Assignment 2: Late Friday

So far I have been the observer documenting the Oktoberfest, a voyeur creating images that celebrate and condemn human weaknesses.  Well it was time for me to join that throng of drunken idiots, but still with camera in tow.  There are a number of technical challenges involved in photographing inside an Oktoberfest tent, however, a bigger challenge is a free supply of beer in 1 liter glasses, each the equivalent of 6 units of alcohol as the Brits would describe it.  I did my best, but as the evening wore on I was on autopilot, but also thoroughly enjoying myself.  A little too much, hence I am blogging today and not yesterday.

Other than the stupidity of getting very drunk, the tents are very unforgiving for the photographer.  Even in the day the canvas dramatically reduces the light level, at night well you have to plan ahead.  I generally set my X100 to Aperture mode and auto ISO with a ceiling of 3200 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/100s.  I then adjust the aperture for the situation I am in.  At night time in the tent I get 1/20s at ISO 3200 and f/5.6.  I use fill flash exposed for -1eV, but am basically trying to shoot the ambient light, otherwise, I get that horribly lit foreground and black background so characteristic of cheap point and shoot cameras.

The other problem is what to photograph.  The crowds outside are nothing compared to a tent in full flow at 8pm  on a Friday evening.  The crowd are on the benches, drinking, singing, dancing, the atmosphere is truly incredible, without attending it is impossible to convey especially in a still photograph. Where to point, what moment to capture, so much is happening all the time.  I simply tried to capture the sense of the event as an attendee, not worrying too much about quality or composition.  I did try to capture some of the people whose job it is to provide the food and drink.

The final shot in this set could have been better, but it was snatched and nearly got me into big trouble.  All of a sudden the tables and benches just adjacent to us crashed to the floor amidst screaming and shouting.  The security guards swarmed over the scene and one got very nasty about my camera.  My wife took the camera and hid it, a stand up discussion about the rights of photographers ensued that I was not going to win.  It all settled down and the party continued as if nothing has happened.  For context this is about the smallest tent, seating 2,700, the biggest has space for about 8,000.  A mad mad world.

That ends the photography, 1,600 photographs taken during 12 visits to the Wiesn, about 250 are processed and in my 1st pass selection.  I now need roughly 80 for the book and then 12 for my assignment.  It will be a busy few weeks working over the options and deciding how I want to present this work. The work really is in the edit, making the photos was the easy bit!