Midguards Feuerbund

by James Rea, 30. April 2019

So, you saw my previous post about what you could see at the medieval festival in Spandau. This is not all though. The swordsmen of Midguards Feuerbund were very impressive.

I’m a great fan of medieval knight sword fight silliness and also got to try out the swords, but did not ask to try on a helmet. These guys were sweating half to death in all their protective gear and I understood that there was a need for it. When they went at each other, they were really beating each other with the swords.

As you can see from the final photo, nobody got hurt and these guys had a lot of fun. If you live in Berlin or near Berlin, keep an eye out for posters next year and go along.

I was very happy with the event. I would have been happy to be an audience member too. As you can see from the photos, I was in there with them taking photos. I have two cameras and different zoom lengths, so I never needed to get close to the action. The very close up shots were staged, but this is obvious. The live action shots were live and were an awesome challenge.

You may want to check these guys out. Their site is:

https://midgards-feuerbund.de/

I had some people ask how I know what to do in order to get such shots. What can I tell other photographers about this, who are maybe just starting out…..

  • Carry your camera with you whenever possible.
  • Your shots don’t have to be perfect.
  • Shoot raw and take lots of photos.
  • Expect a higher miss to hit ratio due to lots of movement.
  • Don’t be afraid to miss a shot.
  • People move fast. The action is fast. The sword tips move especially fast sometimes, so keep your shutter speed fast.
  • Don’t be afraid to crop. a 12mp photo is fine, as is an 8mp photo. Nobody notices online, and it is unlikely that you will print an A2 poster of an event photo.
  • Talk to the actors.
  • Also, don’t give your work away free for commercial use. If you want to give people some photos for private usage, this is fine, but only for that.

Due to my last sentence I must state that I have no business relationship to this group (yet) but I like them and their show.