China Lights

Luke

Legend
Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
My wife and I went to a traveling exposition called "China Lights" that stopped at our local botanical garden for the month of October. It is a massive display of handmade Chinese "lanterns". It took us over an hour to take it all in. I wasn't sure what to bring to shoot these things at night because I knew I didn't want to use a flash. So I brought the X-T1 with the 35mm f/1.4 figuring it would be pitch black (not realizing how bright these things were) and I also brought along my trusty old X100 so I would have a wider FOV. I ended up giving my wife the X100 because as soon as she saw everything she wanted to shoot, too. So all of these were shot with the 35mm.....I may add some of my wife's shots later, but most of hers were overexposed (I was dialing in -1 to -2 for most of these shots).

Here's the beginning of the tour....as you can see some of these are pretty massive!
30529986841_4d21902b61_b.jpg
DSCF7331 by Luke, on Flickr

No, this isn't a lantern, but there were still some flowers in bloom in the gardens despite some VERY chilly temps..... and the light was amazing.

29984282133_a78f582133_b.jpg
DSCF7332 by Luke, on Flickr

here's my lovely wife framing a shot with the X100 (My favorite shots are always of someone shooting the stationary objects, rather than the shots of the objects themselves)

30581925176_41505c7d26_b.jpg
DSCF7336 by Luke, on Flickr

and who doesn't love Pandas? Show me a man who doesn't love pandas and I will show you a man who has no soul.

30529998731_565c68f3eb_b.jpg
DSCF7340 by Luke, on Flickr

the zebras had a menacing look to them, but they were still among my favorites

30501168192_b798ea76f5_b.jpg
DSCF7343 by Luke, on Flickr

in the springtime, this botanical garden has an amazing array of tulips, so I wasn't particularly impressed with these man-made ones despite the obvious skill that goes into making them.

30581936916_98d90ffdce_c.jpg
DSCF7347 by Luke, on Flickr

this row of flamingos was pretty impressive, but a single focal length meant limited framing options....now that I know how bright is was there, I would have brought along a zoom to give more flexibility (though I would have still used the 35mm a lot for subject isolation in a very crowded space).

30618297155_e91ed6d506_b.jpg
DSCF7349 by Luke, on Flickr

here's a detail shot of the flamingo so you can see the framework with the fabric stretched over it (and glued?) into place. It was pretty windy and rainy the day before and these things held together very well....I was impressed.

30318286490_fc81f48018_b.jpg
DSCF7354 by Luke, on Flickr

Here's my wife again concentrating on her flamingo composition (and I love the OOF dragon made up of bokeh balls in the background.....we'll get a better look at him later)

30618310105_8f9de17d8d_b.jpg
DSCF7352 by Luke, on Flickr

and here she is "hunting" swans (?)

29984336743_7ea8cd3866_b.jpg
DSCF7355 by Luke, on Flickr

30530042501_e2f27094f1_c.jpg
DSCF7356 by Luke, on Flickr

That's all I have time for now.....I'll share some more later as time permits. These are all sooc jpeg for those that care.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Very nicely done :clapping:

I wish I could do this, I attended a similar event here a couple of months back and I found it hard to shoot with the 35 and found it a tad bit tight. You on the otherhand handled it beautifully.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back
Top