Summer, Shooting LARP, The Irish Times

Saturday, July 6, 2024

A lot of my photography focusses on LARP- As a hobby of mine, it exposes you to a lot of people in odd costumes in pretty natural environments, so it dovetails nicely with taking photos (both analogue and digital). I went out to an event in May, camera in hand, with the intention of just documenting it. If I got any decent A-roll, I’d be happy. What I didn’t fully expect was to get some of my images used in the Irish Times for their coverage of the event!

Where I really struggled was the dynamic shots. Combat is hectic, and having only a prime lens for most of the weekend hamstrung me (I had a cheap lens that verges on being decent for telephoto work, but the prime lens gave me far more versatility). Oftentimes I’d find myself inside a battle line, or obstructing a moving group of monsters, and I’d have to leap away lest I ruin someone’s game by being obtrusive and obviously immersion-breaking. The above shot is pretty much the only true ‘good’ combat shot that isn’t good by virtue of being centred on a well-costumed player’s face.