The advice from world class photographer Joe McNally: “If you get boring pictures, put something more interesting in front of your camera” motivated me to try some photo shoots with circus artists. And after the very enjoyable shoot with Danuta and Ian, I really wanted to do more circus oriented personal projects.
A search on Facebook led me to Rosella, who has since started her own company, Dair Entertainment. The first of our many shoots together took place at Dance Base. The location allows one to use either a light background or a dark one, which would come in handy since Rosella had brought quite a few outfits.
We started with silks and a dark outfit, which meant shooting against the light background. I used the same lighting set up as with Danuta and Ian. One main light in an umbrella and two rim lights to help separate the subject from the background.
Changing to a light outfit meant shooting against the dark background would provide better contrast. Same lighting set up.
Rosella is a very organised person and had all the various rigs and outfits carefully planned and written. I just needed to go along and adjust the lighting accordingly. According to the plan, it was then time to move to the hoop. I didn’t know what to expect, as it was my first time, but in the end I was very happy with the results.
After a change to another dark outfit, I switched my point of view to shoot against the light background again.
To complete the session, we did some hula hoop shots and ended with some pics of Rosella wearing a wonderful vintage outfit and doing some magic.
by 
