Documentary My Visual Diary 2022: Steampunk Festival!

melanie.ylang

Veteran
Location
Australia
With rescheduling due to the you-know-what, it was a long time coming, but finally the inaugural Wimmera Steampunk Festival (in a small town in remote country Victoria, Australia) was held last weekend, and It Was AMAZING! After two years of few crowds, around 2500 people arrived (many in spectacular costume) to enjoy the festive ambiance as night fell on the street and the fantasy came to life. I had only seen steampunk online, and it was so exciting to see it before my lens.

I shot mostly with Panasonic G85 and Sigma 56mm f/1.4 - wider shots were taken with Panasonic GX9 and 20mm f/1.7. All images shot in JPEG and edited with Snapseed app.

This will be image-heavy, so I will upload in batches, and will state when I've reached the end.

NOTE: I was unable to remove the "Critique Wanted" prefix to post this, so I wasn't actually looking for a critique. That said, if you have a burning desire to share your suggestions for improvement - as long as it's not "shoot RAW" next time - then go ahead!

Cheers,
Melanie

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One of the most important costume items was the headwear - in many cases, a top hat. As there were a number of stalls, you could even buy one on the night.

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Stalls lined the footpaths, promoting nearby communities or selling various wares, from vintage and steampunk goods to boutique liquor. There were a few food vans, which I heard sold out quite early, as no-one was prepared for the numbers attending! I'd have grabbed a bag of six hot donuts if I wasn't obsessed with shooting as much as I could before the light ran out.

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Don't have a steampunk outfit to wear? Don't let that worry you - grab whatever you have, and wear it proudly! Here's Mr Squiggle, beloved Australian TV show puppet from long ago (one of my childhood favourites), and I saw Squiggle often posing with people who wanted a photo.

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Here's another look which doesn't say "steampunk" to me, but I reckon they'd have been having a fun time anyway!
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Around the corner from the closed-off street was a display of classic and vintage cars:

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I had heard tell that Queen Victoria was in attendance, and I finally caught up with her, dancing after dark. What could be more steampunk-period correct than her majesty?
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It was an absolute credit to the community - which was quite conservative, but in very recent years has been exposed to other cultures and sub-cultures - that it pulled off this magnificent event, and plans to do so again next year. Their aim to re-frame history by focusing on the inclusion of all-ages, other cultures and sub-cultures proved valuable, with media reports of the event spreading far across our land and beyond.

You can't beat an event where the attending crowd is really the feature: you provide the space, promote the event, and sit back to welcome the happy throng. Best of all, for photographers, is that most people are more than happy to strike a pose. Along with many others who didn't go full-steampunk, I am already planning the next festival's costume!

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Around the corner from the closed-off street was a display of classic and vintage cars:


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Love the Jeep, Melanie. I learned to drive in one of those on our station to the east of Cunnamulla. It had no brakes. Not even a handbrake. I graduated to the station ute after hitting a tree stump in the Jeep ... I must have been all of 14-15 y.o..
 
You can't beat an event where the attending crowd is really the feature: you provide the space, promote the event, and sit back to welcome the happy throng. Best of all, for photographers, is that most people are more than happy to strike a pose. Along with many others who didn't go full-steampunk, I am already planning the next festival's costume!

Can we see you in your costume?
Apologies if you have indeed included one of yourself among these and I didn't notice
 
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