When I last had a camping trip at Horning’s Hideout, my daughter Maysen took a liking to a friend of mine named Megz who was hooping nearby. Megz is an incredible hooper and Maysen was basically in awe of her talents. Now, my daughter is becoming quite the hooper herself, so she really wanted to show Megz her skills and perhaps learn a trick or two.

Later that night, Megz couldn’t be around for our little light show photography experiments, but she saw the shots I got of Matt, and recently, she and I talked about doing some shots of our own sometime.

Well, Megz and my friend Chrisi invited me out to Sewallcrest Park here in Portland to join some people for hooping, poi, LED tricks, and plenty of other activities.  After sunset, there was a plan for plenty of fire spinning.  To me, it sounded like a perfect opportunity to get the shots Megz and I had been talking about.  So after work, my girlfriend Christy and I headed to the park to join up with Chrisi, Megz, and plenty of others.  As we walked up, it looked like a beautiful circus of talent.  There was everything from stilt walking, to hooping, to people balancing on each other.  It made me immediately think, “Wow, I love Portland.”

As the evening sun came close to setting, the light was perfect to capture the movements of a man named Benjamin.  He was moving with this simple blue plastic ball, rolling it along his arms, fingers, and shoulders with graceful movement and dance.

Christy and I patiently waited for the night to come, so the lights and fire could come out to play.  Once that time came, I went frantic, running around the park shooting as many photos as I could.  With so many people there, I had plenty of different imagery to capture.  The movement of the people there was so elegant, but add in the fire, and it became spectacular.

And to add to the experience, our friend Chrisi picked this night to be her first try hooping with fire!  She has been practicing her hooping a lot lately, and her talents have certainly been improving.  Even still, a jump to hooping with fire must be stressful to anyone.  I mean, I know how to hoop, but I’m a long way off from lighting the thing on fire as it wraps around my waist.  Even so, she went for it.  And it was amazing to watch her take that flaming hoop on.  We were all so proud to watch as she rocked that thing.  Afterwards, the rush it had given her was so apparent. It was a fantastic moment.

Really, I could write on and on about how talented these performers were, but you just need to see for yourself.  I have no doubts that there will be many, many more of these types of sets.  Incredibly fun!

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to shoot a hip-hop show.  But last night at Portland’s Greek Cusina, there was plenty of good grooves to shoot.  It was Moodswing’s new “Word Problems” album release party.  Performances were from DJ Sparks, Rocket ONE, Basic Shapes, The One and Only (of Sandpeople), and Moodswing.

I made sure I was there to get as many photos as I could of the performances.  Not only that, but the b-boys were out once again, which always makes taking photos fun.

You know, sometimes it’s when you least expect it that creativity takes hold.  When my friends started planning a get-together at Horning’s Hideout for a night of camping, I naturally expected to just cruise around getting pictures of the good times we were all having.  Well, okay so I did that too.

For the afternoon and evening, I spent some time getting some photos of my wonderful group of friends at one of my favorite places in the world: Horning’s Hideout.  I have a lot of warm, magical feelings about that place, coming from some incredible, life-changing experiences there.  So I jump at the chance to spend any time there I can.  Couple that with my passion for taking photographs, and I’m in heaven!

After it got dark, I noticed my friend Chelsea twirling some poi away from the fire pit where everyone else was gathered.  It gave me an idea to play with long exposures, but I always get self-concious when I feel the need to geek out on photo stuff.  But since she’s a photographer as well, I knew that she would understand my idea.  When she agreed, I set up my tripod, and we started making long exposures of her twirling beautiful lighted poi.  When people started noticing what we were doing, my friend Matt Dressman came into the frame with his flowstaffs ready to get some really crazy shots.  Well, the rest you’ll just have to see the gallery to enjoy.

So back to my mention about when creativity comes up to bite you.  Having fun with those incredible dancers and jugglers really got my creativity flowing.  I realized that this was a new area of photography I want to spend more time exploring.  So be on the lookout for some new shots of my incredibly talented friends hooping, dancing, and spinning lots of glowey things.  Who knows.. maybe we’ll have a chance to shoot some fire spinning some day as well!