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Independence Day festival, Lisle Illinois

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Fun snapshot of me practicing ’80’s guitar moves at fantasy camp.


I like to think the lady in the tattoo is still there, standing right next to him.

The joys of long-distance zoom photography.


They’ve done this before

Flame front on high-speed zoom

Comments

  1. Fantastic pictures!

    But forgive me–coming from a background with lots and lots of military–it seems that the point of the parachute jump in this case is to drop the flag from a great height right smack onto the ground. Nobody objected?

  2. Nice shots, Harold, especially the flame.

    Let me offer a thought on photographing people with a long lens.

    It is not my favorite way to do it. It's easy, of course, and it avoids awkwardness, sometimes, and you can argue it catches more unguarded moments. All pluses.

    You can also "set a stage." That is, you can spot, at some distance, an interesting background of some kind, and wait for a subject to walk into it. This takes some patience.

    On the other hand, it has an air of taking advantage, of surreptitiousness, which I find uncomfortable. It can also get you an occasional glare. It usually will be OK at an event like this, where participants more or less expect to have their pictures taken, but maybe not in other circumstances.

    My own preference, which took me a long time to get comfortable with – it really only happened by accident – is to mingle, make myself a part of the scene, and then just photograph naturally, up close. You'll get some poses, which you don't necessarily want, but that stops after a while and you can get some natural interactions. You can also make friends.

    As always, these are just personal opinions and I claim no great expertise. I'm just an enthusiast, as you are.