ADFH Practical Exam #1

These are some of my favourite images that I managed to capture at Festival du Voyaguer. Did I like it? Definately. Seeing as this was the first time I had ever attended the Festival du Voyaguer, it was quite interesting. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and what made my experience a lot more worthwhile was the fact that I could photograph the events.
I was pleasantly surprised at how I managed to capture movement. Specifically the man with the hoops at the street party. I found it was challenging but I discovered that I could actually capture movement in low light conditions a lot better than I thought I could. The great Tripod says it all. I was amazed at how he moved, and after 2 dozen+ images, I captured what I was looking for. Even though I was thrilled about that particular image, I still found some things challenging. I ended up photographing mostly on-stage--"calm"--on-stage performers, and I found that my shots were becoming repetative. I guess I need to start bouncing off the walls and swinging from ceilings to get some different angles to make each performer appear different. Most of my compositions for these shows were quite similar. I didn't find that it was difficult to photograph technically, although it did take work because of some funky lighting situations in the tents. It simply took a few tries before the exposure was right.
Because I was mostly indoors, I used my 50mm f/1.8 which gave me a lot more breathing room that I had anticipated. The only downside to this lens was the lack of zoom. I felt a little restricted? I would have like to use a...hmm, well probably a 28-200mm, f/1.4 but I don't have a million dollars and I don't know if they actually make lenses like that. This was the first time I could actually put my camera bag to good use rather than using it simply to transport my gear from point a to b. I purchased a Lowepro Slingshot 200AW backpack and I loved it. I was comfortable all day.
Overall, I would have to say I am not entirely thrilled about all of my images. There are the few that I am happy with. Most of my shifts ended up in the daytime, in the tents. I did wander out of these tents in between performances to photograph the things that caught my eye like the sculptures. I really wish I would have ventured out at dusk or night time to get more shots of the sculptures. I was more interested in things that were happening during the night. Because of my long commute home, when it was home time, I went home. Next time, I'd definately stay a while longer and get the shots I would take for myself.