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Final Day, More Photos

This photos article covers the final day of E3 2003 at the LA Convention Center, which is a Friday. I spent a brief part of the day covering E3, and only had time to cover the West hall, where the major attractions are displayed. So, the images in these galleries should suffice for now.

The atmosphere on the later part of day 3 was definitely different from day 1. The “buzz” has dwindled somewhat, yet the size of the crowd is similar. Some people’s E3 bags were filled to the brim with the free goodies, and it being the last day, the exhibitors wanted to unload it all. It looked like there was a free shopping spree at an electronics shopping mall, and everyone was invited! I, however, managed to hold back my impulses and kept my task at hand. For a photographer, you need both hands to operate your gear. On day 1, I made the mistake of grabbing some of the giveaways, and it bogged me down in terms of productivity. Plus I was carrying some of Marcus’ stuff too!

One of AA's Hummer at E3 entrance

Stryker on Day 3

Atari's huge banner looming over main entrance

Those who are not into photography can skip the next two paragraphs. I want to elaborate a little about the gear I have, and the issues that arose from the environment. Having a non-standard flash on the Canon G1 camera made the work more tricky. For one thing, it’s the same size as the camera itself, so it made the setup top-heavy and harder to stabilize. It is a Nikon SB-24 flash made for 35mm SLR cameras that runs on four AA batteries. What’s great about this flash is that I can rotate and aim the flash in any direction using its swivel head mechanism. I also put a white cover on the flash to reduce its effects (it always fires at full force). If the camera got jostled just a little bit, the flash would not fire, and I had to unscrew and re-attach it so the connectors were lined up again, and this is not a rare occurrence.

One thing I learned this time around was to increase the ISO from 50 (day 1) to 200, and that allowed the images to have more exposure with shorter shutter speed. With ISO 50, I had to keep the shutter to slower than 1/20 sec and the F-value around 2.0-2.2.
After upping the ISO to 200, I could shoot at 1/45 with F-value around 4.5-5.4, which resulted in good exposure and less blur. I was further surprised as to how little, or no, noise appeared on the resulting images. The images in these galleries are for the most part sharper and more focused than the ones in day 1 article. So, if you are in a dark area like in a club, concert, Jakub’s bedroom, “up” the ISO on your digicam, and hold the thing steady. Point your flash upwards towards the ceiling for more natural-looking shots especially in a small room environment; it really makes a difference.

This concludes my first tour at E3, and I am definitely looking forward to delivering better images for our readers next year. A large banner hangs from the exit of the West hall, saying “Come Back Next Year! May 12-14”, oh, I can already see myself being there…