The Munchkin's Notebook

On October 16 th ,   I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held along Workhouse Arts Center , in Lorton, VA with access to the Workhouse Haunt areas.   The Workhouse started life as a prison in 1910 and gradually became a work camp.   However, by the 1980 the workhouse was overcrowded and disorganized, thus in 1997 Federal legislation ordered the facility be closed by December 2001.   The property was sold to Fairfax County in 2002, which transformed it into cultural arts center. The location was nominated the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.   (Source: History of Work House Arts Center ) Because of the locations history and historic buildings it made it a very interesting place to shoot. My only regret was not going out to the location sooner to walk around and see some more of the property and be better prepared for the day. For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens There was supp...

On September 26 th , I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up held along the waterfront in Old Town, Alexandria, Va.   The waterfront has changed a little bit since I was last there, with some added outdoor restaurant seating and improved park features.  Overall, it is a nice area to for general photoshoot, but you must be there early in the morning or it tends to get crowded.  Thankfully this meet up had an 8:00AM start time, so the number of people out and about would be very tiny during the three hours meet up.    For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 1 Speed light Trigger Light stand 18-200mm lens For this shoot I ended up using a 100 ISO, since I was working with very bright sun, this is also why I used direct flash without a soft box or umbrella. My aperture varied from F8 to F13, with most shots being either F8.   I was keeping my aperture high so I could keep the shutter speed within the sync speed of my speed light. The sp...

On August 22 nd , I attended a D.C Cosplay Photo Shoot meet up at Walsh Family Winery in Purcellville, VA.  The winery had both nice indoor and outdoor spaces and the wine was good too. I got a nice glass of one of their whites after the shoot was over.   For these sessions I used: Canon 80D 2 Speed light (1 acted as a trigger) Light stand Small Lumiquest square soft box 18-200mm lens For this meet ups we could use both the indoor and outdoor spaces of the winery, as well as be in the vineyard itself. I shoot mostly outside, in the vineyard and wooded area. I didn’t feel the inside worked well for several of the cosplays, since felt a bit more modern which doesn’t work with Disney princesses and elves.   Though it did work perfectly for Yomogi from Monster Hunter Rise , since that character is waiter. Thus 90-percent of my shots were taken outside. For this shoot I ended up using a 400 ISO, which is higher than my usual 100 ISO.   I ended up...