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!