AERIAL IN THE DESERT

A group of youth aerialists were in Utah for "Aerialympics", an aerial arts competition run by a local aerial gym, and they wanted to do an outdoor photo shoot since they're from Florida and have never seen mountains or the desert. It was a little too chilly for a mountain photo shoot so we headed to the desert and my favorite place to shoot, Knolls Recreation Area. Knolls is an ATV/Dirt bike recreation area with sand dunes, desert trails, and salt playa.

We were set to shoot with aerial silks and lyra (hoop), but the wind had other ideas with the silks. It was blowing with gusts of 25-30 MPH, which is pretty dangerous with aerial silks because they act like giant sails. We stuck to the lyra for the shoot and the sunset and clouds couldn't have been better.

Here's a few photos of Charlie, an extremely talented aerialist at just 12 years old. She also dances and does highly competitive gymnastics.