Backstage at the Giffords Big Top with Olympus
Roll-up, roll-up to Giffords razzmatazz, music and miraculous circus. Enter Luna Park, home to illusionist Odoroff and the irrepressible Tweedy amongst other larger-than-life characters.
A magical world where your imagination is allowed to run riot. Where Olympus have provided access and equipment to capture it.
Your ringmaster for the day, Damian McGillicuddy, Olympus principal photographer and true lighting and digital magician. Ably assisted by visionaries, Rob Pugh and Neil Buchan-Grant.
As the lights, dim Tweedy enters to captivate the camera-toting guests. He does his best to scupper Olympus’s plans. His comedy routine invokes involuntary camera shake caused by uproarious laughter. Luckily image stabilisation saved the day.
The next acts, Bibi and Bichu, Jolly Jack (Big Dave) and the Aeronauts pose other problems. All are testing the assembled photographers’ anticipation and hand-to-eye coordination skills.
The Aeronauts acrobatics are executed with a daring finesse and almost supernatural affinity, such as their timing and skill. Testing photographer and camera tracking and focusing ability alike.
Obviously, flash could not be used given its potential distraction for the performers, whilst also killing the atmosphere of a shot if ambient and flash were not adequately mixed.
Varying the shutter speeds and aperture allowed the camera to record movement and the depth of field within the images. Obviously, the performers could not be individually light-metered as you would a studio portrait, but the circus lights appeared to be tungsten-based, and I retained the tungsten cast. Giving the images a performance quality. It would also allow for sepia post-processing to give the shots a Victorian feel to them.
Venturing outside the big top to be greeted by Odoroff the moustachioed magician and Rob Pugh. Who set up a Profoto flash with a fitted softbox by a vintage Giffords liveried van incorporating an organ. I preferred to shoot natural light rather than mixing the flash with ambient and balancing the two just for speed.
Damian set up on the bleachers within the big top. Kata Kiss, a virtuoso gymnast and hoop expert threw the shapes, lit by two strip-boxed flashes set at 45 degrees to the rear on each side of her. An elevated softbox with a fitted flash was held to the front of her camera right. I set a shutter speed of 1/30sec when shooting Kata Kiss to ensure that the movement of the hoops was recorded within the image.
Last but certainly not least Neil and Tweedy were found just inside the big top doorway. Neil’s flash being fitted with a diffused McGillicuddy collapsible beauty dish, to sculpt the light.
It picked out Tweedy’s expressive features superbly enabling me to capture a partly comedic, partly melancholic portrait. Telling the story that whilst Damian educates his delegates (background) Tweedy has been excluded from the group for clowning about. By including the out of focus Damian and his delegates it provides the shot with depth and possibly pathos.
All too soon the day came to an end, but what a day of edutainment (Damian McGillicuddy). Thank you Giffords Circus and Olympus.
