Circus Time

It's August, and Gifford's Circus is back on Minchinhampton common, which I blipped yesterday. Gifford's is an Edwardian-style circus, small, with the emphasis on acrobats, trapeze, horses, and a clown called Tweedie, who has a 'pet iron' that he drags around with him. It is always a sell-out in our area, but we decided to go and have a blip anyway, even though we did not have tickets for the show.

My project for the day was to try and take some action, or drive, shots, on my new camera, the Olympus TG-620. I have never attempted them before on any camera. So I snapped a few hundred frames of long tailed tits on the bird feeder, and then we set off for the common. CleanSteve wanted to walk across a very boggy bit, so we got nice and muddy, as well as muggy. When we got to the circus. scores of people were milling around, including performers and support staff, mostly dressed in Edwardian costume. The common is not enclosed, so anyone can wander up and have a look. CleanSteve was allowed inside the Big Top for a blippertunity, but I was suffering from the humidity, so wasn't going anywhere under canvas.

Thing is, I kept taking pictures of the commissionaire's bottoms! I suppose they must be one of the reasons the circus is so popular with entire families. This one had a beautiful green and blue tail, which unfortunately cannot be seen here. I set the camera to Drive again, so managed to get the spotty-sundress lady wobbling on her wedges. Tweedie the clown nearly sneaked in too, but so did another annoying circus-goer, who could not be retouched out of existence.

I have not tried the Olympus edit software yet, am still in iPhoto, but I intend to give it a go. I am pleased so far with the macro, super macro and drive shots I have taken with the new camera, and feel ok about having chosen 'tough' rather than 'high-spec '.