Yesterday I went to the Sheffield Pride 2017 event at Endcliffe Park, Sheffield.
It was quite a colourful event but my eye was very well caught from some distance by the sight of two pink flashes swilling around.
I introduced myself to the person in the middle of this who was Amanda.
Amanda was at the event with her daughter and explained to me that the flashing were called "poi".
As a performance art, poi involves swinging tethered weights through a variety of rhythmical and geometric patterns. Amanda explained that she was introduced to it when on a camping holiday many years ago and Poi originated with the Māori people of New Zealand.
Amanda took up the art and even has poi that can set on fire for the performance. Her daughter was also using poi.
I explained about the 100 strangers project and Amanda was very willing to let me take some shots.
In terms of the portrait I was trying to introduce the dynamic nature of the poi performance but at the same time get a good portrait of Amanda. I think this comes close to achieving both aims but with hindsight I would possibly have been better with a longer lens than the 50mm prime. It was not a good idea to get too close with the poi swinging around but a tighter shot would have missed the poi. An interesting challenge for me to think about.
There are some context photos in a separate folder and it was great of Amanda to introduce poi to me and let me get the shots.
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