The Renaissance Faire Affair (Utah Renaissance Faire 2019) | Utah Portrait Photographer Studio on Location

I'm not a stranger to shooting outdoors.

Counterpoint: Using a backdrop outdoors is definitely strange to me.

But if we never got to know strangers, we'd never make new friends.

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The Utah Renaissance Faire is a plentiful measure of meager extravagance, an opportunity to escape modern everyday life and appreciate times long past through costume, music and dance. The scent of mutton floats through the air, disturbed only by the swirling of juggling batons and the spinning of aerialists on fine silks. Children laugh, boots scuffle, and ribbons whirl. For a photographer the event is a goldmine of colorful fantasy. For a photographer with a backdrop, though, it poses some obstacles.

Shooting indoors eliminates many foes of a photo studio. Wind, rain, direct sunshine, distraction. Outdoors anything can happen. I wanted my studio to fulfill three simple goals:

1) Small enough to fit and relatively blend into a crowd, and
2) 100% mobile on a whim, and
3) Capture photographs that the average person can't take.

I didn't invent this studio type, but I do have big plans for how to make it tell the kinds of stories I want to tell. I had the tools, now I just needed the practice.


OBSTACLE 1: Parkinson's Law
Not to be confused with Parkinson's Disease, Parkinson's LAW is the principle that states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". I've been dreaming of putting together a mobile portrait studio for years but never felt comfortable enough to actually do it. Practicing in controlled conditions wasn't enough. I needed something interesting, compelling, and fun. (Why do something easy or hard if it's not going to be at least a little fun?) The timing also couldn't be so close I couldn't prepare, but not so far as to let Mr. Parkinson interfere with my headspace. The Faire checked all the boxes.

SOLUTION: Live your best life. 

OBSTACLE 2: Light & Wind
After a quick phone call with the organizer, I learned the weather is usually warm and sunny with a nice measure of wind. I winced. Direct light is a fickle, but manageable, foe. Wind with a backdrop and off-camera flash in an umbrella is like Mary Poppins wrapped in a sail.

I'm a seamstress so I can't help but think of backdrops in terms of fabrics first. I fished out a few different fabric types from my stash, coughed from the plumes of dust and ventured to the backyard to take them for a spin.

Polyester: Super lightweight but also sheer and no stiffness. It billowed beautifully but wasn't the look I was going for. Failed.

Linen: Too heavy and too thin. Ironically it was heavier but also still sheer; sun speckles are the enemy and it wouldn't dump the wind. Failed.

Cotton: I tested a bedsheet and it was a great size but way too lightweight. Failed.

SOLUTION: Polyester spandex, an assistant and, well, a sail. SUCCESS.

I used two wooden dowels, one at the top and one at the bottom, similar to how banners are designed, and mounted them to a light stand with a boom and clamp. As long as my assistant held the backdrop upright above and kept her foot on the bottom dowel, the wind mostly ignored the fabric. It's also machine washable and totally portable. How many backdrops can you say that about? (Answer: not many.)

OBSTACLE 3: Mobility
Photography equipment can be heavy. Backpack, tripod, light stands, umbrellas, backdrops, props. 25-50 pounds on average. Then carry it all on location. Level ground? A rolling case helps sometimes. Wait, no elevator to the second level? Enjoy three trips each way. But the stronger one becomes, the more equipment one can carry. Two years ago I started lifting weights for overall strength and health, but let's be double honest here; it was so I could carry the equipment I need anywhere I @#$% please.

"Why don't you just add wheels to the backdrop and light stands?" You asked that at just the right time! Because...grass. The green tufty stuff that grows in the ground and requires a lot of water to sustain in a desert. It also stains shoes and blocks wheels. I'd have to go natural on this one, and I couldn't do it alone.

SOLUTION: My assistant used the backdrop stand when we were in place for awhile, and would hold the boom up with her arm as we snapped a few portraits here and there around the grounds.

FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Maybe this sounds like the whole thing was written for photographers, I dunno, but this is really the part that photographers may find more interesting than the average reader.

LIGHTING: A single speed light in an umbrella soft box, and the sun. 

Speedlights in soft boxes can't overpower the sun. Not gonna happen. I solved this problem by using two things: an ND filter and shade. If there ever was an appearance of a second light source, it was the sun (usually placed behind my subject).

The rest involved making eye contact with strangers and asking if I could take their photograph. That sounds simple but it's also kind of scary at first. Like, what if they say no? The more people say no to you, the easier it is to see the result. In most cases, nothing happens. You move on. Fear isn't real, you guys. Face it and wonderful things can happen.

I'M GOING BACK NEXT YEAR.
I don't know how to say that in ye olde speak.

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