So! I went to the Maryland Rennaisance Festival this weekend. For those who aren’t in the know, Rennaisance Festivals (Ren Fests, abbreviated) are exactly that: festivals that celebrate the rennaisance/medieval style of town vaguely and many of the practices that were more common then. The above photo is from a falconry show from a group called Knightwings, who were performing at the festival. They had about 20 birds at the show, with about 7 or 8 of them out to be shown off between the shows and their booths, including this beautiful Bald Eagle. It was really something seeing how calm and collected the bird was, surrounded by the giant crowd. You could tell she was used to the attention, and even tried to throw a bit of a fit to stay outside the carrier longer so she could see the people more.
The festival as a whole was honestly incredible, I’ve never been to one before. My friend invited me a couple weeks ago to go with them and I’m very glad I took them up on the offer. It’s a place for people to dress up in costumes however they like, period-accurate or otherwise. There were people in faerie costumes, full-on plate and chainmail suits, wizard outfits; massive, fancy, paisley-embroidered clothes like nobles would wear. Then there were people wearing their normal street wear, goth attire, people dressed like Robin Hood or wearing mushroom hats (which is apparently a Tiktok trend) or who knows what else. It was really phenomenal to see.
There were also plenty of shows, including comedic reinterpretations of Shakespeare plays in shorter amounts of time (MacBeth in 20 Minutes may ring a bell for some), and naturally, given we were in Maryland, we had to include the state sport: Jousting.
Of course, the jousting display was packed, and I didn’t have a very good point of view of the event due to showing up a bit late. Which was fine; my intent here was more to document for memories, rather than to capture artistic images or refine my photography. But I think I realized that I might actually enjoy sports photography here. There’s something very entertaining to me about setting up to get the right shot, predicting exactly where someone is going to be and setting the focus manually for there, praying you got your settings right to capture an amazing shot. Not that this was an amazing shot, but maybe if I had my telephoto lens I could’ve gotten one.
Ah, right; I got a telephoto lens.
After realizing there was a solar eclipse coming up this weekend (the 14th of October), I quickly started looking into it to see if I could go take pictures. I ran into a few issues:
- The annular eclipse was taking place on the opposite side of the US.
- I had promised to house/dogsit for a friend of mine that weekend.
- I didn’t have the equipment necessary to get a shot I’d have really liked.
- I have no idea how to do astrophotography.
Thankfully, the first two are resolved by realizing there’s a total solar eclipse happening in the US in April, much closer to where I am now. In fact, it’s heading directly over Niagra Falls, which I’ve also never been to. I don’t think I’d want to be at Niagra Falls during the eclipse; it’d be much too crowded for me to get a good photo, and would probably spike some social anxiety and claustrophobia to boot. But I think taking the eclipse as an excuse to plan out a trip to see the area would be fun.
The third issue is one that took a bit more research, but ultimately it brought me to the same conclusion I usually come to when looking for new equipment: I need a telephoto lens to get a closer shot of the subject. So I finally bought a Tamron 70-300 lens for Canon cameras, and the appropriate converter. Thankfully, the converter and the lens both support autofocus, although it can be incredibly slow, probably partially due to the conversions between Fujifilm and Canon electronic communication. Due to the crop sensor on my camera, the lens is really more of a 105-450mm focal length, which is honestly perfect for me; my kit lens covers 18-55 (23-70mm, roughly), so this covers an area that I simply didn’t have access to before. Overall the picture quality is fairly sharp, although not quite as sharp as my kit lens. It took me a while to realize how fast I have to have the shutter speed to avoid blurry photos, but that’s what practice is for; I wouldn’t want to do that during the eclipse.
After a couple hours’ practice with and without a tripod on Theodore Roosevelt Island, taking photos of passing rowers, buildings, and wildlife, I think I have a bit of a better handle on how to use this massive telephoto lens:
- This is a daytime lens, or otherwise one I have to use with a ton of stabilization. It needs a ton of light at higher magnifications.
- I need to stop down the aperture some from its max of f/4.0 most of the time to get a clear enough picture; the field of view gets so narrow I can’t focus on anything.
- In even kinda-dim light, this lens is manual focus. It has the potential to autofocus, but that’s only going to be in bright sunlight or a studio.
Given I got the lens on the cheap, I can’t complain about any of these drawbacks. I’m more than happy to spend $300 or so (for both the lens and converter, both used) to get a lens that I can shoot wildlife and solar photography with, as well as potentially sports photography. Overall, I’m pretty happy with it, but it’s a hassle to carry around, and I need to carry it in my backpack. So for the moment, photography is gonna stay on the kit lens unless I plan well in advance.
On a lark, I also took some notes on how others do astrophotography, and came to the conclusion that I’d need to book a trip out to a place that’s less light-polluted than where I’m at to get any photography I’d be particularly happy with. I tried a few photos in my backyard, but without using astro image processing software I don’t think I’m going to be sharing many of those images, as they’re just not that interesting. I do enjoy the process of setting up for the images, though; seeing what long exposure times can do to images is always something I enjoy, if my forays into water photography have been any indication.
Night hiking is starting to look like the plan if I want to seriously pursue astrophotography, though I’d need to look around some more before attempting it. I know some places a few hours away that should be plenty dark enough, but they’re also not places I go hiking very often, and would probably want some friends with me. Not to mention most parks “technically” close at sunset.
Finally, here’s some of the street photos I’ve taken in the past few weeks. I haven’t taken any photos that really strike me as something I’d like to use in my portfolio, but I’ve been trying to focus more on composition and getting the shot right in the camera. I’ve also been taking some more black and white photography; Alexandria is a very photogenic city, especially in the heart of Old Town.
That’s most of what’s been going on with me as far as photography, recently. I’ve got my Fundamentals of Engineering exam this coming week, which depending on the results I get may push me to look for a new job. Currently looking for an electric vehicle to buy, as well. Working on putting together a YouTube video after I get done the exam, and starting to pay off student loan debt; $30k left, hoping I can keep up the payments so I’m done in a couple years.
As it gets colder, my mental health sometimes takes a nosedive for one reason or another. To anybody out there struggling with the season, classes, or whatever else may be weighing on your mind: things are always in flux. Something new will come along, and maybe it’ll be something that really makes you happy. Everybody deserves people who love and care about them, and most of you have them even if you don’t think you do. Reach out to people, find friends. And if you can’t find them now, I have faith you’ll find them in the future. Keep looking, keep living. And thanks for reading.
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