For the people who know me and even any one who has actually been reading my blog you’ll have properly realized by now I’m not one to let the grass grow. I like to keep busy and active with a range of diverse and often slight unusual hobbies This post is about one of them.
I’ve recently Joined “Purple Mermaid Circus Society” at my local university as I’ve been interested in Poi for a few years so it seemed a good idea to find some where to practice so I joined up. This presents me with a unique opportunity photographically. The Society is full of talented individuals who practice all kinds of circus goodness.
Last night we had a “Fire” practice session something we very rarely do so I jumped at the chance to photograph Fire Poi, Staff, Juggling and anything else we could safly burn and play with to put on a show
Shooting fire spinning has its own unique set of problems. Your shooting in darkness to see the fire but the fire it self is super bright. Then you need to us long exposure to see the trails the fire makes but then the person performing is blurred assuming they have been picked up by the sensor this is a problem so how do you shoot it.
On my limited opportunities to try this I’ve found a good working formulaSet the camera on a tripod attach a SB 900 flash or similar and set it to AF only as your camera can’t focus in that light. Set your iso to something low I use the native 200 on my D300s I then attach a cable release to remove any vibration. Then set the camera to fully manual have the shutter speed set to BULB and have the F/stop some where between f/6 and f/13 depending on the shot then just guess the time of the exposure with the cable release normally something like 2-5 seconds works best
Hope that helped if your interesting in trying it your self you can use my trail and error as your start point! I’ve also go a few ideas for combining this method with a rear curtain sink flash to freeze and illuminate the performer I’ll have to let you know how that goes as and when I get a chance to try it.
Full Set Enjoy…
If you can’t guess from the title I’ve recently gotten my self a iPhone 4s and to my friends this seems crazy as I’ve always been very anti apple products but then this came along and did everything I was looking for. I am not disappointed either.
So why did I want one you may ask I’m assuming if your reading this you might care, I wanted a smart phone with apps to help add me with my photography like depth of filed calculators and such. then the iPhone 4s came out and the camera on it was better then some compact cameras. 8mm lens with a maxim aperture of 2.4 I was impressed and the image quality is for such a tiny sensor outstanding.
Now the next question you might ask is if your a Nikon fan boy like I am with a good DSLR system why would you need a good camera phone basically there are tons of times you want to have a good camera with you and not to have to drag your big one round with you it draws a lot of attention. a camera phone is very discreet especially as its totally silent.
this has lead me to take more photos of random things when I’m walking about I no longer have to think oh is that worth taking my big camera out for you can just snap the pic for the best photos I still would use my D300s but you know when you need to use that right! There is a phrase out there the best camera is the one with you this was made famous by Chase Jarvis I’m not saying it means laving your DSLR at home carry it round with you as much as possible but with a camera like this I’m not thinking I can’t get my camera out hear or anything like that
I’ve also found it helps me be more creative and fun with my photos I’m not confined by worrying about noise or picture quality I can just snap away and do the editing with in camera applications on the fly. I have to say its refreshing. I’ve found the best App is Instogram its a easy way to share your randomness with he world I post anything I deem interesting be it snap shots from my life or interesting photos I’ve seen and taken with it if you would like to follow me on there my user name is FoxyChan81 don’t expect anything serious tho
Once again I’ve been lucky enough to be in the press area to shoot Euro Cosplay the final this year was held at MCM London Expo October 2011.I was completely taken astonished by the quality of the participants this time a real improvement on 2010 at the first championship and lets just say in that year I saw some of the best cosplays I’ve had the pleasure to photograph.
There may be people new to my blog so for any new readers that may not know cosplay is the art of making costumes it comes from the words costume and play. Euro Cosplay has been running for 2 years and is already the largest cosplay compaction in the world. This year we had 23 countries each allowed up to 2 quivering commotions of there own where any one can enter before competing in the final in London to find the best cosplay in Europe.
The Judges had there work cut out picking from the 34 finalists. I’m glad I wasn’t in there shoes. having seen every entry up close and photographed them all I think they made the absolute rights decision. I was even more proud when I found out England won with what I still to this day call my favourite cosplay I’ve ever seen. Neil who made it is also the most humble person I’ve ever met couldn’t of gone to a nicer person but that aside despite so many amazing cosplays he still out shone them. I’d also like to make a quick mansion of Spain’s entry Pocco I was blown away by her simple looking cosplay due to her motorized wings in all my years on the seen I’ve not seen anything quite like them I was very impressed and as such wanted to make a not of it.
1st Place: and European Champion: Neil from England as Skeksil Chamberlin from Dark Crystal
2nd Place: Ronald from the Netherlands as Brother Petros from Trinity Blood
3rd Place: Estela from Spain as Pocco from Shunya Yamashita’s Sweet Dreams
Shooting this Masquerade was possibly the most difficult in regards to lighting conditions I’ve ever face one moment the lights were bight and good for photos the next almost black to show of things like lights in the costumes. They kept changing all the time even had moments where there was nothing but blue or red light rendering any image useless. A friend of mine rendered this images in black and white something I wish I’d thought still could but I’ll save that trick for next time. The problem with the changing light was I had to change my ISO all the time and missed a lot of moments so faced with the same conditions again I’ll use auto ISO I don’t like doing that but needs must. Luckily I shot RAW and I was using a good low light lens the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 I hired from Lens for Hire at a very reasonable price. I do plan on buying said glass but I digress. Very tricky conditions but I think I was able to get full coverage of every entry witch is always my aim and I know the other photographers got the moments I missed. Latterly I’ve not felt nearly as commutative as I used to be I’m starting to feel in the UK convention scene the cosplay photographers should be working together more I’m sure between us we captured everything.
For the Full set of photos of every entry please follow this link Euro Cosplay 2011 and as always enjoy…
Continuing my sires of late posts about things that happened over the summer brings us onto Ayacon 2011. A quick word about Ayacon this is one of the UK’s largest and long running anime conventions currently held at the Warwick Arts Centre witch is actually in Coventry. The convention is a blend of Japanese culture anime and cosplay mixed together by UK fans. Just as attending is so much fun.
I went as Press to this event, Trying to cover all the events at a convention this size is a lot of work but worth it because as a bones you are normally in the best seats in the house to do your work. Admittedly you can’t fully enjoy the shows as your thinking about f stops and available light and all that jazz but if your not enjoying it how are you meant to get that across to the people latter viewing your images and press work.
I’ve left this a little late to really go into much detail so I’ll just talk about 3 events at Ayacon and give you some links at the end
Unicorn Table Live Event
I’ll be honest hear I’m not a gig photographer in fact I’ve only ever shot 2 gigs. The first was Momo-i Live at Ayacon 2009
I had no idea what the hell I was doing with this one. So I learned as I went made some stupid mistakes like use flash… Can’t believe I wasn’t asked to leave for that one. by the end of the night I was pushing my ISO higher and going for available light got my best shot at that gig during the encore after the real press had left. That was before I was officially working for the convention as press. This time I took everything I learned at the time and added it to with a lot of expanse and theory I’d looked into and guess what? yes I still made mistakes but I had progressed in leaps and bounds the biggest problem I found was I was centre stage at the front because unfortunately the manager wasn’t letting press into the pit but I still got to jump the que going in. I should of been either 3 foot to my left or right. I think I still got some fantastic shots all the same. I was getting my best results with a 50mm lens wide open at f/1.4 as I was able to lower the iso a little and still hold onto a high shutter speed to freeze the action and the 1.4 also gave me a very nice shallow depth of field
Ayacon 2011 Masquerade
The masquerade always my specialty I’m sure a lot of the photographers shoot it because its expected of them and not because they want to. That’s not true of every one there but I get that feeling from some for me I see it as my chance to shine love the challenge of trying to get a good shot of ever entry. You get one chance with each of them and you have to get it right under the difficult lighting conditions you always encounter with the gear you have available its a real thrill. I as always worked out where I thought the best photographers were set up and took the opposite side of the stage. I’m sure I’ve said this before but as competitive as I am if I can’t get the shot I want them to I mean were there for them right? Its also nice knowing you have a different angle to the people you consider as your Rival’s I say that with love, there’s no point trying to be the best if the computation aren’t as good as you or better. I shot this the same as I always shoot masquerades its getting fairly fine turned now so won’t repeat my self there. No I tell a lie I did one thing differently I used my SB-900 as a infer red auto focus system with the flash unit set to no fire. I was able to focus much more accurately and faster wile reaming discreet. The main difference with this was its length was the largest one I’ve ever shot this was in part due to it also being a qualifier for the Euro Masquerade. Holding up my heavy camera for that length of time especially with the added SB-900 on was difficult might consider a mono pod for next time. one tip for you extra cards and batteries I burned thought 3 16GB CF cards and 2 Batteries. It was quite a show loved every minuet of it and when I latter found out one of my personal favourite cosplays had won it really pleased me, absolutely deserved. Some of the best talent I’ve seen so far across the borad.
Cosplay Chess
I have to post something about this event because of how great a idea it is. this isn’t a new idea its been brought up over and over again at least as long as I’ve been going to anime cons since about 2005 but this to my knowledge is the first time its run successfully in the UK and I was lucky enough to be asked my friend Yuka to help cover this. The cosplays were amazing and the show was so funny I think the set of photos I got is well worth taking a look at as a piece of history there’s nothing to special for me to post about how I took them it was all basic stuff but the thing about these events is theirs always something special happening so if some of the things I’ve posted about are interesting consider attending a convention in the near future you won’t regret it. There are some other great sets on my flickr like The Sunday Night Live Event from Ayacon 2011 I highly recommend you take the time to go take a look
I know I’ve not posted anything on hear for mouths but I’ve never been one for keeping blogs updated so instead of spending ages apologising about that I’m just going to make a sires of posts about what I’ve been up to over the summer that’s kept me so busy and no posting lol.
I can’t not talk about Tokonatsu. As normal this is another anime convention only its not technically a convention its really a festival. I for the last couple years have been extraordinary lucky to be a part of this event sitting on the committee as Cosplay Coordinator. Tokonatsu it self is euros only if not the worlds only anime camping festival catering for most ages a unique and fun event.
My role is to organise all cosplay events. I run to big events the masquerade (pretty self explanatory there) and Ready Steady Cosplay witch is a fun computation where teams compete to make a cosplay to a mystery theme in a hour. Now your properly asking what the hell any of this has to do with photography as this is a photography blog. The answer is simple as part of my job looking after events and cosplayers I have the responsibility of recording this, cosplayers lover photos. I didn’t just cover my own events I tried to cover the entire event over the 3 days.
I struggled to get as many photos as I normally would from a event as I was busy running and organising things but I was able to get most of the shots needed. The masquerade I was sick of poor shots so I built a stage back drop for this years entries now I found the area was to small so I’ll have to make it larger I used 2 light stands holding up a camouflage net to reflect the ascetic of a camping festival.
I was also charged with getting a group photo of the entire attendees of the convention at the opening ceremony. something I did the premises time. This is turning into a tradition for the event last time I only had a supper zoom with me not the best optics even so I got a ok shot. The problem was even at 18mm witch is very wide in the space available on location to get the photo I was standing on top of reeds over a lake this could of been very bad but it paid off. So this year I hired a wide angle lens the sigma 10-20mm I loved this piece of glass its on my to buy list. I did find one problem in post presses shooting 250 people at 10mm is to wide there all nicely spread out but there so small in frame there’s just not as much detail as I’d like I think next time I’ll use the same lens but shoot it round the 14mm mark hopefully that will give me enough space to not be in the lake. I highly recommend hiring lenses for important jobs its cheaper then buying glass for a one off use and it gives you a good chance to try something before buying. I used this lenses as much as I could thought out the hire period even got a nice star trail photo but I will post about that in a few weeks or at least I intend to.
There are a lot of water based events at Tokonatsu lots of people running round with water guns being silly great chance to get interesting photos but water and digital cameras not a good combination. ordinarily you would have to add water proofing to your gear. I didn’t have to worry to much tho I should of taken more precautions just in case. My Nikon D300s is weather sealed so a little splash won’t course any problem witch is one more reason why I’d advocate a pro body camera over a advance amateur body they may currently have higher mega pixels and better noise performance on cameras like the Nikon D7000. The thing is the pro body’s have things like weather sealing more buttons on the body to speed up setting changes and higher build quality.
One piece of advise I learned the hard way test your gear extensively before taking it into the field. test it extensively. I got my self a new Compact Flash card and I was taking a chance with a unknown brand. I regret this as the card never worked from the word go. It was a Duracell 600x 32GB compact flash card and it failed spectacularly so badly so it was letting me take photos but the data was not being transferred to the card so I lost a section of the event if this had been say a wedding I could find my self in a position where I wouldn’t be getting paid. I recommend dual slots one as a back up for important events properly have the second as jpeg, that and test your gear. The worst thing about it is following this I tried to contact the manufacture about a faulty product despite having a 10 year guarantee they refused to respond to me. Then I go to the company I brought it off they also do not respond to my emails so I’m left with a expensive card that dues not work. I highly recommend you stay clear of Duracel cards. I do have a 8GB card from there works fantastic but if something goes wrung they will ignore you in my experience I do not recommend.
There were 2 big problems I had with this event limited access to electricity so I had to make sure I had enough batteries for 5 days use as well as cards in case I could not back up to my laptop. The second was light camping it gets very dark so your operating in almost pitch black at times. I found thought a combination of a 50mm 1.4 lens high iso and a SB-900 I was able to keep working. Just a note on the SB 900 I did find that its power output was high enough to light a entire field not bad for a small flash unit. I’d like to invest in strobes with power packs for future events of its kind providing I can transport them. Talking of light I did also try something for the very first time and this was light painting I got 9 people all with LEDs to spell out the letters of Tokonatsu I did hand hold this on bulb mode I should of used my tripod but it came out ok defiantly something to do more of at night
Some links to the Tokonatsu sets on my flickr
Thursday-Friday
Masquerade
Saturday
Sunday
Enjoy
There is one question I get asked more then any over at events. Why the Duck Tape? And I’m not talking about why I always have a roll in my camera bag that should be obvious the stuff is unbelievably useful in any given situation. No this is about why I have covered up the Brand and Model Number of my camera with Duck Tape.
There is a very good reason for this its also the same as to why I replaced the strap to one not showing my brand. At first glace people think this is odd at best but I don’t think they are thinking it through. Every one who knows me knows a huge Nikon fan boy and can’t understand why I try and hide it. Now let me tell you that is precisely why I hide it I love my Nikon D300s, and I want to keep it. The last thing I want is to draw any more attention to my self then I have to. You will see in the photo to the left and you will see the make and model covered up and the strap replaced with a plain on. On top of that you’ll notice I’ve removed the battery grip and there’s no speedlight mounted. The thing is at events you want a big camera so you attach all the things to it to make sure you can get THE shot or make it easer to use. This makes you very visible and can also make it much easier to get into places you normally can’t I’ve got to the press pit and the front row of gigs based on this.
The problem comes when your out and about you want to be as invisible as possible because there are people out there who might get angry having there photo taken with something like street photography. Worse still you might have some one try and mug you because they see something expensive this is never more true then when your attempting urban discovery and your in run down areas. When in theses situations I do a couple things.
First what I do with Street Photography, I don’t try to be “TO” invisible I’ll either use my old D40 or my main camera the branding is covered battery grip stays on normally but I remove or turn the lens hood the other way round as well as choosing one of my smaller lenses to be less imposing. I then walk round openly taking photos but with a smile on my face and I don’t stay round in any one place to long last thing I want to do is ruin any ones day.
Secondly comes Urban Discovery, I use that name I’ve recently discoed as well I think it sounds good much better then wondering round urban areas looking for interesting scenery. I recent hard the name and it was described as going into run down areas looking for places where nature has tried to take back over so it fits as I do that some times. The problem is theses are always run down areas where there is a lot of crime so the last thing you want to do is attract attention to your self especially as often your on your own in places far away from other people. Pretty dangerous right! in these situations I take as minimal kit as I can dress down again hide my branding. I also don’t have my camera out it stays in a non discreet bag until I find a shot witch I take as discreetly as possible that is with out looking like I’ve something to hide that would also draw attention to my self partly its about looking relaxed and confident with out being imposing difficult I know.
So this is why I have duck tape on my camera there no point taking it out just to show off my brand. I think its also a very good idea to do when your doing travel photography or well shooting anywhere your unsure of just good practice I think.
Not to long ago I had the privilege to take part in a Final Fantasy XIII photo shoot with all members of the cast hand picked and a team of fellow photographers. Sounds like the prefect shoot well as is often the case with cosplay shoots things went a little wrung wile I was sat on the train heading up I learn about half of our cast have had to drop out. Want to stress this point before I carry on they all had very good and completely understandable reasons. So it was a case of make the most of a less then perfect situation.
The original line up though we only had 50% of that
So we get to the shoot on location in the Yorkshire dales witch was very difficult to reach once there we spent the first night being social ready for the main Saturday shoot with the plan of making the best of it. We soon joking around changed the name to YorkiCon it seemed to fit as we was in Yorkshire. This is where we hit more problems all our researched locations were on google maps we has no mobile signal on any net work… so we improvise witch involved driving round in convoy using walky-talkies to communicate and see what we could fine so there’s a lesson in scouting locations “Do it in Person Before” so luckily we did find some good locations.
Photo taken by Lauren Hunter
We worked well as a team of cosplay models and photographers.
Over the two days shooting we encounters many problems was a real adventure the biggest problem photographically was the lighting. the light was nice very warm but incredibly harsh for the most part and with having to be mobile we couldn’t do any very big lighting set ups each of the photographers there each talked it slightly differently personally I used 2 techniques first was several bracketed HDR shots. and the second witch was really my main method was fill flash. Ordinarily in a big environment and with large groups one speed light isn’t normally enough but I’ve recently gotten hold of a Nikon SB-900 Speed light a wonderful bundle of technology. I found it easy had the power to deal with the situation at hand and it intelligently worked with my D300s I set the flash to even spread for 90% of my shooting over the two days. I found it worked better then I had hoped a must for Nikon shooters even at its not so cheap cost.
Emi cosplaying as Hope shot as a composite comprising of a fill flash photo using a SB-900 mounted on the camera set to TTL even Spread in High Speed Sync at a speed of 320. Emi is leaping from a climbing frame with in post I replaces with a panoramic shot I had taken a few moments before standing behind the object before merging it all in post production (my personal favourite shot from this shoot)
Full set of Images
For any one who dues not know Expo is well best is to go to there site to find out MCM Expo after that come back hear and read the rest of my post!
This particular Expo I went to help DDR UK out on there stand witch was fantastic fun. In the past I’ve helped them out and ended up wondering off to do photo shoots because as threes often little for “me” to do during the show out side of set up and take down but I have felt guilty about that so… this time I didn’t leave the stand at all apart from during the Euro Cosplay Qualifiers with I arranged before the show I’ll come back to that.
Now DDR UK is a fantastic group of people for them during the show I was tasked with recording the event and getting promotional photos for them. This sounds straight forward right well not so much the thing with a stand at expo is there are a unbelievable amount of people all crowded round the stand doesn’t give you much opportunity for photos. I got several shots I’m happy with just shooting for a stand like this is a lot harder then you’d think my personal favourite shot from the stand took me 44 hours to get because when I saw the angle some one stepped in front of me blocking the shot and the last thing you do on a games stand is ask people to move when they are having fun so I waited patiently keeping my eye on the spot to see if I could get the shot and eventually I did patinas pays off.
Euro cosplay is currently the largest cosplay competition in the world.. Yes that’s right Euro cosplay is bigger then world cosplay with more countries taking part the final is held at Octobers London Expo each year but before that there are 2 qualifiers each yeah in each respective country taking part. For the UK there is one at may expo witch I just shot and another in August at Ayacon witch I am also attending
it was a absolute privilege shooting this event from the press pit I saw some of a couple of the best cosplays I’ve seen so far one in particular blow me away and that was Xaerael as the Skeksil Chamberlain from Dark Crystal. who incidentally won the qualifier. For a wile now I’ve been trying to work out what makes a great cosplay and I’ve worked it out for me its the ones that jump out at you when your shooting they just inhabit the frame you can have 2 cosplayers on the same cat walk with the same lighting and both are great but one will just jump out at you and look that much more amazing on the back of your camera’s LCD. I’ve also noticed its the very same ones that jump out at me this way often win something not always first place but something so for all the rumours I’ve hard about judges I don’t believe them for a second time and time again they prove to pick the very best or what I believe is the best. There was one other cosplay I wanted to make not of and that was Emma as Chise from She, The Ultimate Weapon. Almost as good as the winner she won best expert costume and I thought her cosplay was outstanding but I have to say on a personal note I got a little emotional seeing that particular character brought to life I always loved that anime it made me cry when I first saw it.
Full Set
Title: Final Fantasy XIII photoshoot
Location: Yorkshire Dales National Park
Link out: Click here
Description: Photo shoot dedicated to the characters from Final Fantasy XIII. Each of the charters is represented by and hand picked cosplay by Erin Bower with 11 of the best cosplay photographers in the UK invited oh and me!
Start Date: 2011-06-17
End Date: 2011-06-19
I’ve have loved start trail photos ever since a friend of mine introduced me to them just over a year ago and we tried to do some with out any idea on how to go about it. That was a funny trip trying to shoot start trails with a D40 and duck tape to hold the BULB mode on.
Well ever since then I’ve been meaning to try again and after seeing my same friend who is the most busy person I know managed to go do some I felt inspired and went out at the first opportunity to try again click hear for his site Colin Barker
Right on to the mini adventure that was that night. I decided to go to Great Malvern and take some shots from on top of the hill it seemed like the easiest place to get to with reduced light pollution. Had planned to go with friends to help keep me awake thought the night but due to atmospheric conditions changing I had to set things forward 24hours leaving me on my own. I get to Malvern quite late with a heavy pack I had tried to take minimal gear but found I needed a quarter of what took as is always my way. I try to climb the hill in the bitch black this was a fun nightmare my main torch died and my head torch began to fail making thins extra interesting. in the day with out any gear would take me 40 minuets from train station to the peek in this conditions it took me just under 2 hours but it was well worth it the hill that time of night looks breathtaking.
Took this photo with a tripod half way up the hill was pitch black where I was so I got a great view of the town with my supper zoom. I wouldn’t of seen this if I wasn’t so laden with gear and had to rest at the start of the main hills.
I finally make it to the summit its about 11pm no one is around and its windy as hell so I go in search of a spot with good shelter giving up on my original plan of where I was going to shoot on the hill I’d have frozen to half to death assuming the wind didn’t send the tripod flying. I eventually find a set of bushes in a dip as a perfect wind brake. I start to set up I put on my thermal clothing about 7 layers and get my sleeping bag out tripod ext only to find I’d forgotten one important item a compose to find north. With out it I was kind of at a loss astronomy was never my stung point so unable to find Polarise I had to improvise and shoot several star trails and looking at each one till I worked out where it was based on the swirls so tip remember campuses.
Now I get onto how I set my self up put my camera on a tripod with a battery grip as I needed the extra power due to the cold sapping the batteries life. connected a lockable cable release putting my camera in BULB mode and then set the camera with a timer alarm on my phone with me experimenting with different times I found 30 minuets worked best only problem I found was with Long exposure Noise reduction turned on how ever long the exposures lasted was how long the processing took. This limited how many shots I could get even fever. I forgot to change my white balance to Tungsten so I ended up having to change that in post but I always shoot RAW so this was not a problem. Another thing I found ISO 200 wasn’t enough for high definition of the stars but higher still I’d have had to much light pollution so this teaches me 2 things next time try a higher ISO and also find a place with even less light pollution.
All night I only got one good star trail the one above for my second atemt ever I’d say wasn’t to bad but I’ve a long way to go. During this perticuor exspousre I have a funny little story. I’d taken this exposures and was lay there in my sleeping back at 2am waiting for my alarm to tell me it was ready trying not to sleep. You guessed it I fell asleep in a dazed state I awake to a Now I get onto how I set my self up put my camera on a tripod with a battery grip as I needed the extra power due to the cold sapping the batteries life. connected a lockable cable release putting my camera in BULB mode and then set the camera with a timer alarm on my phone with me experimenting with different times I found 30 minuets worked best only problem I found was with Long exposure Noise reduction turned on how ever long the exposures lasted was how long the processing took. This limited how many shots I could get even fever. I forgot to change my white balance to Tungsten so I ended up having to change that in post but I always shoot RAW so this was not a problem. Another thing I found ISO 200 wasn’t enough for high definition of the stars but higher still I’d have had to much light pollution so this teaches me 2 things next time try a higher ISO and also find a place with even less light pollution
of a DOG above me it looked like a wolf I didn’t exactly panic I thought wild anime on no checked over my tripod is still there all is well but worried this anime might steal my food or nock over my gear so I shout witch comes out as a scream my half asleep stat. The dog looks at me like I’m mad and a moment latter a light over from the path goes on its a dog walker a 2am so I had a embarrassing conversation with the nice guy who I’m sure I freaked out but not something you expect that time of day I’m just lucky my gear was safe. After that I put my walk man on and stayed sat upright so I wouldn’t sleep again but just after he left my photo had finished processing and it was the best image by far of the night. I didn’t get any more usable images of stars that night but I did get a nice drawn photo. I’ll leave you with 3 tips
1 remember a compose
2 hove ever much gear you think you need you can always pack a little lighter
3 rap up warm I was freezing round 4 am and I had a silly number of layers
I’ve recently Joined “Purple Mermaid Circus Society” at my local university as I’ve been interested in Poi for a few years so it seemed a good idea to find some where to practice so I joined up. This presents me with a unique opportunity photographically. The Society is full of talented individuals who practice all kinds of circus goodness.
On my limited opportunities to try this I’ve found a good working formulaSet the camera on a tripod attach a SB 900 flash or similar and set it to AF only as your camera can’t focus in that light. Set your iso to something low I use the native 200 on my D300s I then attach a cable release to remove any vibration. Then set the camera to fully manual have the shutter speed set to BULB and have the F/stop some where between f/6 and f/13 depending on the shot then just guess the time of the exposure with the cable release normally something like 2-5 seconds works best
I'm Russell Fenton a freelance photograpther and welcome to my blog.