Fire Eater

My wife and I went to the Houston Rodeo yesterday just as we do each year. It was the final show and the place was packed with people. Walking through the midway on the way to the Brooks and Dunn concert we saw the sideshow barker and a couple of the "Stars" from the show. This little guy, Norbert, caught my eye. I'm pretty sure that doing that sort of thing for a living must be tough but he really seems to enjoy his few minutes in the spotlight. His face was full of character and I wanted to try and capture just a glimpse of that. It was a difficult shot with me standing in bright sun and he in shade under an umbrella. I used my 70-200mm f/2.8 on my Nikon D200. The blur in the lower left was someone else standing in front of me but it does not reeally bother me that much. I did some strong PP in CS3 with saturation, shadows and highlights, and contrast to get this final image.

Hi James,

This is such a wonderful picture, thanks for sharing. The image is very powerful. I keep on revisiting it so see some more. He looks as if he is having a little snack (LOL)

Cheers,

Cem

James Newman said:

His face was full of character and I wanted to try and capture just a glimpse of that. It was a difficult shot with me standing in bright sun and he in shade under an umbrella

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Fantastic James, what a great face this guy has and yes you have definately achieved what you set out to achieve, well done. I looked at this and thought I really hope he doesn't breathe in through his nose!!

Thank you Cem and thank you Janet. I took a number of different shots of this man and this was one of my favorites. I can understand why he no longer has any eyelashes. He looks pretty good in B&W also. I have some shots of a female sword swallower that was with him and that was interesting as well.

James Newman said:

I have some shots of a female sword swallower that was with him and that was interesting as well.

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Are you going to show us those too, they'll probably make me want to gag, but give us a look anyway James.....

Fire!

nice picture!! i enjoy the fire aspect of this, not to mention the atcual person. you get every little nook and craney of his face... looks great!

Here is one of my sword swallower shots. I don't like it as much as the fire eater but I think it has some positive qualities. It may be a bit overdone or busy for some but for me, it sort of has a whimsical, unreal, almost comic book feel to it. I think that is fitting for a scene and a subject such as this one. I guess she was very good at what she does. She survived anyway.
This was also with my Nikon D200 and 70-200mm f/2.8 lens accompanied by a bit of Photoshop.

Well I didn't gag!! A very surprising image - she has to be completely mad!