Photo Adventure #3: Texas Renaissance Festival

If you ever get to visit south Texas in October or November, you have to go to the Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersville. My family has gone several times over the years and it’s always a blast. The festival lasts for 8 weeks (weekends only) and you could easily spend an entire weekend hitting up all the shops and shows. It takes place in the middle of a heavily forested area at the Plantersville Fairgrounds just north of Houston. Every year, thousands of people from all over the country come to enjoy the food, music, games, and gardens.

Probably the funnest part of going to the festival is people watching. You never know what you’ll come across. Some people have spent thousands of dollars on their costumes. While you’re there, you’ll see Royalty, peasants, fairies, demons, and knights in full armor. Early to mid-fall is about the only time of the year in Texas that you could get away with such intricate attire. This year, it probably got up to the upper 70’s with pretty high humidity. That’s about as good as it gets in Texas!

I really enjoyed taking pictures at the festival. People are more than happy to pose for portraits and the fairgrounds really are beautiful. The property is covered with tall trees and the gardens are spectacular. Unfortunately, I lost all the shots I got of the gardens this year. But no biggie, I’ll just have to go again next year. The architecture found here suggests an authentic medieval village complete with gargoyles, stained glass windows, and a magnificent wooden open-air church. Lots of opportunities to get great shots.

And for my favorite shot from this year’s festival (with a little Photoshop help):

What do you think? I’ve recently discovered split toning. I love it! I always wondered how people got kick-ass m0n0 shots and now I know. I’ve been using Lightroom and it couldn’t be easier. All I did for this particular shot was take a color photo (I had already added the texture) and switched it to grayscale. Then I played with the hue/saturation controls for the highlights and shadows. Super easy, right? The possibilities are endless too. Fun, fun, fun!