There is always magic at Horning’s Hideout, and this year’s Northwest String Summit was no different.   Those of us from Portland always feel so lucky to live near a place like Horning’s.  In the past, it has been the ultimate setting for some incredible stories, experiences, and adventures.  We expected nothing less as we rolled into this year’s String Summit, the annual bluegrass music festival that is held at Horning’s Hideout every year.

First we had to survive the scare of losing our tickets!  My girlfriend Christy and I searched through both our places for about 2 hours before we finally realized that they were gone for good.  Luckily we made a final effort call to the box office, planning to beg them to replace our tickets so we could get in.  But there was no begging required!  They re-issued our tickets and left them at will call for us.  Disaster averted!

We manged to find a good spot up in the hills at Horning’s, close to our group’s regular spot.  We were a bit more spread out this year, but that was okay.  It gave us some good excuses to wander around to visit people.

This was my first String Summit without my daughter, and it was definitely a whole new expoerience.  The one aspect of the festival I was able to really take advantage of was the performances!  With all the distractions of Horning’s, my daughter usually likes to go wandering most of the time we’re there, and then catch a set or two of music, as long as there is hooping involved.  This year, I was able to really enjoy the music, and dance like crazy!  The dust bowl that is created at Horning’s is stuff of legend, and this year didn’t let us down.  I must have breathed in a whole hand-ful of dirt and dust.  Did I care?  Hell no.  I was having way too much fun!

The festival ran from Friday through Sunday, and bookended our trip with two more nights.  On Saturday, I wandered around with my camera, hoping to capture the feel and the warmth of the weekend.  There were so many great kids to shoot at the Kids’ Parade, as well as all the crazy and free people dancing to the bluegrass music.  Late Saturday night (or should I say early Sunday morning), a few of us wandered down to the lake, hoping to catch some of the sunrise bubble making that goes on across the lake.  While we found no bubbles, we turned the journey into a peacock feather hunt that lasted until the sun was high in the sky.

Overall, the weekend was full of great moments with close friends, powerful and energetic music, and lots and lots of hill walking.  Our feet and bodies were tired, but it was all worth it!

I love having talented friends.  It was time once again for a night of spinning fire and LED toys in Sewallcrest Park in Southeast Portland!  The last time I shot people playing with their toys, it was a more mellow gathering.  It was a blast, for sure, but this time there were more people, even more talent, and one special guest that made the shots so much better: The Moon!

We all waited impatiently for the sun to finally set so the darkness would give us what we needed for the full effect of the fire spinning.  In the meantime, a group of talented hoopers grabbed their LED hoops and started playing.  It was remarkable to see that many LED hoops flinging around all at the same time.  The photos don’t do the beauty of the scene justice, but the light trails accurately show the visual treat we all had as the sky darkened.

I had a theory I wanted to try this time in trying to get both a sharp image of the performer plus the crazy patterns of light trails.  By hitting the performer with a blast from my external flash, I could get a recognizable shot of them, but by still keeping my shutter open like I normally do, the light trails would still surround them.  This was a theory mind you, so I needed to test it out.  Fortunately, the technique worked like a charm!  I have some more ideas to try the next time, so as I get better, there should be some even better results in the future.

Once we were under darkness, out came the fire.  A fellow photographer named Paul Perales saw me getting my equipment together and we chatted about how much fun it was shooting these talented jugglers.  I had no idea that he was just as talented as the rest, and I managed to get some shots of his performance with the fire poi.

Creeping up from behind the trees, the half moon seemed to be dancing with the spotted puffy clouds in the sky, giving some excellent atmosphere to the scene of the night.  The moon added so much to the resulting photographs, I didn’t want to take a shot without it hanging in the sky behind the performers!

My good friend Jeff came to play as well.  At the High Sierra Music Festival, he bought a fire stick for his devil sticks.  He decided to make last night be his first time lighting them up.  It was great to be there to watch and shoot his very first burn.  Jeff seemed so calm and collected while he was spinning, but afterward he told me his heart was racing like crazy.  Regardless, he looked like a pro!

One of my favorite parts of this night was seeing some of the people who I had shot the last time I was there.  I had all my photos on my phone, so it was fun to show some people the pictures I got of them the last time.  Also, there seemed to be many more photographers this time around.  I wonder if that will be a continuing trend.  And here I was thinking I was the only one who figured out how incredibly fun it is to shoot these fantastic people!  It was an extremely fun way to spend the evening, and I was eager to see the images once everyone headed home.

Please move forward to the full gallery and, as always, don’t be afraid to give me any feedback you have!

The High Sierra Music Festival is an annual four-day music celebration that has been going on for 18 years.  It takes place in Quincy, a small town in Northern California, usually in the first weekend of July.  This year it was July 3-6.  It’s a camping festival, which means that you camp right on the fairgrounds where the music takes place.   That also means that there is music happening literally everywhere around you for four days.

Being from Portland, attending the High Sierra Music Festival (HSMF) can be a hell of a commitment, due to the length of the festival, the intensity of the hot weather, the high cost of the weekend, and either the length of the drive down or the lack of equipment you end up with if you fly.  Despite these challenges, most of my music-loving friends  jump at a chance to attend each year, because.. well, it’s amazing!!

The only other time I’ve attended HSMF was five years ago when I wasn’t a very experienced festival goer.  Back then, it was hot (over 100 degrees every day), busy, intense, and uncomfortable.  I hadn’t learned how to pace myself since there is incredible music basically any time of the day or night, so it was tough not to want to see all of it.  I ran myself ragged and ended up overly exhausted, sick, and it took a long time to recover.

This year, my girlfriend Christy and I had a much better plan.  Many of our friends were volunteers for “Team Quench”, which provides drinks and ice to the attendees.  Volunteering meant that you get a free festival pass, you get to arrive and set up a day early, and can even make some money.  But each day you work two 2-hour shifts which can sometimes interrupt a busy day of music.  Christy and I decided not to volunteer since we wanted the full HSMF experience.  Luckily though, our working friends helped us out by arriving the day before the festival opened and reserving an incredible camping spot for us.  The spot was in among our friends and was perfectly central to all the stages for music.  It was under a big covered structure and even had a circulating fan to help keep our area cool.  Our friends even hooked us up with free ice for our cooler!  We were so spoiled!

Since wild forest fires were raging through Northern California, the air quality in Quincy was pretty bad.  Some days were better than others, but overall the air was thick and full of dust and smoke.  However, this did produce some spectacular light for shooting.  I managed to get my camera out several times during the festival to try and document its unique and beautiful imagery.  When you get so many creative and fun-loving people in such a small space, imagination is the only limitation.  There were parades, costumes, dancing, cute kids, performances (of course), and I had a big challenge trying to keep up.  Since it wasn’t a photography trip, but a personal one, I tried to keep my camera out of my hands through most of the festival.  But I put together a big gallery of my favorite results.  Enjoy!