I've loved visiting the Texas Renaissance Festival for years now, ever since I was a kid. It conjures memories of kettle corn, turkey legs, and people clad in chain-mail and leather. The lengths some of the patrons will go to create the perfect outfit can be truly astonishing. A couple years ago, I decided this would be a great place to practice quick, candid portrait shots and it has been paying off in spades ever since!
My friends and I decided to try vising the Saturday of Barbarian weekend (11/16/2024) as the normally unbearable Texas heat is just starting to dissipate into a pleasant and cool temperature. Unfortunately for us, it appeared that most of the other festival visitors had the same idea. This was by far the busiest event I've ever attended. I was actually overwhelmed with the sheer volume of people, noises, and smells and had to acclimate myself a bit inside the grounds before I could walk around comfortably and snap some shots.
Despite the crowd, I was somehow able to get a front row seat to the Turkey Leg Eating Contest. It was a nice reprieve from being sucked up into the throngs of the masses and enveloped in vaporizer clouds. And the enthusiasm of the participants in the contest also made for some fantastic shots, in my own humble opinion. I'd like to believe that they might even be amongst the best I've ever taken that are focused around people!
My friends and I walked around a bit more, bought the unavoidable $19 turkey leg, and snapped a few more shots. By that time, the light was starting to fade pretty fast so one of my friends and I decided to head back to the nearby house in Navasota that we had booked. Overall, I do enjoy the vibrant outfits, greasy foods, and various events and characters that the festival has become so well known for. However, it was a bit difficult to enjoy myself with how packed the grounds were that day.
BONUS: A photo of a massive Yellow Garden Spider at the house we stayed at!
