Street Photography from the Texas Renaissance Festival

[DHaass]

I guess this is the best place for these. I made a second trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival on Saturday. For those of you who have never gone, it is a target rich environment for photography. A friend of mine uses a technique several of us have been trying out. It is called light on a stick. Basically it's a flash, in this case a Nikon SB-900 (it can be any adjustable flash head), mounted to a telescoping paint stick with an adapter, an alien Bee trigger and receiver and a softbox.

While I tried to move the subjects to places where the background could be controlled, not everyone could be moved due to their particular character and what their job required them to do. I made a basic mistake on some where I placed them in front of a nice background, but did not maintain enough separation from it to allow me to blur it well enough during the shot.

Anyway, here are several shots for you to look at. I'm fine with any comments or critiques, no thin skin here. The elf, the last photo in this series, was shot with available light.

[S-Man]

These look like promotional photos from an upcoming movie. Nice!

[DHaass]

Thanks. This pretty much represents what you get to see for the 2 months the festival runs. It ends today, but runs October through November every year in Plantersville, Texas. I'll post some more later if you like.

[3n-Out]

I like these! Way cool photo op..

[S-Man]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing more.

[DHaass]

Thanks for the comments Big John and Sam. I'll see about putting some more up this week.

[w9ctm]

Good shots!
If I ever get through all that I shot a week ago, I'll see if I ended up with anything worth posting. Traci and I went on the 22nd, and I shot about 400 frames.

[DHaass]

Thanks Chuck. I would be interested in seeing what you guys came away with for some comparison. I have more I will post later, but just have not had time to process them all.

[zebulus]

Im glad I got this year, I got some great shots!

[lhdvies]

Nice work Doug!!! I really like that last one alot.

[DHaass]

Originally Posted by zebulus

Im glad I got this year, I got some great shots!

Put some up for us!

[DHaass]

Originally Posted by lhdvies

Nice work Doug!!! I really like that last one alot.

Thanks Leon. I didn't know you prowled this particular forum.

It was hard getting this shot. She was moving around the whole time while playing. I shot with my 70-200mm F2.8 at ISO 400, manual exposure 1/180 @ F2.8 for this one. I was using AI Servo for many moving performers.

[livinthalife]

the first two appear to be shot in shot in a studio. Great editing, AWESOME photos!!!

[DHaass]

Sorry it took so long to respond Andy. Thanks for the comment. No studio work. Thousands of people milling around, single flash on a telescoping paint stick with diffuser cover and softbox. Used AB's to trigger and receive signal off camera. Could have done better moving her in the first shot to get away from the tree more. Every time you left a gap behind the subject people wanted to walk behind them. Made it tough to separate from the backgrounds.