I was invited to an adult dressup party where my son was performing with his band later in the evening. I decided to take my camera along to document the different outfits. Out of the 70 or so couples who would be there, there were probably a dozen who I have photographed for previously - whether that be weddings or portraits. Most were aware that I was a professional photographer . . .
. . . and so I anticipated an issue where when I asked them to come to my predefined area for a quick shot, that they would expect me to take a nice formal portrait - - - and that is not at all what I wanted. I wanted to capture an instant (I only took one or two shots at the most, of each couple) where they were being crazy or spontaneous. To provide a bit of impact for the style of image that I anticipated, I took along my lightstand and a TTL flash that triggered wirelessly from beside me.
It was a packed yard with all of the people and decorations and so I was restricted to one small area that had a lot more color from flowers and tents and more background comotion than I would have prefered. As well I could not back up much so was forced to shoot with a wider angle of lens. But it all worked out great for me and I "had a successful shoot that followed my intention". Here are a few of the shots that I have further processed to a grungy style that I wanted in the prints.
These shot gives a bit of a sense of what things were like. I have my back up against the neighbours fence. There were probably 150 adults all dressed up - socializing, listening to the music, and later playing a few team games. Like this event where groups of 3 people were assigned numbers and worked as a team. The first person would have to lasso the horse and then ride it to the other end of the property, where the next person would be waiting to throw a ball in an attempt to knock a tin can off of a stand and when that was done the third person jumped into a grain sack and hopped his/her way to the finish line.
