PhotographyBanzai.com

A friend on Facebook posted a notification to me about a charity event that the website DeviantArt.com is holding at San Diego Comic Con 2012.  Here is the event details: We need your coolest COSPLAY PHOTOGRAPHY for display as part of the deviantART Benefit ART Show at the San Diego Comic-Con! Proceeds go to the Schreiner Burn Hospital, which routinely invites cosplayers to join in their fundraising events and encourages cosplayers to interact with the hospital’s young burn victims as part of their therapy.  So far, I have three submissions of photos I took recently at the Chicago Botanic Garden gathering. I might ask a few additional cosplayers, but I’m not sure yet. Regardless if if my work gets into the event, it sounds like a worthy cause to help children suffering from severe burns. 

There was a local photographers meetup that I attended recently. A generous member of the Facebook group offered up a place and had a bonfire setup. Here are some highlight photos:    It looks like my camera (Pentax K-5) and lens (FA 31mm f1.8) combo were having front focusing issues throughout the event. The camera body was sent away for two rounds of warranty service a while back and I didn’t have a chance to check focus with that lens yet. Next time, I’ll be sure to see if a combo needs AF micro adjustments before using it…  Large aperture lenses used at a large aperture need spot-on focus for proper composition, so even just a few inches of front or back focus can ruin an image. I used the 55mm f1.4 and 14mm f2.8 with the K-5 in Arizona without any issues, but I checked those before the trip. 

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!

I attended a vehicle show at a local church called "Rockford First" today. Every year they have a vehicle show that includes contests, food, music, and events for all ages. It’s nice idea that gives the local community something to do on a weekend and is a positive event all around. So I of course brought my K-7 and DA 14mm f2.8 lens to take some photos of the vehicles on display. There was a nice selection of vehicles at the event. From the new to the old. The shinny to the rusted. Pretty much every style you could think of off hand was represented. Some highlight images of the event: A Nissan GT-R: The highlight of the event for me was the GT-R, which is a halo car for Nissan. All wheel drive, turbocharged, computer controlled, and stock at around 500 hp. I’m not sure I’d personally want one, but it is an impressive car for sure. It has many similar aspects to my favorite car at the moment, the current model Mitsubishi Evolution SE. An amphibious car: The rare car that was ...