StarFest!

StarFest concluded yesterday and while the cosplay element wasn't as strong as other conventions there were some amazing turn outs! Of course with the heavy Star Trek influence there were a lot of Star Trek uniforms which I wasn't inspired enough to grab some shots of. However I am always a sucker for Storm Troopers: Overall there were some wonderful cosplayers walking around. These Disney princesses were a treat; certainly the best Rapunzel I've seen: A fixture of StarFest is the 501st Mountain Garrison. The past few years that I have gone they have an excellent photo opportunity setup with some classic scene from the films that you can be a part of. My favorite was the tunnel from the Hoth rebel base a year or two ago but this one also spectacular with Han Solo in carbonite: My absolute favorite costume of the weekend is this Silvermoon City Guard (the Blood Elf capitol) from World of Warcraft: The detail on her whole costume was exquisite and I particularly liked the attention she paid to the book she included. She was rightfully very proud of the way it turned out and thrilled to have so enthusiastic get some pictures after all of her hard work. I even caught up with her again later in the day and I had changed lenses to get a few more full figure shots: Another happenstance photo shoot occurred when this Black Cat crossed my path: We ran outside and she spent about 5 minutes with me and I was grateful to have some more model help/exposure. Many thanks to all of the excellent costumes at StarFest this weekend! Especially to Ms. Blood Elf and Black Cat. They were both natural models with some great posing and I hope to continue to learn from people like this to help future cosplayers during our shoots!

Inspiration

Thankfully we don't have to rediscover fire every morning to make breakfast. Some smart person came before us and figured that and a million other things out so all we have to do is stand on their shoulders and focus our time figuring out the next best thing. Similarly there are some photographers both cosplay and nature/landscape I admire and try to learn from by looking at their images and comparing to my own. Being able to look at pictures of photographers that inspire me I can try to focus more on development of my style.

First is Ljinto:

Everything I see from this photographer is incredible. One critique I have over my own cosplay photography is how dark the images are. Ljinto always has such bright, vivid images that are balanced and not blown out. I wish I had seen more of his work before a party I attended at Dragon*Con where this was taken. I would have asked how he achieves such amazing photos.

Next from the world of cosplay is Mindfall:

He always has wonderful perspective shots that help display the personality and costume of the character he's shooting.





Finally from the realm of nature/landscape/travel photography is Peter West Carey:
I'm pretty certain I've mentioned the Digital Photography School before and that is where I discovered this phenomenal photographer.

The best part is he also teaches photography workshops and leads photography tours. He is coming to Boulder in June and I'll have the pleasure of fine tuning some skills in a 4 hour workshop then at the end of the month head up to Portland for a hike around Mount Hood. During the weekend he'll be teaching a small group about waterfall, sunset/sunrise, and star photography. I'm pretty stoked to get to meet him and learn hands on.

What do you think of the photographers I like? Any you think are on the same level? Let me know! I'd love to see their work as well.

Cheers!

Elfquest Shoot: Red Rocks Colorado

Colorado has had some remarkable spring weather lately. A few weeks ago my wife asked to have a shoot of her Clearbrook costume she made for Dragon*Con a few years ago. Being blessed with Red Rocks a few miles away we headed there since after leaving their forest homes the elves travel through a similar terrain.













The final shot was one of my favorites of the day. I love how the vastness of the land she's looking out onto is conveyed. Not necessarily the best shot to show off the costume but you get some detail of the braid.

Keep checking back for more shoots! I'm getting things ramped up around here for the convention season.

Convention Season is coming

Fanime in San Jose is 2 months away (I may sit by the bay and eat some hay what do you say?!) and I'm already getting excited! Originally I wasn't planning on attending panels but there are a couple that pertain to my photography interests. I won't have much time for additional panels due to my busy photo shoot schedule! I placed a post on the forums page offering free shoots so I could get more practice and the response was unbelievable. Twenty when I stopped counting. I sent out a lot of confirmations but unfortunately after a meeting with my wife's masquerade group I found out how much of my Sunday would be vouched for. I was planning on 9 shoots over the 3 main days and confirmed with 15 people thinking I could stretch it. Learning Sunday would mostly be out I paired it back down to 10.

Animeland Wasabi happened at the beginning of the month. It was a good warm up to get me thinking about conventions again and reminding me of the trials of shooting in poorly lit hotels. There was exactly one hallway moderately well lit but the yellow halls still played havoc with the white balance.

I saw this amazing Will of the Abyss cosplayer who let me take some quick shots:




My friends Makoto and Dahlia were dressed as Princess Bubblegum and Marceline respectively from Adventure Time. We spent quite a while playing in the yellow hallway and as always they gave me some amazing shots. They're always such great natural posers.








This was my first time out with the new lens (super wide angle) and it did a great job grabbing full costumes as they walked by. I think it will also be a great tag team lens for the Tamron I have as well. I'm still learning but I feel each time I go out there and take pictures I progress quickly.

Animals!!!

Lucky for me it's a leap year! You see, I'm really trying to keep at least 2 posts a month going. It isn't a lot I know. I should probably be posting at least weekly but I haven't been finding a lot to get good pics of for posting lately. I need to do more photo walks and grab my sleek, conveniently discreet camera bag as I'm heading out the door more often. You can't take pictures if you don't have your camera!

Today I'll be talking about my limited but expanding exposure to wildlife photography. Yes, our poodle is wildlife. If you've met him you already know this.



I make it a point to attempt to compose pictures. In the age of digital it's easy to fire away with your camera and hope a tenth of the shots are keepers. But the more I learn the more I want to be confident that the picture I just took is going to be amazing. That way I'm not disappointed when I get home from a trip whether it's downtown or around the world. Unfortunately when it comes to animals it's difficult to compose. You're at the mercy of their whims. The biggest things you can do is be prepared.

A few weeks ago Denver got some pretty good snow. My wife loves tossing our 11 pound toy poodle into 11 inch snow drifts and the dog doesn't seem to hate it so it isn't really cruelty.


I was crouched and ready to go long before he hit the snow. I tested exposure because I knew I wanted a small aperture for a longer depth of field and the snow reflecting the sun could contribute to blow out. Because I was prepared I was able to capture this great shake and a few little flecks of snow flying off in the process.

Of course there is going to be some element of burst shots. This is one of maybe 7 shots within a couple of seconds.


Below is another example of composing and bursting at the same time.


I was in Scotland and we had just gone rabbit hawking with a couple of Harris Hawks named Pepper and Saunders. After the hunt I wanted a few "posed" shots of Pepper with the blood on her beak from the last kill of the day. I composed as best I could. Focused on her eyes so they would be tack sharp and widened the aperture to make the background as blurred as possible enhancing the subject. Of course I had to be ready for when she decided to turn just the right way so I squeezed a few shots in succession and managed to grab my favorite.



I wish I had left the depth of field a little longer so the beak would be more in focus at its tip. I'm still extremely happy with this shot and hope to get it framed and on our travel wall soon.

Concert Photography

My wife and I had the amazing fortune to be at Ingrid Michaelson's Denver pop up show at the Walnut Room on January 30th. I debated bringing the camera questioning if photography, especially a DSLR, would be permitted. I was surprised to be met with a big shrug at the door and as you can see from some of the shots below I'm happy I had it along. I used my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens since I knew I would be needing as wide of an aperture as possible. I still had to have my ISO set at 1000 to 1600.

She started off with a little chat before playing and it was during this time that someone from the audience gave her a gift. You can't see them in the pics but they were cute felt ukulele pics the audience member found on Etsy.



This first shot of the night made me think back to the concert related photo blogs I'd read. They all mention how red is some of the hardest lighting to photograph though while at the same time it is the favorite lighting for so many concert lighting techs. Throughout the night I attempted shooting with less and less exposure trying to get images as sharp as possible with the idea of boosting exposure in Lightroom. Unfortunately red lighting is completely unforgiving. You have to get your exposure spot on in camera.

Thank goodness the red wasn't the only lighting option that night. My "green" shots were some of my sharpest and I was able to boost exposures when needed slightly.









We were standing about 10 feet away from where Ingrid Michaelson was most of the show but right in front of her backup singer, Allie Moss.



Being close helped to get some more crisp shots as well as fill the frame and really work with composition instead of just getting a shot.



Now...back to red!

Exploring the city

Exploring the city on a photo walk is a great way to train the eye as well as practice various photography techniques. Right now the Digital Photography School has a weekly contest to practice the Rule of Thirds. A rule that I start with when composing but have made it to the point where I know when to break it as well.

Today I had some free time and wanted to head downtown for another mini walk with the contest in mind. I remembered cruising by Larimer Square a couple of nights ago and it was draped in Colorado state flags. I headed there first and grabbed a few choice shots:




I like the picture clear of cars driving by best.

The Denver City and County building is decorated every year through the Stock Show season with Christmas lights. There was a street lamp directly behind me and I wasn't able to pan around much so composition was dictated a little on this shot. Thankfully I was able to fill up the frame but the colors are a bit harsh. I may have to go back in with Lightroom and tone down color a bit. I've never actually decreased the saturation/vibrance on a picture before.



Even though my main purpose was to capture the building decorated with Christmas lights I've received the best reactions with the black and white version of the above picture.


On the same night as the City and County building pics I wanted to get some shots of the Denver skyline with my new tripod. I drive past the City Park Golf Course quite a bit and have noticed there are some good views of the city from that area. It's nice to know that no one is out golfing at night.


This first shot is with the 18-55mm kit lens. With the 30 second exposure I was actually able to capture some star movement which I didn't realize was possible at that length of exposure.


The second shot was zoomed in a bit with the 75-200mm lens. Able to crop out a good bit of the dead space on either side and fill the frame with just the city.

Look forward to more city scenes (Denver and abroad) mixed in with model and other cosplay photography!