photographers. However, it was a little smaller than usual. It was at that horse
ranch. Worked pretty well, but the conditions were rough. We had very cold
conditions. It was actually snow at one point, which I'll get to in this video.
Still a fun time. Still got some interesting photos from that event.
Equipment wise, I had the two Canon EOS M50s. I brought the 55 to 200 millimeter kit
lens. I also brought the 32 millimeter f1.4, that was my main setup
with the 32 and one of the M50 cameras. I brought the gimbal... I was planning on to
do some video work, but with the conditions it was extremely cold. A huge
amount of wind, very strong wind. I eventually figured out that it just
wasn't going to work out too well. So in that case I just wanted to focus more on
photography. There was only one other person taking photos. What I did with
video, as you'll see in this, is that I used the little action camera on a tripod
that I brought. It's the Manfrotto tripod. The wind was so strong it was pushing
over the little action camera with a large tripod.
(It wasn't this windy this morning...)
(GoPro down... GoPro down?)
(GoPro down!)
(It's fine...)
First photo session was with the Final Fantasy Online cosplayer. Amazing outfit!
She spents so much time on those outfits. It was extremely windy at the time. We
were able to get a few photos here and there around the property. There's one
area with some nice trees, also really tall grasses. I'm not really sure what
you would call those. That worked really well, even though the wind did mess
things up a little bit here and there. We took a few photos outside, but eventually
we went back inside to warm up. I did take some photos with her inside as well.
Nice light coming in from the main door area. I also used my little video light
that I brought... to add some extra light from the opposite direction towards her
face. That way she has some backlight plus directional light from the front.
Before the event I decided to buy a micro SD card for my phone. 128 gigabytes.
That way I could most likely put all the photos and videos on there. I think I
ended up with about 30 gigabytes total. So for the first set of photos with the
Final Fantasy cosplayer... We took a break. I pushed all those to the phone.
That way I have that backup as quickly as possible. Of course, these Canon
cameras only have a single card slot.
The second photo session was with the two
video game cosplayers. One was from Skyrim, other was from Witcher 3. With
those photos I was using the 32 millimeter lens quite a bit...
We eventually switched to singles. I went out to that same area that I did with
the Final Fantasy cosplayer. With some of the trees I could get some foreground
tree plus the background tree. I really liked that angle. I was using this screen
quite a bit on the camera. It's very convenient to get angles that I wouldn't
normally see or look for when I'm looking through the viewfinder. Also, I
don't have to bend as much. I don't have to angle as much with my body. When I'm
using the screen I can pull it out if I need to. Or I can just hold it in
different angles. So with mirrorless cameras that is a big advantage to
having quick changes between viewfinder and back screen. And everything is the
same. While we were taking a break... There was a very quick snowstorm that happened.
It's Illinois, so things like that do happen. In this case October.
It's kind of a mixed bag of very warm, very cold weather. But the snow came
on. We went out. We took more photos. Again, with the two video game cosplayers. I was
having issues with what I wanted to do based on shutter speed plus the lenses
that I had. The Canon EOS M50 doesn't handle high ISO too well. Obviously with
Canon sensors, they're just not as good in those situations. And I had the kit
lens for 55 to 200. At 200 millimeters you're at f6.3,
plus the sensor that's not great. I was having quite a bit of grain
and noise in the images. After looking at them, some of them did turn out pretty
nicely. I just wish that I had a faster lens in that situation. Because I really
wanted higher shutter speeds to get the snow in a natural look to them. Because it was
moving pretty quick. When I lowered the shutter speed it's just like long
streaks of snow. And I had to up the ISO, of course, in those situations. Again,
equipment does matter in some situations. In this case having a faster lens would
have helped out, or just came up with a better sensor that could handle those
higher ISOs. We also went out from the porch area to the front lawn again. Took
more photos in the snow, worked out really well. In that case there was a bit
more light, so the images aren't as bad ISO wise.
Had Another break. In this case
another photographer showed up. Another cosplayer showed up. We eventually went
out to their large building to take some photos with a horse. Worked out relatively
well. Again, in my case I had issues with image noise and loss of sharpness with
the photos. Because of the high ISOs. I did take some photos with 32 millimeter
lens, but when you have three photographers taking photos at the same
time... You want to be away from the horse and the person. So I definitely had to
use the longer range lens most of the time. I did learn a lot with this
equipment. It's basically consumer-level equipment, but I did try to get out as
much as I could from the equipment. Some situations it worked really well. The
Canon EOS M50 plus the 32 millimeter lens was amazing at getting focus right on
the eye. Of course, when you do go in lower light
conditions like in that big building, with the horse... Focus was more of an
issue. Especially with the longer-range lens. With the conditions that were not
ideal. I actually got very unique and interesting photos that I would have not
normally gotten, in those situations. Mostly we do this in the summertime. So
having it towards winter is very unique and interesting. Again, thanks to the
host of the event. Thanks to all the cosplayers for coming out, taking photos