The Circus
Those of you that follow my work will know that I have been fascinated by the world of the circus for quite some years now. Having shot my first circus shoot 6 years ago now. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to further my Circus imagery with a visit to travelling circus “ Circus Funtastia” & “Cirque Du Vulgar.”
We try and always get to the location with enough time to spare so we can set up properly and get a feel for the place and characters to come! Most of my shoots we don’t get too much chance to pre-visit the venue so have to go with the flow of the shoot and develop as we go - just the way I like it!
Kit used:
Ricoh Pentax 645z + 90mm
Elinchrom ELB 1200 + Ranger 1200 + ELB 400 x2
Modifiers - Elinchrom 6ft indirect - 135 indirect - Square Dish x2 - small dish for gels
Smoke machine
Lee Filter - ND
Pocket Wizard Plus II x 5
Also many Manfrotto stands - I have used Manfrotto for years and find there build quality second to none.
A few images from BTS on both shoots
Our first shoot was with Circus Funtastia - shooting various characters.
“A circus of stars... your dreams a trapeze, faces lift like mirrored moons.”
A week later we returned to the circus to shoot the “ alter ego of Circus Fantastia - CIRQUE DU VULGAR-
Due to the darkness inside the big top we had to create our own background using smoke. Then lighting the smoke with lights & gels to give us a color behind the characters so it wasn’t too black. With characters such as “ THE DRUNKEN WHORE “ & “ THE ONLY GAY IN THE CIRCUS “ it was a fun shoot and I worked on trying to get each person into character inside an empty tent.
