Skip to main content

Akron Zoo and a Wedding

In September, we were up in Ohio to attend a wedding.  The weather that weekend was mostly dreary and rainy.  

Coyote in a barrel
The Friday we arrived, it was cloudy and looked as though it was going to rain any minute, but we went to the Akron Zoo anyway before dinner with family.  The Akron Zoo is a small zoo that makes you feel you are up close and personal with the animals in the zoo.  However, the zoo does feel like a bit of a maze.  Overall, it is a nice zoo. 

I have upgraded to a new camera, a 70D and my husband has upgraded to a 5D.  I used my typical 18-200mm lens while my husband used a 70 – 200mm with 1.4x converter.  I kept my aperture around 8f, since it is the most versatile for the environment, while my husband varied his f-stop.  We used various shutter speeds with ISO around 200 and up depending on the exhibit.    We got a couple nice shots, plus lucked out and got to see the snow leopard try to catch a bird in its enclosure. (Akron Zoo Gallery)

Leopard relaxing


 The Saturday of the wedding, it rained 90% of the day.  In the morning, we took a walk along the CuyahogaValley National Park Towpath Trail.  It was dreary and misty which gave a walk a calm and serene feeling.   I was able to capture a few photos of herons both a great blue and green heron.  Sadly, we did not see any of the beavers or otters that call that area home.  I used my 18 -200mm lens with and ISO of 200, f8 aperture, and a 1/50 shutter speed.  

Great Blue Heron

The lovely couple
We were not the photographers for the wedding, just guests but we had our cameras with us anyway to capture a family event.  The wedding was conducted inside a country club, it was supposed to be outside but it was raining heavily in the afternoon into the evening.  The ceremony took place inside the country club in a room with dark wood paneling and large windows, but due to the rain, very little light was coming in.   We took very few pictures of the ceremony, due to our seating location. We mostly took pictures during the reception.  Overall, the area was dimly lit so we were glad we brought our flashes, which we had diffusers (stofen omi-bounce) on.  We both had our ISO at 400 or higher and used an f4 to f8 aperture depending on the light.  Shutter speed varied depending on the situation. Overall, we got some nice shots. Out of the 145 photos I took only about 45 were keepers and my husband had about a similar number of keepers from the wedding.  (Wedding Photos)



On Sunday, we drove back to DC, and it was bright and sunny that day. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...
Post a Comment
Read more