PhotographyBanzai.com

If you are into photography or videography, you have likely faced the question: should you ask for a photo every single time at an event? A recent experience at a local Halloween market brought it into focus for me. I was there to capture the atmosphere, the feel, and the experience of this event in a documentary style. This was my first time attending this market. I also make videos highlighting photography at fun events like anime conventions. One of the buildings used at the Halloween market. For the most part, the day was filled with positive interactions. The market was filled with awesome, creative people who were more than happy to let me photograph them and their products. I made a point to ask many of the vendors for their permission to take photos of their wares, and their welcoming responses were a highlight of the event.  I rarely took photos of the vendors, but each time in that case I'd ask. This article is focusing more on photographing the products and what could al...

I recently created a video from GoPro footage and photos I took at an impromptu trip to Colossalcon North in 2024, which is held at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. It has been a while since I visited this hotel. The convention Daisho Con used this space for years, which I had gone to a few times. It was nice to check it out again!  The weather was nice, which is the main reason I'll decide to go. Considering it was November in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin area, nice weather is a big factor for me. If it's snowing I'm going to pass.  The main lobby of the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells. My Photography Gear and Settings For this trip, I was using my usual setup: the Nikon Z5 with the Nikon Z 40mm F2 lens. It's a cost effective combination, especially with how expensive camera equipment is getting. The Z5 isn't perfect, and its autofocus is not amazing, but if you take enough photos and set the camera up properly, it can be pretty decent. T...

Join me on a photo walk of a beautiful Japanese garden that was holding a summer festival. For this outing, I decided to work with some older equipment to see what kind of results I could get.  This was the second day of the event. It had rained on the first day, so I think that had an effect on this day; there wasn't quite as much going on as I had seen in previous years, but it was still fun to check out! Keep in mind throughout this article that italic text descriptions were generated by Gemini Pro 2.5 and were not specifically based on my video's information. A sign for the 2025 Japanese Summer Festival at Anderson Japanese Gardens. My Gear for the Day The Sony A7S camera with the Sony FE 24-70mm F/4 OSS lens attached. The camera I was using was the Sony A7S. This is a video-focused camera, but it works just fine for photos. However, I did have it set up in a mode that was not perfect for the situation. With the A7S, I was using the Sony FE 24-70mm F/4 OSS lens. I wanted s...

Join me on a photo walk of a beautiful conservatory that was holding a special dinosaur and historic plants event. The whole thing was indoors, which is great for avoiding the rain that was happening, and I was curious to see what they set up.  Or check out the point-of-view photography video that's a mix of ambient sound, GoPro footage, and the resulting photos.  A first person view of the dinosaur exhibit inside the conservatory. The A7S is a very video-focused camera, but it's also pretty good for photos. I paired it with a pretty standard zoom lens for this, the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens. Having that fixed maximum of aperture of f/4 through the entire zoom range makes it a nice, consistent lens for both photography and video work. The Sony A7S camera with the Sony FE 24-70mm F4 lens attached My Custom Camera Settings for the Day To make my shooting process faster and more efficient, I set up two custom modes on the camera's main dial. My first cus...

I took a trip with some friends to the Midwest FurFest 2024. I'm just now getting to the edit of the video and this website article. This was my first time at this particular convention, and it was a very interesting experience. I've been to one other furry convention, Anthrocon back in 2017, and I found the two events to be quite different.  If you want to see more photos I do have galleries of the two convention on my Cosplay Banzai facebook page: The Midwest FurFest 2024 photo gallery. Or check out my Anthrocon 2017 gallery.   A first-person view of Midwest FurFest 2024 entrance area of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center . My Camera Gear and Settings for Convention Photography For this event, I was using my usual Nikon Z5, but I paired it with a 28mm f/2.8 lens. Considering that most fursuits make people physically larger, it makes more sense to use a wider angle lens than the 40mm I typically use at other conventions. I think this choice worked out well. For those int...