A Star is Born - The Acrobat

I love watching performers particularly this one she was pretty amazing. Think about it you’re a performer for the circus, you are 100 feet in the air, no net no safety nothing to stop you from plunging to the ground except a solitary “silk sheet”. Yet you hang on to this sheet and slowly descend out of the light and down to the ground doing acrobatic feats that would be a challenge even for the best gymnasts. Even world class gymnasts would have problems pulling this one off. Yet with beauty and grace you begin your descent.

This is exactly what this young lady did. Down from the lights, which is where I captured the image and slowly descending to the earth, seemingly defying gravity and softly touching down in the middle of the three rings in Charleston, WV. I had to admire her grace, probably even more so considering I, at times, am very uncoordinated.

I enjoyed the fine art performance at the circus. Many go to the circus and watch but do not really realize what a true art form it is. It is pure performance art.

The Shoot - The Fine Art



Shooting at a circus can be tricky and this image came out splendid. Photography in the semi dark, in a setting such as a circus has many obstacles. First there is quite a bit of stray light. Second it is mostly low light shooting. Third the subjects are moving in low light. So what do you do?

There are a few things first you do not just jack up your ISO as high as it will go. You take some test images to set the ISO as low as you can and still get a bright enough picture to see the object. The higher the ISO no matter what camera or how well your nr is will introduce artifacts. The ISO must be kept as low as possible and still allow for a clear shot. Second you will need a filter and hood to block most of the stray light. A ND and Polarizing filter and hood were used to block most of this stray light. This combination worked well however it slowed the camera about 3 stops and had a long exposure time so handholding the camera was out of the question; a tripod had to be used. Third is a bunch of test shots to set the ISO. By a bunch I mean I used 7 shots to set the ISO. It took two shots to get it in color and exposure in range and the last 5 to dial in the right ISO setting. The end result of this is what you see.

The best part, my family was with me during this shoot we all had a great time at the circus and I managed to polish off my skills and determine the best setting for this type of low light situation. Incidentally this is the same setting I would use as a wedding reception during the dance or other performances where low light or high frontal light is an issue.

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