Boulder Street Performers: Are You Ready, a photo from Colorado, West

Photographer's Note

The last in a short series on the street performers of Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder is a city of just under 100,000. A college town (The University of Colorado's main campus is located there), Boulder has a reputation as a liberal haven and a more artsy, hippie town; the reputation is well deserved.

We visited on a Saturday night so that we could see the famous Pearl Street Mall pedestrian zone at full capacity. In the heart of Boulder's downtown, Pearl Street is closed to vehicle traffic for four or five city blocks, and has been turned into a space for sculpture and art, shops and stores, and plenty of street performers of many different types.

This is probably my favorite of the literally 120 shots I took of Seth, the fire juggler. Seth was a great performer with a funny and entertaining act, excellent skills, and a great stage presence, and he kept the crowd entertained for nearly half an hour with various tricks and bits of comedy.

This shot was taken just before his finale, in which he juggled five flaming torches. Here he is pumping up the crowd before beginning. The shot was cropped from its original, but is otherwise unprocessed.

Update, 9/15/2012: Uploaded a larger (2200x900) panorama version.

bukitgolfb301, Glint, bayno, No_One oznaczył to zdjęcie jeko użyteczne

Critiques | Translate

marcan44 (6315) 2012-09-11 13:06

Ciao Andrew,
uno scatto che vive nell'intensitŕ del momento che sta per iniziare e la suspence del pubblico che assiste allo spettacolo.
Buonissima idea di riprendere l'artista di spalle per captare anche le espressioni del pubblico di fronte.
Well done
A nice day
Regards
Mario

mauro61 (53411) 2012-09-11 13:50

ciao Andrew,
scene che si vedono in estate con improvvisati teatri dove tanta gente in vacanza accorre.
Immagine curata e con il fuoco, in tutti i sensi, sul soggetto.
saluti
maurizio

rbellemare (2109) 2012-09-11 15:14

Hello Andrew,

Another great street performer picture you're presenting us today. Great composition with a nice panoramic frame. Taking the performer from the back give us a great view to the crowd of spectators. Great use of the light available.

Nice picture.

Réjean

bukitgolfb301 (54014) 2012-09-11 20:18

Hi dear Andrew

Very attractive and a little mysterious image!
Under exposure is very effective to maintain this atmosphere. Horizontally cropped format is very reasonable to fit this occasion and composition.
God Job! Thanks for your shring with great posting and have a good day!

Takero from Tokyo

abmdsudi (95869) 2012-09-11 21:13

Hi Andrew
Another low light affair and street performer, sure you are pleased as much as I do. So let there be low light so that i can feel the atmosphere. This is a rather special moment under such ambient and straight from your view finder that really trigger my sense, full of drama yet so calm and serene. Great sense of space from the slight blur background but the glow from the firelight mainly catches on the fully engrossed young man is wonderful as main focal of interest. The high ISO accentuates the effect greatly with good timing of this fleeting moment. The concept and lighting is inspirational, almost a spiritual feeling, that's how it does for me. And thats just the fire! Add all the elements together and you have got a great image very meaningful shot indeed. This is brilliant photography, fantastically and creatively thought out my friend, TFS.
Warm regards

willperrett (14195) 2012-09-12 10:55

Hello Andrew
An interesting crop to create this letterbox format. I'm surprised you managed 1/200th sec in this light, even though you opened the aperture right up (when I tried to open the "more photo info" it wouldn't play, so I can't tell what ISO you were using). The juggler is as sharp as necessary (memories of my croc!) and the spectators are still clearly enough defined, but not so sharp as to detract from the star of the show. Nice work.
Regards
Will

Sonata11 (34119) 2012-09-12 20:21

Hello Andrew,
this performer must be interesting because people just wating to be start, specialy kids. Great cpatured this scene at the blue housr. Wonderful colors of the flame. I like this daily life scene. Well done.
All the best,
Barbara

Glint (6171) 2012-10-21 13:24

Hello Andrew,
I like this as the viewer as a great sense of being there.Good light management and a balanced composition.
Bev

bayno (18348) 2012-11-16 22:24

Ciao Andrew,
very nice shot with difficult light, perfect exposure and good use of ISO, i apprecciate the large version where we can see so many good details, i like the performance too, have a good WE...
Valter

No_One (4) 2013-04-14 6:52

Hi Andrew,
Love the choice of frame type here to take in all of admiring crowd, it really suits the subject. This is perfectly clear shot, and could easily be a scene from a film. (I thought of Blade when I saw the thumbnail!)
All the best
Noel