Circus Arts Perfomance

I haven't let my camera out much recently, since I've been too involved in my other hobbies, but I brought it with to the Motif #1 Festival in Rockport, MA. The weather was cold and grey, and the light was pretty poor, but I managed a few decent shots...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/tUGB​7V

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ucju​3P

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/tfiH​xZ

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/tUyL​nL

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/u9Pw​of

Nicely Timed shots. What disturbs me is the distracting background.

i was thinking the same thing. Dropping ISO from 400 to 100 would allow an f/4.0 which would soften the background quite a bit. Excellent subject material, especially to see out on the street.

Apparently PoTN stopped notifying me about replies at some point, and I missed this for months. Oops.

Thanks for the feedback! I agree... now that I know a little more in lightroom, I may go in and blur the backgrounds out. I still have trouble figuring out the right combination of aperture and ISO, and I definitely got it wrong here.

Nice shots, but to me they could well just be iPhone snaps?

BJWOK wrote in post #18196398
Nice shots, but to me they could well just be iPhone snaps?

You revived an 18 month old thread for that snide comment? Seriously?

The timestamp on the original post is irrelevant, this is the internet.

And yes, I wanted to post my thoughts on a thread that I had missed.

Sharing your thoughts is the point of a forum, right?

BJWOK wrote in post #18197280
The timestamp on the original post is irrelevant, this is the internet.

And yes, I wanted to post my thoughts on a thread that I had missed.

Sharing your thoughts is the point of a forum, right?

It is!

Your thoughts would have more value to the world if you expanded on them, though. What didn't you like? What could have been better? How could I have improved them?

Teach me something. Tell me how to get better. Otherwise, people are going to see your comment and think "Eh, just some bitter loser who enjoys putting people down."

As a side note, a LOT of forums frown very heavily on resurrecting ancient threads... I haven't seen it much here, but you may find yourself getting slammed for it other places.

My initial comment was aimed at you as the thread started. I left it with a question mark in the case that you may wish me to expand or not.

Not every post here needs to be a critique or a lesson.

I was just stating my opinion, with the option to expand if you wanted it.

So here's what I think to make these pictures more dynamic: shoot from a lower angle - this kind of acrobatic performance is all about the athletes not hitting the ground, so I would shoot with a wider lens from the ground to enhance this.

Thanks! I've only shot a few performances, so good advice is always welcome. I definitely showed up that day with the wrong lenses, and the heavy overcast didn't help things any either. Getting lower is a good suggestion: I can't remember whether it was possible or not, but I'll give it a try next time.

As to your initial response: tone is everything, and not everyone guesses the right tone from text. I didn't interpret the question mark as "Let me know if you want details": to me, it looked like just another case of someone on the internet using punctuation wrong. So again, I wasn't offended, but you might want to pick different phrasing next time.