Fashion show

My wife and I were invited to a fashion show (Bi-mod22 on Friday night. Quite a big do with about 2000 people and designers from several African countries. It was outside, under the stars, and my wife and I had VIP seats in the second row about halfway along the runway. I took a load of shots but in general I wasn't happy with the results. Here are a couple of the better ones.



K10D / 70-300 at 70 / 1/90sec at f6.7 / ISO800 / AF-360


K10D / 70-300 at 70 / 1/90sec at f/4 / ISO200 / AF-360


K10D / 70-300 at 210 / 1/180sec at f/5.6 / ISO200 / AF-360

I think part of my problem was that I didn't have a suitable lens. I really needed something covering the 50 - 100 range but I only had my 18-55 mkII (too short) sigma 105 (too long) and the sigma 70-300 which I used at 70 for most of the evening.

By the end of the evening I could see the advantage of a BG-2 grip as nearly everything was in portrait mode and the combined weight of camera flash and lens was making my wrist / arm ache.

If I were to do it again (as a photographer not as a guest), I'd definitely try to get a position at the end of the runway, where the TV cameras and press where. One pro photographer had set up two strobes on the side supports of a lighting gantry at the end of the runway and was firing them with a pocket wizard. I imagine he got some good shots.

C&C welcome, plus any tips for this kind of scenario.

Steve

Overall I think you did really good. What seems to be the main problem is the motion blur. To slow shutterspeed.

A new lens could help for sure. A flash could help as well - bu still you need a lot of light.

I have done this myself a few times. The hard thing I think, is all the ambient light as well as flash light from other cameras. That makes it hard to find the right setting - the light changes all the time