SteamPunk Ball

Click Here for the SteamPunk! Preview Set: (This isn’t all of the photos – just a small subset – I’ll finish editing all of them this weekend.)

Last Saturday we shot two events – SugarComa and then the Mechanical Masquerade: a SteamPunk Ball. The ball was put on by the Syrens of the South – they’re a burlesque troupe and they also provide classes – which is partly why you’ll see a bit of burlesque in the preview photo gallery.

For those of you who aren’t up on your fandoms, Steampunk is:

a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.

And even though I’m generally past my days of Cosplaying – I still very much appreciate and admire the work that goes into any good outfit/costume (since you know, it’s at the point where people don’t consider these ‘costumes’ anymore – and try their hardest to make it their daily wear – whether it’s SteamPunk or Lolita fashion.)

Consistently good photography is often times all about making decisions – which is why you’ll find many photographers shooting on full manual – because we want to control as much as possible with our photos – which means we’re making snap decisions just as everything is going on. Fortunately, with a portrait booth you can make many decisions ahead of time. I decided that instead of the usual ‘old-timey’ look that waaaay toooo many photographers choose for SteamPunk, that I would go with glam. As much as possible – well, in this case it means LENS FLARE Everywhere!

Because some of these people put A LOT of work into making their outfits and pulling pieces together – and they should get photos that show that off and not merely just ‘capture’ a flat image. At least that was the general grand idea in my head. Execution of that idea is… always different 🙂

Fortunately I had help – Leah and our friend Paralee (of SpanishDict.com fame!) came along and worked the event with me. In fact, Paralee shot half the time and once I decided on a light setup and put everything in place, we just switched back and forth as to who would shoot the portrait.

Now the thing about portraits and working with people who aren’t used to modeling/posing – is that once you have your lights setup, much of the burden of creating a ‘good’ photo is actually on the photographer. Because it’s at that point where it’s the photographer’s job to direct the subjects into not only ‘good’ poses, but something interesting. Or else your photos end up on Awkward Family Photos. (Working with professional models is different because it’s more of a collaboration between the two since the model actually needs to know how to model.)

(I will admit though, I use the ‘Dodge This’ shot from the Matrix way too often – but come on, it’s always fun)

And while photographers will often blame the clients as to why their portraits were bad (or worse, boring) – the photographer really has to do everything within their power to make it happen and just ‘get the shot’ – the ones who don’t make excuses are usually the ones who always get ‘the shot’ – no matter what – even when the subject was difficult to work with, somehow a professional will still get it. Right? Right. – by the way – fortunately everyone at this event that let us shoot them was extremely easy and fun to work with.

Um…. go off on tangents much?

Hey. It’s Friday. Awesome.

Click Here for the SteamPunk! Preview Set: (This isn’t all of the photos – just a small subset – I’ll finish editing all of them this weekend.)