Once again on a Tuesday night, I took my photography gear with me to Sewallcrest Park in Portland, Oregon to watch and shoot the talented fire spinners who show off their skills every week.  When I arrived, it had not gotten dark yet, and there were no people gathered there.  Usually, there is already a swarm of people practicing and warming up while there is still light in the sky.  But that night, it seemed, would be a waste.

I almost grabbed my gear to head back home, but after one or two more people showed up, I decided to wait it out at least for a few more minutes.  Luckily, I made the right decision.  Within an hour of almost giving up, there was a large group there, definitely ready to dance with some fire.

As the sky darkened, I saw that the three-quarter moon was rising into the sky.  Since the moon played such a pivotal role in the quality of the last set of fire dancing photos I took, I began to get really excited about the potential of the evening’s shots.  And sure enough, when the first performer lit their staff and the flames blazed against the moonlit sky, I knew it was going to be a good night.

One of my most favorite fire spinning photos I’ve managed to capture is of a man named Randy, who is incredibly talented with the fire staff.  He was the first to spin, and as always, did not disappoint.  His slow and gracious movements with the staff makes it seem like he is only partially responsible for the motion of the fire, while the other half is created by the staff itself, moving by its own free will around his shoulders without any assistance from Randy.  Just beautiful!

Others performed with fire poi and staffs, and it was a pleasure to shoot some new faces.  One of my favorite aspects of shooting the fire dancers is the shapes and figures that the fire creates in the resulting photographs.  Sometimes while I watch the repeating patterns of the artists, I can time the image just right to get the pattern I am looking for.  While other times, it ends up creating a completely random shape that is easily recognized.  This was the case when a talented staff wielder ended up creating a perfect figure of the number six right before my eyes.  It fascinates me when everything randomly connects to create something so recognizable.

My friend Alicia’s sister Shawna was in town for the week, and joined us at the park to show us her talents with fire poi.  I was excited to be there to shoot her performance, and even gave her some direction in order to help make sure the photos came out just right.  Shawna’s talent was obvious when she began whipping that poi all around her body with a speed and control I couldn’t believe.

Then I met Forest.  His initial performance with a fire staff was incredibly impressive, with his acrobatic talents showing through in his dance.  It was very obvious this was a man who was not new to dancing with fire.  I spoke with him after his burn, and was very impressed with what a warm and kind person he was.  To make sure we stayed in touch, we exchanged information.  Now, I’m used to giving out my card to share the images with the performers through my website, but rarely does a performer share their information with me, let alone have any information at all!

Forest founded what looks like an mind-blowing performance group called Liquid Fire Mantra, and as their website describes their Ritual Theater, are a fusion of dance, theatre, and circus.  After seeing a small example of Forest’s talents there at the park, I knew I wanted to see one of the Liquid Fire Mantra shows.  Follow the link above to see for yourself how talented this group is!

Forest showed me his next fire toy he was going to burn.  They were two identical swords, both with blades that rage in flame (see the top of this post to see).  I set up my gear and got ready to shoot, and he began to dance with these blades as if any fear of the fire did not exist.  I was completely blown away and couldn’t get enough, so I tried to take advantage of his incredible dance, shooting photo after photo.  I enjoyed shooting his burn so much, it made me hopeful that we could work together again soon.

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!