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!