My friend Shawn and his soon-to-be bride Jane hired me to shoot their wedding on Sept. 20.  But Shawn also offered me the chance to bring my camera along for his bachelor party, doing my best to document the night.  Well, maybe not the entire night, but you get the point.  The main focus of the party was the first stop: seeing The Raconteurs play The Roseland Theater in Portland.  He hooked me up with a ticket, and my plan was to shoot the party and the show!

Now I’ve been to The Roseland many times to see music, but this was my first time there as a photographer.  I knew that there would be no way they would let me in with my camera slung around my neck, let alone my entire bag of gear.  Luckily, I was able to work out a photo pass for the show even though I wasn’t shooting for a publication.  The staff at The Roseland really pulled through for me on this one!  I owe them a huge thank you!

Our group sat up in the balcony for most of the show, but I made sure I took advantage of my photo pass during The Raconteurs set.  I was a bit star-struck while I ran up and down the barricade, between the front rail and the stage itself.  These guys were throwing down some of the best, tightest rock and roll I have heard in a long while.  It was tough to work when all I wanted to do was dance!  But I knew I only had the first three songs to get my close shots, so I got as many snaps of my shutter as I could compose.  Though I felt like the rock star, being so close to such incredible performers and musicians.

It was the lighting that got me!  I’ve gotten so used to shooting at such small clubs and venues for my friends’ performances, that I forgot that bigger budget shows means a properly lit show!  I had so much fun incorporating the colors and patterns of the stage lighting in my shots.  I couldn’t get enough!

Definitely get out to see The Raconteurs if you get a chance!  Absolutely 100% rock.  Click the link at the bottom for the full gallery!

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When it comes to my photographs, I’m somewhat of a purist.  Techniques like HDR and other effects heavy on post-processing in software like Adobe Photoshop just don’t do it for me.  Many of these techniques and effects do have their place in the world of photography.  I just don’t choose to use them.  To me, photography is all about being in that moment and making the most of the image coming through the lens at the time you snap that shutter.  I’m a big fan of my polarizing filter and my neutral-density graduated filters.  These give an effect that is taken at the time the photo is taken, allowing me to manipulate the light of the image, not the pixels on my computer.

That being said, there is one effect that I just love.  I initially learned the technique from a man named Christopher Phin, a graphic designer from Southern Scotland.  Basically, the effect consists of taking a photograph with a down-angled view of the world and creating the illusion that the photograph is of a plastic model.  I would walk through the steps to re-create the effect, but he has already done such a great job on his website, there is no need for me to repeat the steps.  Please visit his blog post if you are interested in trying this effect out with your own photographs and your own copy of Photoshop.

Christopher’s blog post illustrating the technique fascinated me immediately.  I’ve found that if the original photograph looks down on the world, the effect is best (see original photograph of the shot above to the right).  This is because when we view plastic models, we are used to looking down on them.  This initially fools our brain to think that if we are looking down on something, we may be larger.  The step that really bring s the effect home is adding the “lens blur” to the image.  This causes the same effect of macro photography, where the depth-of-field in the photo is so incredibly shallow.  We are used to seeing photographs with large vistas containing everything in focus.  So when we see a large area with a very shallow depth-of-field then it again fools our brain to think we are looking at something very, very small.  Adjusting the images levels and contrast creates the effect that everything is made from synthetic materials.

All these effects work together to give us the great effect of photographing a plastic model.  Here are a couple more examples:

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.

Whew!  It’s been quite a festival season!  But my third and final music festival this year was 4 Peaks Music Festival held in Bend, Oregon.  It’s a short drive from Portland, so we packed the car and headed to the center of our state for the two day fest.  This one was more of a family affair, as my girlfriend and I brought my daughter Maysen along with us.  She loves music festivals, and this one did not disappoint.

The setting for this fest was breathtakingly gorgeous.  The entire weekend we were treated with an amazing view of many of the Oregon Cascades.  But then on top of that, our Mother Nature decided to bless us with some spectacular sunsets!  I tried to do them justice with my camera, but they only came slightly close to the beauty of being there.  The weather was absolutely perfect as well.  The sun was hot and intense, but it never got overwhelming.  Wind was a factor in the evening, especially on the first day, but that was easily overcome by heading to the stage which was a natural bowl, protecting us from the wind.  Though, at one point, a big dust devil ripped through the upper part of the amphitheater, hurling umbrellas, chairs, blankets, and other belongings high into the air.  It was spectacular to watch!  Though I felt bad for the people whose umbrellas got ripped apart by the fierce wind.

4 Peaks was a very small festival, which was a welcome change after High Sierra and the largest String Summit ever.  There really were no problems with crowds, and it allowed us to meet some new friends.

A man named Bip, who is well-known among the festival community, was there and spent much of his time as he always does, bending long metal rods into beautiful shapes for anyone who wanted one.  These pieces are incredible examples of art.  Each one rings with a beautiful tone when tapped against something rigid.  At one point, he was surrounded by a big group of kids (including Maysen) patiently waiting their turn to get their shape created.  Some wanted stars, others wanted roses.  I was incredibly impressed to watch as Bip took all the time that was needed to make sure that every single kid got their piece.  I got a chance to sit under a mister during Izabella’s set on Saturday, and we had a great conversation about his past experiences, as he has been a part of this scene for a very long time.  He originally made Maysen a rose (as seen in the photos), but unfortunately she lost it.  Bip was kind enough to make her a new piece in the shape of a star.  While making it, he proclaimed, “This is by far the coolest star I’ve made all weekend.”  Maysen was very proud.

Since my daughter was with me all weekend, I didn’t get much time to take photos.  But at times my girlfriend would spend time with Maysen so I could go do my thing.  Especially when the light was perfect for photos.  On Saturday, this just happened to be during Blue Turtle Seduction’s set, so they were really the only performers I managed to shoot.  The amazingly talented guitarist from Izabella (one of my newest favorites from this year’s festival season) joined them for the second half of their set, which was an amazing treat.  I was glad to get some shots of them all together.

Outside of that, I really enjoyed wandering around finding the intricacies that make 4 Peaks one of my favorite festivals I’ve attended.

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!

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!

]]> http://www.jeremyrunning.com/2008/06/24/spinning-in-the-park/feed http://www.jeremyrunning.com/2008/06/16/moodswing-cd-release-party http://www.jeremyrunning.com/2008/06/16/moodswing-cd-release-party#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:04:03 +0000 Jeremy Running http://www.jeremyrunning.com/?p=52

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.