Meskwaki warrior
Nov, 2014Views
324
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Awards
People's Choice in Native American Photo Challenge
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Magnificent Capture
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Genius
Emotions
Impressed
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I’ve lived my whole life about 20 minutes from the mesquaki settlement in Iowa, and they have an annual pow-wow. I had never been there until 6 years ago when I shot this photo. The colorful costumes and the atmosphere lend themselves to taking interesting pictures.Time
The pow-wow takes place most days in the early evening. The sun doesn’t set until late evening in early August, so there is plenty of light for viewing and shooting the dancing.Lighting
The pow-wow field is mostly in full sun, at least the first hour or so, towards the end the sun begins to go behind some trees, so adjustments need to be made at some point.Equipment
My equipment at that time was my first camera and lens combo, a Canon T3i and a 70-300mm lens. Taken on aperture priority at f/5.6 ISO 200, 1/1000.Inspiration
I took a lot of photos that evening, with so many varied and colorful costumes thereEditing
Obviously this was converted to B&W, which at least in my mind, emphasizes the facial expression and concentration. The color version, while very colorful, distracted from that.In my camera bag
I’ve since upgraded every aspect of my equipment, I now shoot with a Canon 80D, usually with a 24-105 L lens, but I have others including a 100mm macro, 10-12mm wide angle and a 150-600mm Tamron G2.Feedback
My only advice would be to go out looking for interesting things to shoot, look everywhere. I do a lot of what I call gravel travel, driving deserted backroads slowly, looking all over and find many things to photograph that the majority of people never see. And always when you find something to shoot, look behind you as well, you may just find something even more spectacular.
