A Few Sunset Shots

There were some great clouds the other night, and they held up long enough for the sun to go down and allow me to take some pictures of them. Thank you, local weather!







I just realized the other day... the first of the summer's fireworks displays will happen in just a couple of weeks. I am so excited!

Two Time Lapse Videos from This Weekend

Something I really don't do enough of with my camera is time lapse photography. The acrobatics exhibition at Pioneer Courthouse Square this weekend really inspired me, however, and I took a ton of pictures that could be made into videos. I had about ten segments worth, but four of them really stood out. Following the lead of my Time Lapse hero, Andrew Curtis, I kept the videos down to 90 seconds, which means I had to make two.



Unfortunately, they don't allow tripods in Pioneer Courthouse Square, so I had to do these in an impromptu fashion. For the first video, all of it was handheld. Which worked out, but I could only do 1/20 second exposures... not exactly intriguing.

For the second, I did longer exposures and sat my camera on something solid. The second segment, the camera was sitting on my bag on the ground, and unfortunately I didn't catch all of the bottom of the frame. Oh well. It's still pretty interesting. I hope you enjoy them both.

Cirque de Soleil's Kooza Exhibition

Cirque de Soleil is visiting Portland this week, and they've sponsored a circus-themed acrobatic exhibition in downtown Portland. I went down and spent a few hours there yesterday, taking pictures of the performers.



I tried to do something a little different with this shot, doing the zoom-while-shooting thing, which gives the illusion of movement. This is pretty tough to do properly with such fast shutter speeds and no tripod. Still, I got this one to come out pretty well, I think. I will try to get some better today.



There were plenty of children visiting the exhibit, and most of them took the time to get their faces painted.

Many of you know I have been trying to get more comfortable with sort of editorial/people shots, with some mixed results. This event made it pretty simple, as there were a lot of people there looking at specific things rather than trying to hide from my camera.



Many in the crowd got involved in the fun, learning juggling and doing some hula hoop action.



I usually don't share so many photos publicly from one specific shoot... I really don't like diluting my exposure, and of course it's always a good idea to only show the best of the best.

Two factors inspired me to share so many images publicly this time around. First, I had a LOT of great images come from this shoot. I could easily have shared 40 which I was very happy with. Secondly, I took about 400 shots of performers and crowd, so there was a lot of great stuff to choose from... you're still only seeing a tiny bit of what I was happy with.



I had thought that these were actual Cirque de Soleil performers, but then I looked at the details of the fliers and information being handed out... these are local performers, and not people from the circus itself. Which makes me a little disappointed... I feel I was misled by the promotion.

Also, I feel bad for the local troupe doing the work here, as they are very talented performers and they get no promotion from their work here. If I hadn't talked to one of the people working with the group, I'd have no idea who they actually are. So congratulations to Portland's own Pendulum Aerial Arts! Nice work, all of you.



There were so many cute kids there! It sure was nice to be able to take pictures of them without feeling like some predator.



Congratulations to the many talented local artists performing in the exhibit. They were amazing, and in a few days you'll be able to see some stop motion video projects I've put together from their performances. I hope you've enjoyed my pictures!