When it comes to photography, one is constantly going through different phases in what they prefer to use. This time the most obvious phase I was going through was “don’t talk to people, keep your distance”. Because of this I was most comfortable when using my 70-200mm f/2.8L II – a telezoom that I usually use for portrait, conference and sports shoots.
Sure, I also used a wide variety of other lenses varying from 11 to 70 millimetres, but for some reason, 70-200 was the one I used the most. It’s pretty easy to choose a spot, raise up your (bloody heavy) camera and wait for the moment to appear – albeit it might look rather odd to some that a grown man stands in the same spot for an hour just glaring at other visitors.
As I did in Desucon Frostbite 2015, I opted not to follow the stage presentation part of the cosplay competition, as there are already plenty of wonderful photos at Desucon’s own gallery.
Instead I headed straight away to the backstage and the stage’s foyer, where the competitors were not in a role, but being themselves, waiting anxiously for their turn.
The foyer hasn’t gotten any brighter since the last event, but this time I had a secret weapon – a strobe, 600EX-RT. No, I didn’t use the strobe to illuminate the room, I rather turned on its master mode and turned off the firing of the flash, thus giving myself a powerful focus assisting light.
Even at aperture f/1.2, I had to result into using ISOs as high as 40000 and 50000, and that – unfortunately – does show in the end images. Although, to be honest, 1D X’s noise is extremely low at those levels when compared to any other camera used at the premises.
I was somewhat unsure of why I go to anime conventions and such as I don’t really even watch anime, but I think I’ve finally found the answer; I like to be surrounded by people who don’t judge, who are happy to be oddballs and who enjoy that special even when you can be whoever you want. And that’s what I’d want every day to be.
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