17 - Athletic

This is the most athletic thing I have ever seen short of Cirque du Soleil.  These 3 people are absolute mutants (how do her legs not snap?)!  We went to the Arizona Renaissance Festival a couple of weekends ago.  This is one of our favorite acts.  They’re relatively new to the fest and they’re called Barely Balanced (click for web site…watch some of their videos and be amazed).  This is not my favorite shot of them, but it is the one that I think demonstrates the greatest athleticism.  You can check out some more of my pics from the fest in My FaceBook Album which I’ve made public just for y’all.  I Topaz’d the daylights out of those, cuz I like the surreal sort of feel it gives to the pictures…it gives them an otherworldly sense of place.  The festival is definitely surreal.

Shooting outdoors in the spring and summer in Arizona is insane.  The light is so harsh, and because it is so hot, there is artificial shade constructed everywhere which is very dark.  The lighting is so poor, and there’s no HDR-ing it because you’re shooting action rather land landscape or still-life.  There is no golden hour shooting here as it doesn’t open until mid-morning.  What do you do to compensate for a combination of harsh direct light and deep dark shadow in the same shot at the same time when shooting events like this?  I’m having a helluva time!

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