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!

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!