AIB Street Performance World Championship

During the month of June (18th to 21st) there is an event in Dublin at Merrion Square sponsored by AIB that brings together street performance from all over the world. You can visit their website here, and follow them on facebook as well.

I didn't manage to get many shots but was able to get a couple of good pictures, here are some tips on the event if you want to try it next year .

First of all bring a telephoto lens, unless you are looking for a specific shot a wide angle lense might not do you much help as the crowds, sun might make it hard to get a good photo.

Plan in advance what you want to see, as for location, here is a good tip: get there early, is very crowded and not much space to move. Here is a piece of good advice, locate yourself in the corner of the park marked below, it has a grassy hill that people use as a seating area, if you get there early you will be able to get clear shots of the show. The green arrow shows the corner of Marrion square where you should be position yourself. Download the schedule and wait for the show you are interested to arrive there, across the 4 days all shows would have hit that single stage.

I was able to get clear shots of a couple of acts such as these:

 

As always in Dublin, be prepare for the rain, the organizers will provide ponchos for the crowds to use as seat covers for the wet grass, but bring something for the camera.

Once the shows starts, crowds start to gather, pay attention not only to the performer but people’s reactions make for great candid shots.

If you are interested on the whole photo set visit my site at flickr…

Portraits and Festivals

Portraits and Festivals

• Language barriers can be overcome with a good phrase book
• Show the peopel you just captured their image on the LCD screen
• Children are especially eager to become the start of the screen
• Make sure to know the settings on your camera, dont waste any time fiddling with your camera while trying to take somebody's picture
• Getting the right background is key to a successful portrait, make sure you dont include clutter that could take away from the focus point of the person
• Fill the frame as much as you can with your subjects face and ensure the best angle of light casts evenly across your subject. Using a wide aperture of f2 of f5.6 will throw the background out of focus to flatter the main subject
• If you are unable to gain eye contact with your portrait subject, then candid shots can prove just as effective
• Using wide angle lenses enables this to be captured on camera -the person will remain the central focus, but the details of what is going around him or her will add a story to the scene somewhat verging on the photojournalist style, and will lend human impact to your pictures

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