Standard Ren Fair lens?

[MarkBarbieri]

I took the kids to their first Renaissance Festival today. I haven't gone through all the pictures yet. If I have any good ones, I'll post them.

What surprised me was the number of 70-200 f/2.8 lenses. Is that the standard lens for ren fairs? I'm used to being fairly conspicuous when I shoot with mine. I felt like I blended in with the crowd today.

I took the shot below with my 70-200 f/2.8 lens. It has four others in the shot. I saw several others during the day as well. Strange.

 

[JoeDif]

Looks more like an NFL sidelines!!

 

[SrisonS]

I like how the one guy is VERY casually shooting.

 

[annnewjerz]

Last year at the PA Ren Faire, I saw A LOT of large lenses. It seemed to be the norm. I was more surprised at the number of tripods people were toting around...but those might be the same people would be surprised that I carry a tripod around WDW all day in 95 degree heat.

 

[Groucho]

Hmm. I thought our nearby Renn Festival was pretty big but I've never seen anyone set up a tripod and maybe seen one or two 70-200mm lenses in any of my trips. That being said, I do often use my 50-135mm, which would be the same focal length as the 70-200mm on a FF camera, especially for the joust.

At ours at least, there are a number of up-close encounters but most of the time, you're watching a performance of some sort from a little ways back, so long is the way to go.

I can't really see why you'd need a tripod on a bright sunny day with an F2.8 IS lens, even with the heft. I wonder if that wasn't a photo club out on a trip together?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The local Ren Fest claims to be the largest, though they don't specify in what way. It hosts a little over 400,000 guests in a period of 8 weekends, so roughly 50,000 people per day. According to their media kit, they cover 53 acres, have 200+ performances, 350 artisans and craft retailer, 60+ food venues, and dozens of rides.

I did see a group of photogs traveling together. That group included two of the guys pictured below (tripod guy and monopod guy). They seemed very Japanese. I suspect that they were some sort of tourist group rather than a local photo club.

It wasn't just these guys with 70-200's though. There were a couple of Nikon's and a couple of other Canon's as well. It was definitely a common lens. Most appeared to be on APS-C bodies, although I didn't check that out too carefully.

The tripod seemed like a waste to me as well. On the other hand, since they appeared to be there solely to take pics, maybe it wasn't too bad. I could see wanting one in the early morning deep shade or taking pictures near dusk. They may also have just wanted one because hand-holding a 70-200mm f/2.8 all day is not for everyone.

 

[WDWFigment]

I had no idea Ren fairs were this popular. Interesting stuff...

 

[Bstanley]

Remember - everything is bigger in Texas (goes double for Houston)...

I suspect the number of 'luxury' lenses at a Ren Fair is directly proportional to the population within a 2 hour drive. There are probably what - 4.5 million - folks within 2 hours of Magnolia?

I remember there being quite a lot of Japanese doing business in Houston in the days before the collapse of Compaq.

 

[MICKEY88]

there are 5 or 6 of us at the PA ren faire each weekend, using 70-200 2.8s or in my case 80-200 2.8.

they seem to be the best for shows, 80 gets me full stage, 200 lets me isolate individual actors /performers.

there are a few monopods.

there used to be one guy that used a Bigma when they first came out, but I haven't seen him for a while..

 

[MarkBarbieri]

The local Ren Fest claims to be the largest, though they don't specify in what way. It hosts a little over 400,000 guests in a period of 8 weekends, so roughly 50,000 people per day. According to their media kit, they cover 53 acres, have 200+ performances, 350 artisans and craft retailer, 60+ food venues, and dozens of rides.

I got my units confused. 400,000 guests per season with 8 weekends means 25,000 people per day, not 50,000. For comparison, the Magic Kingdom is roughly twice as large and brings in anywhere from 15,000 to 100,000 guests per day.

 

[zackiedawg]

From the Ren faire pics I usually see, it appears to be very popular to go for character/attendee isolation closeups and candid portraits - so that lens would seem perfectly suited to that type of job...as well as the afformentioned performances and such. Having seen lots of ren faire photos pop through most online galleries when the season is on, a heavy majority of shots appear to be taken by guys, mostly zoomed in on cute girls in costumes, and most going for the OOF background, portrait look but maintaining candid poses. I'm guessing most of the cute girls who attend in costume must know that they are inevitably going to be the subject of lots of online galleries, especially when she sees a line of white lenses on tripods pointing in her general direction, but all the photographers looking up, pretending to read something, or casually whistling when she glances their way.

 

[MICKEY88]

From the Ren faire pics I usually see, it appears to be very popular to go for character/attendee isolation closeups and candid portraits - so that lens would seem perfectly suited to that type of job...as well as the afformentioned performances and such. Having seen lots of ren faire photos pop through most online galleries when the season is on, a heavy majority of shots appear to be taken by guys, mostly zoomed in on cute girls in costumes, and most going for the OOF background, portrait look but maintaining candid poses. I'm guessing most of the cute girls who attend in costume must know that they are inevitably going to be the subject of lots of online galleries, especially when she sees a line of white lenses on tripods pointing in her general direction, but all the photographers looking up, pretending to read something, or casually whistling when she glances their way.

LOL, you Make it sound like ren faire photogs are a bunch of perverts,

 

[mabas9395]

LOL, you Make it sound like ren faire photogs are a bunch of perverts,

I noticed that you did not deny that accusation.

 

[MICKEY88]

I noticed that you did not deny that accusation.

considering 90% of the photos I take at the ren faire are of my friends, I never gave any thought to the possibility that I was being included in that group

 

[zackiedawg]

Only if your friends are cute ren faire girls. Actually, I have nothing against viewing photos of cute ren faire girls either...I just noticed that those photos get a lot more play in the big photo gallery sites than the ones of the uber-accurate 6-toothed hairy bulging sweaty guy pounding metal armor plates, who probably looks much more like most folks did in medieval days. Though I'm sure we photographers would see the potential in that medieval subject if we saw him! Your average Joe Public can't be faulted for taking more notice of the low-cut-mini-renaissance-dress attired blonde with the period-accurate spike-heeled lace up sandals, who most likely doesn't resemble the typical medieval subject of yore.

 

[Evad]

I had no idea Ren fairs were this popular. Interesting stuff...

Our renn fair here was so popular that it closed about 5 years ago.

 

[MICKEY88]

Only if your friends are cute ren faire girls. Actually, I have nothing against viewing photos of cute ren faire girls either...I just noticed that those photos get a lot more play in the big photo gallery sites than the ones of the uber-accurate 6-toothed hairy bulging sweaty guy pounding metal armor plates, who probably looks much more like most folks did in medieval days. Though I'm sure we photographers would see the potential in that medieval subject if we saw him! Your average Joe Public can't be faulted for taking more notice of the low-cut-mini-renaissance-dress attired blonde with the period-accurate spike-heeled lace up sandals, who most likely doesn't resemble the typical medieval subject of yore.

are you telling me these are not period costumes...???

 

[annnewjerz]

are you telling me these are not period costumes...???

 

[Shutterbug]

.I just noticed that those photos get a lot more play in the big photo gallery sites than the ones of the uber-accurate 6-toothed hairy bulging sweaty guy pounding metal armor plates,.

yeah thats really not fair, not really fair at all that they should have to compete with women with such large tracks of land and low cut tops serving beer....not that I have noticed such things at ren fairs....

 

[Shutterbug]

are you telling me these are not period costumes...???

Welome to Trick Or Treat in my neighborhood!!!!