Renaissance Revisited - Bell Guy #2

I was all over the place, snapping photos from up close and further away. Many times this guy made eye contact with the lens and held it there until I was done, all the while playing his beautiful music...

Renaissance Revisited - Bell Guy #1

The Bell Guy is one of the more outstanding acts at the Festival now, in my opinion. He is clearly so into it, and the mask with full-body costume adds an element of mystery. Watching him is just as entertaining as listening to the music! And the music is very good...

Renaissance Revisited - Bell Stage

Another new item this year was a guy that played bells from a keyboard of sorts. This statuette was overlooking the venue, and was captured before the act began...

Renaissance Revisited - Camel's Head

The venue this year at the Renfest was greatly expanded, and one of the things added was animal rides - they had this camel and a couple of elephants for five bucks a pop. I was very tempted to coerce our Taiwanese guest into an elephant ride, but the line was too long.

Renaissance Revisited - King Vulture #2

This is where volume comes in - a vast majority of pictures taken of this king vulture were discarded, but enough were taken to land a few. These are both fairly cropped in, and highlights were darkened to bring out detail in the white feathers. There were about six kids lining the stage and sitting on the steps, which forced me to shoot over their heads (the lady on stage tried to contain them to no avail). Next time we're going to arrive earlier and get just the right seats...

Renaissance Revisited - King Vulture #1

Researched a blog that named this the "king vulture". One of the most beautiful birds I've seen, whatever the species...

Renaissance Revisited - Buzzard's Back

Don't know if this would be correct, but I've devised a simple formula for determining exactly how much a photo has been cropped. In the original of this shot the total # of pixels is 12,212,224, hence 12 MP. After cropping, this portion is only 1,461,975. Doing the division reveals that only 12% of the pixels remain. Thus, it has been 88% cropped...that is, 88% of the original pixels have been removed, leaving 12% in view. Does that make sense?

Renaissance Revisited - Owl #2

It appears this fellow is scrutinizing the photographer instead of the other way around!

This shot is fairly cropped in, and a bit of post-capture work was needed to remove droppings from the perch.

Renaissance Revisited - Owl #1

I've posted pictures of this guy before, but they never get old. Such a majestic creature...

He was at some distance from the camera in the photo at bottom, so it's fairly cropped in. The focus was not perfect but it looks as though it were captured in a rural setting in spite of the large crowds below. The owl was selectively sharpened and brightened just a tad to make him stand out in front of the busy background.

Shots such as these make the $800 spent on my only lens for the Big Cahoona (so far) very much worth it...no way could these have even been attempted with the Fujifilm s7000 from days gone by. The 200mm zoom, which is equivalent to 300mm on my CX sensor, has me thoroughly spoiled! For that reason I'll be patient in waiting to purchase faster glass with the same zoom capabilities, now priced at $2,400...

The photo at top was, obviously, taken from much closer (about ten feet away), and it was no trouble finding the eye for sharp focus.

Renaissance Revisited - Red Tail

Some would think that nothing but hawks, buzzards and owls would not make for a very good show, but this is the Renaissance Festival.

For amateur photographers such as myself it's all about volume, luck, and post-capture cropping and tweaking. In fact - just as in most area of life - the ones who appear to be winners are not the ones with the most talent, but those that work the hardest. I find great joy in sitting down to manipulate these pics to my own satisfaction, and if a few good ones have resulted then that's just gravy.

He probably didn't know it at the time, but it was my traveling companion to Enchanted Rock that brought me back down to earth about all this. We were talking about the results of our work when he mentioned that the only customer he cares about is himself...he takes the pictures and edits them in post-capture to satisfy his vision and no one else's. Thus, there is a greater blessing in a work that is uniquely one's own, and no one else's, because no one else can fill the niche specifically created by those talents...