Recently I went to a Renaissance Faire in Ingleside, TX which is near Corpus Christi. I hung out with some old friends and made some new ones. One of the interesting things about renaissance faires is that you always make new friends. At almost every renaissance faire I see my good friends the Johnston's who perform The Longbow Show and run The Longbow Shop. They are fantastic people and here is a photo I took of their banner.

One thing that challenges me every time I go to events like this is finding the right position to photograph from to get the best shot possible. It is challenging because for the most part I have no control over the lighting, the patrons, the environment, or the subject(s). By challenging myself I have been able to quickly setup shots with no direction on my part, like this photo of Ash. Ash also runs a bird show that has some amazing birds. Here are a couple photos of some of the birds. Some performances change and my original position may no longer be the best. This usually happens with the jousting. I start with shooting in parallel with the jousters like in the photo below. When the jousting transitions to the unmounted fighting the best shots are usually from the main crowd area. The bad part is by that time of the show the main crowd area is packed. About half the time I try to politely squeeze my way in front of the main crowd area without blocking anyone. Sometimes just shooting through or over the crowd is all you have. Here is a good example of photographing through a small separation in the crowd.  Not too thrilled with the patrons in the background, but there was no other way to get this photograph. I do feel the subject and blood makes up for the distractions in the background. The performer in the above photo is James, whom is also the President of the American Jousting League. Here are more shots of the jousting. Due to an unexpected issue, another renaissance faire, to occur the same weekend, did not take place. The Ingleside Renaissance Faire and the Ingleside Chamber of Commerce extended a welcome to any performer, participant, vendor and patron who was planning on attending the other renaissance faire. I felt this was a nice gesture and leads me to my next several photos. An aerialist performance duo was to performer at the other renaissance faire but made the trip to Ingleside. They were great and the photos turned out great as well. I also did a couple portraits with some new friends. The following to photos are of a son and his mother.
The following set is with my friend Rose. She has great attention to detail in her outfit that she made herself. The final portrait set is of an elf assassin. I just loved the rawness of his look. And of course the performance I never miss is Tartanic. I have been listening to their music for more than 8 years and they are awesome. Here are some photos of their performance. Adrian just has such an awesome personality. Check out Tartanic's Facebook page and website.

At times I wonder if it is us that travel back in time at renaissance faires or characters from the past travel to the future. This last photo made me think this and is why I had to capture it. That pretty much wraps up my trip to the Ingelside Renaissance Faire. Prints and digital download for personal use only are available for purchase here. Hope this makes you think of attending a renaissance faire in the future. Trust me you will be glad you did. Cheers my friends.