Navy Pier Cosplay Meetup 2013

A friend and I went to a large cosplay related gathering last weekend. It was located at Navy Pier in downtown Chicago.

Here are the photos I had taken:
Facebook Gallery (tag-able after “liking” the page)

Navy Pier

Overall, the meetup went well. We had quite a few hours to take photos and enjoy what the location had to offer. There were some issues toward the end, but that related to what one would expect from Chicago and how they treat a large group of people with many in costume.

I’m not fond of Chicago and their policies related to photographers, so it is better I don’t get into ranting mode and will leave it at that. The weather was somewhat drab and cold, but not bad enough to hinder anything. Actually, the overcast clouds are good for photography because you can avoid having harsh contrast you would expect to get in the middle of the day this time of year.

The event group.

My camera gear consisted of:

Nikon D600
Nikon 50mm f1.8
Nikon SB-800 flash

I did have two wireless flash triggers with me but didn’t end up using them. Even with a super simple setup, I think I was able to get a few unique and interesting photos out of the event.

A few small groups went to Chinatown afterward.

Viltrox AF FE 28mm f/4.5 VCM ASPH ED Lens Overview

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I've use a Sony Alpha A6000 and the PZ 16–50mm F/3.5–5.6 OSS kit lens with my computer as a webcam for a long time now. It's a lower cost option that has been very consistent outputting 1080p at 30 FPS to a USB based HDMI capture device. The kit lens is generally fine, but it has a few quirks. The biggest issue is that throughout the zoom range the maximum aperture value is not fixed. This introduces technical challenges when I want to show detailed views of product or similar use cases. There are also other considerations I'll talk about later in this article. So I decided to buy the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C lens in E-mount as a replacement. Links in this article are a mix of paid and through my affiliates. I earn from each in different ways. One is a flat fee and the others I earn from qualifying purchases. Considering them for your purchasing needs helps make the creation of this information viable! I made a video unboxing the lens and trying it out with Open Br

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A great overview by Gerald Undone on his experiences in the field of camera gear related videos! It is an important topic. The more open the better, I’d say. After over 13 years making photography and videography gear videos, I’ve not had a huge amount of success comparatively, but I’ve also never been especially brand safe to begin with for these companies to consider me. 🤣 I think his mentions toward the end of the video are especially important. The unwritten pressure, or worse with companies like Insta360 , shouldn’t be acceptable and should be publicly called out more often. That’s probably the only way things will actually change for the better. I created a video detailing my opinion on the topic further: More of my comments on the video… His YouTube channel. 4:30 I understand that’s what Gerald does, but are there situations where companies are paying for flights and hotel costs of other reviewers with the expectation of a video/article being produced? (EDIT: I’ve seen confirm

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