2013 Project 52, Week 14 - Pillow Fight!

Week 14: April 2-8

Sometimes a photo opportunity just falls in my lap- and by lap, I mean Twitter feed. I happened to see a tweet on Friday the 5th that the annual New York City Pillow Fight (Yeah, I don't know.) would be taking place on Saturday at Washington Square Park. And so I went.

I decided to stick to my zoom lens and practice shooting with lots of action going on ("It'll be just like shooting sports!" I thought, "Okay, at least a little, anyway? Maybe?"). But when I arrived on the scene it was immediately clear that I wouldn't have space to move around and that most of my photos would be endowed with very busy surroundings. So once I settled into a spot atop a park bench (stacked like sardines with every other non-pillow-combatant and their camera), I noticed little kids or tinyish girls hoisted up on someone's shoulders either to navigate through the crowd or to rain down fluffy justice**. They made for much clearer subjects, so I turned my attention on them. This photo I think conveys the fun atmosphere while also providing enough context so that you could probably figure out what was going on without my mentioning the phrase "pillow fight"; unfortunately many of the others might not be described thus.

75mm (DX) : ISO 400 : f/5.6 1/2500s
Barely above the fray

In truth, not many (roughly 10) of the 250 plus shots I took made the initial cut, and pitiably fewer were really in the running for something I might actually display or feature. It's harder than it looks to capture a moment in the midst of perpetual chaotic movement. But- I am back on the regular practice horse and with a little more experience shooting in a busy, action-filled scenes to boot. Hopefully of course I can continue to improve.

**It was cute, actually, watching people pillow fight when kids were up on someone's shoulders. Most of the people around them would tap on the kids with their pillows, which was just enough to egg them on so they could whale away while perched atop their dads' heads.

2013 Project 52 entries:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | 

Week 8 | Week 9 |  Weeks 10-13 |