My opinion concerning the photo being before the dance:
Starting the dance just after the photo had its advantages but also its disadvantages.
+ Was a good idea to do the photo in the main stage room (easier to seperate suiters from non-suiters)
+ Very convenient as you could just start bouncing right after the photo and the atmosphere with so many suiters starting to dance at once was just FANTASTIC.
+ Also loved that it was shot in the evening
As im not a morning person (and from what i remember last year it was shot pretty early and i was a tiny bit hung over
)
- With having ALL the fursuiters starting the dance at once, and I really mean almost all, since everyone having a suit, usually wants his suit on the group photo, you shoot your bolt way too fast. Not everyone is sporty enough to stay on the dancefloor for more than 30min (me neither) and most ppl will only suit once during the evening and then head to shower and change into their ordinary clothes to continue partying.
So for it being the Fursuit Dance... there were almost no fursuiters on the dancefloor and I think that was part of the reason why.
With the photo not being just before the dance some ppl would have suited very early, some later and the number of suiters on the dancefloor would have been more steady.