Winter is a difficult time for me as a photographer. When the weather doesn’t tend to cooperate, and finding ways to use my camera become scarce, I tend to lose a lot of my motivation to get out there and shoot. Near the beginning of 2009 (last year) this sluggish feeling hit me really hard, and I did not enjoy it one bit. So for this year, I have remained determined to find ways to shoot the things I love. And in this case, I love shooting bright and colorful lights!

My good friends Haven, Káli, Matt, and Karri agreed to challenge the cold night with me and meet up to spin some fun LED toys while I took lots of pictures. The biggest challenge for us was figuring out a location. Then I remembered the fantastic wedding I shot this past summer, where the bride and groom introduced me to Tanner Springs Park, a very unique block-sized park in downtown Portland, with many incredible features. The main feature being a wavy wall of steel I-beams, rusted and of varying heights, shooting out of the ground to create the most amazing background element.

After we took a few shots in front of the wall, I was happy to see how well the lines of the I-beams, as well as the boardwalk beneath, complimented the curves and patterns created by the LED hoops and staffs these incredible performers were wielding.  We were lucky enough to have custom built LED toys for this shoot by Karri and Mark, the creative minds behind SpinStyle!  I am so pleased with how the shots turned out, I just can’t get enough of this kind of shooting.

We then moved on to the Eastbank Esplanade across the river, so we could get some photos with downtown Portland as the background. I just love the view of our city from just north of the Hawthorne Bridge and have always wanted to shoot performers there. I think I’ll set up a fire spinning shoot there next. It’s especially handy since the fire department is literally right next to where we were shooting.

We wrapped up the day on a somewhat sad note, as this was to be Káli’s last shoot for me for a while. She is off to South Korea to study and begin a new adventure in life. We’ll miss you girl! Thank you for all the amazing performances you allowed me to shoot!

Lots more pics in the full gallery, organized by performer!