PhotographyBanzai.com

I went to a local convention called Kollision Con on Saturday for a few hours. Here are the results of my effort. I’ll be talking later about how that video was done. I set out to improve from my previous videos and I think I accomplished that. This time I ended up spending some money on the music along with more general effort on getting better source video clips.  So with that, the cost of the badge, and around 126 miles round trip… it wasn’t the cheapest event, but still less than staying at the hotel for a day or two. Photo highlights:  If you have any questions or comments, let me know through my contact page, thanks. 

So I noticed a while back on Facebook that a camera store called Lundgrens was setting up a photo walk to coincide with something called the World Wide Photo Walk, so I signed up. It was fun to take photos around a great park in the area. If you happen to be one of the people I asked for a photo, send me an email and I’ll respond back with a copy of the photo you want without my watermark on it. Here are a few photos for your viewing enjoyment!

Fall is usually a time for new camera announcements. Just recently Pentax France showed a promo PDF that hinted at a new camera body besides the Q and 645D. They have since modified the PDF and removed the hint, but it’s interesting at least. If you frequent PentaxForums.com, you will know a debate on Pentax Full-frame comes up every so often. As I’m a person who feels I could benefit from Pentax FF, I usually post at least one message stating my reasons. This time , the discussion started with a pretty strong argument for full-frame. I agree that for Pentax to get back the popularity they had in their heyday, they should have at least one camera for each audience. We see that they are expanding their offerings after cutting back a bit on 35mm. They now have three digital systems (K, 645, and Q), so they are trying to increase their general appeal. Recent 35mm lens releases have been pretty yawn inducing from an enthusiast point of view. I wonder if it was because they were working on ...

I compiled a video from the clips that I took Sunday at Wizard World’s Chicago Comic Con. Uploaded it to Youtube for your viewing pleasure! Edit: I removed the old video along with various similar videos. All of those were compiled into one video and placed on my Cosplay/crafting channel instead of the “Photography Banzai” one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8CkEjKDTA As you can see from this and past videos, I like upbeat fast paced dance style music. I also have been trying to use Creative Commons licensed music to avoid any unwanted headaches. So I think I improved a bit from my last video in source quality. This time I used my 10-17mm Fisheye lens a lot with the walking around the convention center clips and then I used the 31mm lens for the standard source material. A lot less camera shake, but I still need to keep movement in mind when I’m walking around to further lessen camera shake and abrupt panning movements. Eventually I’d like to move toward more fun directed vid...

I attended the Chicago Comic Con on Sunday. There really wasn’t much cosplay, but I managed to get a few photos. If I attend this event next year, I plan on going on Saturday because that should have more costumers and such to document. There are various well knows actors and actresses that attend so that they can interface with fans. A few highlight photos: There were not too many photos, so I tried to put a little extra effort into post-processing of each. The main technique I used in the convention center was to aim the flash toward the ground instead of directly at the cosplayer or up into nothingness of the tall celling. The negative with that is when I was too close, there was a noticeable difference in brightness of their lower body compared to their face.  I easily fixed that with the “graduated filter” tool in Adobe Camera Raw. Let’s see… besides that… The camera I was using was the K-7 with 31mm lens and Sigma flash. I did take a limited few photos with a 10-17mm fisheye ...

I finished up processing of Sunday photos last night. The only other thing I might do is to see if I can piece together a video from all of the clips I took at Otakon, but that’s to be determined if I have enough decent content to use. Probably my biggest convention yet photo count wise. I think that’s due to having Thursday and a full Friday to work with. Overall, Otakon was a fun convention experience. The layout is easy to manage from a walking standpoint and there is a large amount of cosplay to be seen everywhere. I hope you east coasters liked the photos because the chance I’ll be attending Otakon again is pretty slim. Instead of driving and a hotel 3 miles from the convention, I’d have to fly and get a room right near the convention center to make it manageable (eg. too expensive for me currently…).  It was nice seeing thousands of convention goers I had never seen before and of course I can’t forget enjoying the  $1 ice cold water  to be had outside the convention...

I finally finished going through the Saturday photos. I had a lot and also had a few things get in the way of processing. I sported the 85mm for most of the gatherings and the 40mm for general hallway stuff. There are just too many images I’d like to post up here as highlights… Now on to Sunday photos, so I can finish this an move on to something (most likely) more profitable.  🙂

So I was wondering around on Sunday and noticed a large break dance competition at Otakon on Sunday. It looks like it was orchestrated for a video of a new, yet already well known, Canadian videographer nicknamed “ Acksonl ” (aka. Ackson’s Creatives ) on Youtube. His work is popular enough that I noticed quite a few mimics with similar setups circling around cosplayers at the convention. So anyways, I hung around for a while and took some photos and videos of the competition. In his second video of the convention at 3:15, I was taking a photo of one of the break dancers with the K-7 and 85mm f1.4 lens: The photo on the left was the closest one to what I took at that period in time. The second is the videographer with his large Steadicam setup. His videos are pretty amusing overall. He has a good style and choice in music, which I think is a big reason he is so popular.

I finished going through the first day of photos from the Otakon 2011 convention in Baltimore, MD today. Some highlight images of the day: I primarily used the DA 40mm f2.8 lens for that day, switching between using and not using the flash. Overall the flash is a big help outside to create a level exposure between the subject and background, yet still having high contrast throughout the image.  The main benefit being that I don’t have to care as much if I shooting into or away from the sun or not. I decided to do cropping this time to see if the final results turn out a bit better overall. Getting decent framing is a challenge with prime lenses, but it is what I prefer.

I spent the weekend with a friend at Soycon taking photos. This is dubbed a “cosplay gathering” where a large group of people meetup for events and photography.  Edit: I removed the old video along with various similar videos. All of those were compiled into one video and placed on my Cosplay/crafting channel instead of the “Photography Banzai” one.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8CkEjKDTA A few highlight images: From a photography standpoint I did have a few issues. My newer camera, the K-5, is being fixed (It looks like I feel compelled to mention that in every single posting until I get it back…), so I had to use the older K-7.  That meant less dynamic range, poor high ISO, and fewer megapixels. For whatever reason the camera seems to back-focus at around 10 feet away from my subject, which isn’t something I remember happening in the past. I noticed a hint of it with the 55mm f1.4 when I looked at those model shots I took a few days ago, but on Saturday when I ...