{"id":1717,"date":"2020-05-15T11:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T11:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philippemonthoux.com\/blog\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2020-05-15T11:22:39","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T11:22:39","slug":"fire-performance-with-annie-minnaar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philippemonthoux.com\/blog\/fire-performance-with-annie-minnaar\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire Performance with Annie Minnaar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking at all the circus arts, I felt fire performance could give me some great pictures. It could also provide some technical challenges that would allow me to grow as a photographer.<\/p>\n

Finding a good location is a very important part of any photoshoot. For fire, I was looking for a place that would give good tonal and\/or colour contrast with the fire. A woodland area is ideal. Also, inside a forest, the light levels fall enough that I can completely control the light with small portable speedlights, even at noon.<\/p>\n

I was delighted when Annie agreed to a shoot. At the time, she lived in Roslin and there are some very nice wooden areas near the chapel. The place is well known and we wound up having to share the location with a group of school pupils. I don\u2019t know what the purpose of their trip was, but I\u2019m pretty sure they had no idea they were going to be able to enjoy a fire performance.<\/p>\n

We started with some close up shots to give the fire enough prominence in the frame. The out of focus green forest background works very well for that.<\/p>\n

\"Annie
I love that pic. One speedlight on Annie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
Lovely smile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
Always shoot both horizontal and vertical compositions. The former are typically better for websites while the latter are good for posters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the full length photographs, I wanted to use those two big trees to frame Annie. A frame within a frame is a classic and very effective composition tool. I lit the scene with three flashes. One on each tree and the last one on Annie.<\/p>\n

\"Annie
It took me a while to get my lighting set up right, but when I did it was off to the races, shooting as many pictures as I could.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
The pose is really good. I just wish I had taken a lower point of view with the camera to show less of the ground and more of the trees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, Annie got the fire hoop. She is very skilled and I must admit that fire hoop performance was really impressive. The school kids would totally second that.<\/p>\n

\"Annie
We got so many good pics with the hoop it proved really tough for Annie to choose.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
The two arms up mimics the shapes of the trees for a strong composition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
I prefer this one and the one below to the above, but you may have a different opinion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
The fire looks better and bigger in this pic, which is my favourite of the shoot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
You cannot hear the sound the hoop makes when she does the hula hoop with it, but is it quite eery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
I was frustrated a couple of times as I finally got in a groove shooting good pic after good pic and the fire would start to peter out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Annie
We could have shot many more photos, but we knew we had plenty of good ones so it was time to stop. Sometimes, you want to quit while you are ahead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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