The Country Show - Cameras In The Sticks

One of our principals and one of the sales staff have just returned from attending a photographic conference in Albany - a delightful country city located on the south coast of Western Australia. They took a large Mercedes van stuffed to the gills with equipment down over the weekend and presumably entertained the masses. We are in the process of emptying the van and restocking the shelves in the shop.

Looks like they had reasonable weather - the rains have hit the place today but they are back up here in the sun. The Albany run is fairly long, and they would have had a busy and tiring weekend of it.

Country conferences and open days are generally good things - the local people out in the bush are as keen about photography as those of us here in the city and as a fair amount of the landscape in Western Australia is stored out in the country - they have the ocean out off-shore to keep most of the water together - the country people can sometimes get out to the scenery a lot more conveniently...And they can take some pretty good images of it all.

One problem that seems to plague some of them is the primitive nature of the internet connections out there. They want fast access to the sites and information but sometimes the wet length of twine that the PMG has installed as the country phone line gets overloaded and they are thrown back upon their own resources*. Thus the advent of the Camera Electronic Visiting Van is a blessing - they get to see the latest goods and discuss the new trends.

Hopefully, the CE people were able to answer some questions, inspire some ambitions, and find out what sorts of gear the folks really want.

* Wait for the NBN. It is coming to your locality. It came past our front yard and broke the concrete driveway...and had to pour us a new one. Heaven knows what will happen when they start to connect the new improved high-speed optical wet twine...

Go Away - Some Other Time

Some people go other places to take photographs. I go other times. Here is a chance for you to do it too.

The Balingup Medieval Festival is being held in Balingup  - in the state's southwest - on August 24th and 25th. It is a Saturday and Sunday event that attracts stallholders, players, fighters, dancers, faeries, and the local population. I was talking a few years ago to Cletus about this, and he said it was the high point of their Balingup year - I believe him.

The food is pretty good - there is a local winery that makes fruit wines from their own trees. The cherry wine is lovely, the peach wine is memorable, and the orange liquid will strip the chrome trim off an Oldsmobile bumper. There are a number of local producers of cheese, jams, and the sorts of unidentifiable sweets that are generally sold at CWA fetes. The German sausage stand is worth the price of admission - by the way they DO charge for admission....this is the high point of the year, remember...

But there is plenty more to eat - the coffee stalls, the French patisserie people, the churro and Mexican food. The stuffed potato man is the friend of mankind, particularly on cold mornings.

What about the entertainment? Apart from the stalls selling new-age trinkets and plastic swords, there are soap sellers, scent sellers, wine cellars, and Peter Sellars. No, apparently I am wrong there...

The Grey Company - those are Greyco people you see in the pictures - have real heavy metal fighting shows twice a day and the the other  costume societies are there to hit each other with plastic batons too. If you want to take pictures of the SCA or the DarkSun groups any small compact will do as it is not generally necessary to focus very quickly - they don't move much. If you want to get real medieval fighting photos try to get to the front of the crowd for the Grey Company shows

A DSLR or one of the new Fuji or Olympus mirrorless cameras is the go - they focus quickly and you can get a fast lens that let you have a shallow depth of field if you want to isolate faces. I would suggest 400-800 ISO even in daylight to boost the shutter speed - you will be amazed at the speed with which the swords and spears fly in a fight. I would also suggest a fill flash when the sun is out - the meters on the cameras see the highlights off the armour and shut down a little. Fire a flash into the shadows.

The best capture of the fight is the first clash - just before the combatants close completely in - and the finish when the final death blows are delivered. Expect dirt and sawdust to fly in all directions particularly in a melée and don't be surprised if you get pelted.

An 18-200 lens on an APSC camera is perfect and a 24-70 on a full-framer should get you what you want. The shows last about half an hour so put a good card in there to capture the action.

Please DO listen to the announcer, Paul. He will tell you to stay away from the protective ropes because the Grey Company swords and spears and billhooks and halberds are real steel. If you are too close and one hits you,  expect to get value from your health insurance contributions and a valuable life experience that you can ponder over for many years...

There is a daily parade of all the festival royalty and a speech by the King of Balingup. Don't miss that speech. It is the high point of the Balingup year...