Mad T Party Photo Essay with the Sony A7 & FE 70-200mm f/4 G Lens - NIGHT

Just like the prior post, I will be a bit light on the text. I just wanted to do another photo essay that displays the over top spectacle that is the Mad T Party. From the lighting to the costumes, this part of California Adventure truly embraced the spirit of Halloween. I decided to match mood with the editing, albeit a tad bit heavy handed. Hope you enjoy.

A fantastic duo - Josh Disan and Dani Kerry as the Mad Hatter & Alice

The lights are pretty true to what I saw. The band dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller

A darker version of the Hatter

Why you may be using your kit lens incorrectly.

I have been preaching about this from the very beginning, using primes lenses is the best way to learn about composition and the nuances of different focal lengths.  It boggles my mind when I see salesmen push cameras without a prime lens. Canon and Nikon have one of the best and affordable 50mm primes on the market. These plastic fantastics can be purchased for as little as $100 and in my opinion is one of the best investments a photographer can make besides purchasing a flash.  

The first lens I would recommend for the Sony Alpha line - the 50mm f1.8.
It's cheap, it's plastic and it resolves well. 

So you now own a kit lens with your beautiful new camera. A typical kit lens covers focal lengths anywhere from 12mm to 55mm and unfortunately has a variable aperture.  A kit lens at the wide end will always have a wider aperture than at the long end. This essentially means you will have less light gathering capabilities as you zoom the lens in.  I can't explain why this happens (from a lens construction standpoint), but all I can recommend is to be mindful of this as you shoot in low-light situations.  The kit lens that came with my OMD E-M5 was a 12-50mm with an aperture range of f3.5/6.3.  So the widest aperture at 12mm is f3.5 and the aperture starts to close down as you zoom in to 50mm (at 50mm the widest aperture is f6.3).

Sam Fu demonstrating a perfectly executed sumo deadlift - shot with my
12-40mm @ 17mm (35mm full frame equivalent)

A rant about sensor size and why you shouldn't care about it

Before I decided to get into photography I was, and still am, an avid paintballer.  My time on the field has been limited due to work and other side projects, but I still to try to make an effort to get out and play whenever I have a free weekend.  My brother first introduced the sport to me back in 1995 when fields were opened in the outskirts of Los Angeles.  Acres of empty land were transformed into simulated battlefields, all peppered with makeshift bunkers for players to hide behind. I never purchased my own gear or played on a regular basis as the financial barrier to entry was just too high at the time.  Fast forward 10 years - Smart Parts, formerly a powerhouse maker of professional paintball markers, released their first entry level, tournament grade gun called the Ion. It was the first gun, sub $300, to offer "professional" level features all in a lightweight plastic body. This was it.  This was the gun that I could finally afford to get into sport.  

An old shot from my days with Bolo Brigade.