our imagination.

Since the beginning of Covid we have returned every single dollar we earn doing photography work back into the dance community. We pay all of our own expenses out of our pocket.

About Us

We are Jeff and Kay McLean

We have two adult daughters and seven granddaughters. So that makes us feminists! We are active in issues that are important to our region, especially women’s issues and border issues.

As avid outdoors enthusiasts, we have camped on glaciers in Alaska and explored Mexican tropical jungles. We’ve hiked the 222 mile John Muir Trail through the Sierras. Rock climbing in Yosemite, backcountry skiing, canyoneering in Utah, we really have had great adventures. And of course we are passionate about dance.

Jeff is a true renaissance man. At a young age, looking for adventure he left San Diego and traveled to Alaska and began working as a commercial fisherman. Over the course of several years he worked his way up through the fishing industry and became captain of his own boat, fishing commercially in the Bering Sea. While in port in a tiny little town in rural Alaska he met Kay, they married soon after and have shared the adventures ever since. Jeff was shooting on a Canon AE1 with 35mm film during those years. Jeff and Kay did wedding photography for lot of friends in Alaska and the photography partnership began.

Wanting to start a family, Jeff and Kay decided that the life of a commercial fisherman wasn’t the best choice so Jeff sold his boat, he and Kay returned to San Diego to raise a family. Jeff started designing and building custom homes. Being a creative, he did everything from initial concepts and drawing the plans (he used pencils then!) to finished construction. Jeff and Kay ran a construction company with dozens of employees. Jeff took on construction with zeal. He is now a journeyman framer, certified welder, electrical contractor, plumbing contractor, general contractor and stone mason.

Jeff’s plan was to become an architect, so he decided he needed to work on larger scale projects. He joined a tech startup company as a construction project manager building high rises and started studying engineering at San Diego State University.

Being around the tech crowd Jeff was exposed to software engineering, and fell in love with the creativity in software. Kay took on more of the parenting so Jeff could pursue his degree while working full time. Completing his B.S. degree in computer engineering, he left construction behind and started a career as a software engineer. When the kids got to full time school, Kay started with a casino in the vault and quickly became a supervisor. Spare time for them was hiking, mountaineering and of course photography. Jeff always carried a camera, always. Even when climbing the sheer faces of Mount Whitney the highest mountain in the sierras, Jeff was shooting photos. Jeff and Kay often had photo challenges between themselves.

Jeff was lucky enough to join a tech company as a software designer creating cell phones, right when the tech sector exploded with innovation and for many years lived at the cutting edge of high tech. Jeff was a key player in the radical transformation in communications starting with pagers all the way to the most cutting edge, computer in you pocket smart phone. This revolution in technology included a revolution in photography, enabling entire new industries and corporations, like Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. On the weekends were more wedding photography, street photography and rodeo photography.

In 2015 Jeff’s daughter convinced him to move his photography onto Instagram. At the same looking for a new photography project, Jeff and Kay found dance.

Since then dance has been their community. They adore these athletes, these artists, these beautiful people.

Contact us

send us a mail

lightheart.danceart@gmail.com

DM us on insta

@lightheart.danceart