Toronto Zombie Walk 2013

Busy these days. Every Halloween, the week before there is the Toronto Zombie Walk in downtown Toronto. Took some amazing photos from it.

Women love horror/zombies. It felt like a 50/50 split of male/females at this event.

This is the most recent kind of makeup used by costumers this year; its like a frontal mask where layers are added to give amazing look. Find the rest of my photos on my Deviant Art gallery; many will be blocked unless you have a (free) account and turn off the maturity content filter.

So some notes on this photoshoot:

Success: 

- taking some amazing photos in inclement weather (cold, wet, windy, cloudy dark) and being prepared camera-wise (gear); I brought 2 lens (std kit zoom lens with VR, and a nifty fifty) and I never changed out of the kit lens, nor spent time switching any gear except batteries (took over 400 photos)

- 1 in 6 success ratio; there were alot of good photos, more, if I can take care of the below issues

Improvement required: 
- bring wipes for rain or shoot from a different angle; you may not see it in the viewfinder, but rain will affect the way the photo looks and appears (in most case, ruining the photo)

- arrive earlier; I intended on getting downtown about 15 minutes earlier so I could scout out a good place to take photos, but ended up right on time and failed to get a prime spot

- close focus issues; I tend to have problems when subjects get really close to the camera. I press the shutter button down to take a photo, but the camera failed to acknowledge it and fails to take a photo. I believe this is more of a lens issue and I must learn a minimum distance that the camera will auto focus.

Other notes from the shoot:
- I took all the photos in manual settings; generally low iso (~250), lowest f-stop (~3.5), ok shutter speed (1/80s)

- bring that extra memory card; my memory card is 8gigs, all taken in raw (only) and it lasted ~400 shots and I actually ran out of space. I'm very glad I brought the second card. One big card would be better (but also puts all your eggs in one basket)

- 1/80s resulted in some of my best photos; 1/60s resulted in lower quality. If you have a model, then 1/60s is fine b/c they are posing, but in a parade-style photoshoot, you need to freeze the movement. The only problem is that you need to worry about exposure and ensure the picture is not too dark.

- focus point is critical. Many photos were ruined by not ensuring the focus point was on the subject's eyes. A slight variation resulted in someone in the background being in focus instead. I see the value of a fast focusing lens now. I did single (vs continuous) focusing.. not sure whether that would make a difference. By increasing your f-stop (8/9) may help with this problem, but then make more of the background in focus, which is not what one would be going for when you're focusing on one person at a time.

- dress for the weather; I went with 2 heavier layers of clothes and then a light jacket because I find myself frequently having a backache from my heavy equipment. THAT was a mistake: it was a very cold day and I'm surprised I didn't catch a cold. Also: gloves. Very important. Something that covers most of your hands and leaving the dexterity to manipulate the camera. 

- bring snacks or water (atleast); waiting for the parade to get to your special spot takes a while. I was very lucky and a friend went to get me a hot beverage while I shivered while waiting. Be prepared in that sense as well.

- produce your photos early and have a media contact; I saw the photos taken from the TZW on various websites and found them of very low quality. Know of a way to get your photos out there and you could be staring at your photos from a very well regarded media source.