Adjusted limitations
As I shot my cousin’s Sweet 16 as the official photographer, I realized that I didn’t need the box of AA alkalines I had taken with me to the event. It turned out that my two canon batteries and the NiMH batteries in the flash gun and battery belt were more than enough for nearly continuous shooting from 1730 - 2330. Instead it was my 4 GB of memory which was not quite enough for the event. Even though this allowed me to take 460+ pictures, I ran out prematurely - sometime around 2245, after which I had to try and delete any photos which appeared not to have come out right. Yes, I know, a typical wedding only has 300 shots or so, but I wanted to capture candids as well as all of the official photos. For the posed pictures I also shot a few too many, I think. I’m currently loading the pictures onto my computer, but I would estimate taking 3 pictures of each pose. This was mostly due to my inexperience. I didn’t want to just have one photo of each and then end up that it was over or under exposed or someone was blinking or something. We’ll see how it all came out soon enough.
Cosplay
Cosplay, for the uninitiated, is dressing up as a fictional character; in the US it tends to specifically mean dressing up as anime or video game characters. Anime Conventions are known for the fans cosplaying and coming up with elaborate costumes which can sometimes take months to develop. I missed Otakon (Baltimore Anime Convention) for the second year in a row. I know it’s my fault for no longer having my finger on the pulse of anime culture in the US, but I was hoping to catch it this year to get some great cosplay pics. Instead I had to just linger in the lobby of the convention center and take some snaps. I took about ten shots and here are two of my better ones.
Asians
I’ve been accused by some of having an asian fetish, but I don’t. I think I just have an asian preference. Mere mincing of words? I don’t think so. To me a fetish implies a desire for asian things (culture, people, etc) that accepts all things asian and rejects most things non-asian. Let’s start with culture, for example. There are a lot of things I like about the asian culture, especially the respect for elders and strong family ties. I also like the fact that, at least in Japan, people take a much more lax attitude towards things like nudity. As long as it’s not porn, what’s wrong with the female (or male) nude? I mean, here in the US, people got mad when a magazine printed a cover with a baby being breastfed. What’s more innocent than a baby being breastfed? Yet, American (puritan-based) culture finds it so offensive.