Journal

As before this photoshoot was in the middle of Cardiff City Centre, I had already worked a plan of how long it would take to get there and what I may need as far as equipment was needed. I took two camera bodies, lenses, a tripod, a flash unit, a light meter, cards that were formatted and a set of flat shoes! This time as on the previous shoot it was pre-arranged to take a mobile studio and suitable lighting to take portraits of the drag artists. The main photo shoot was to be inside the venue so again I took my flash unit if I needed it.

Arriving at the agreed time in the venue, the staff remembered me from the previous shoot and told me to go straight upstairs as before. 

This was a different type of photoshoot than previously as it was an event known as Hey Mary, Twm organised this event each month within Mary’s with various drag artists.

Twm was already there, getting ready. Both the front dressing room and the back dressing room were set up with tables, mirrors and lights waiting for the drag acts to arrive.  Over the next hour they arrived, some already for stage others not.  As before on the previous shoot, it was extremely busy, with makeup everywhere over the tables, outfits and shoes in suitcases along with preoccupied drag artists trying to get ready in time for their own individual sets on the stage.

As it was pretty dark despite the main light in the room being left on, I felt the use of flash could be needed.  As before I also used the additional light. During the few hours, all the acts transformed into drag. I was there to capture images, but I did not manage to get everyone as I could not be everywhere at the same time. I did what I could. I took images, trying different settings on my camera. Some worked whilst others did not.  New acts I have never seen before were here so I managed to speak to acts individually and ask for their telephone numbers to forward on any images I had taken. 

At 22:00 The Hey Mary Event began and following them downstairs I stood back and watched as they took the stage. The atmosphere was incredible, it was buzzing and the crowd was similar to the last Hey Marys shoot.  Each of the drag acts went on the stage individually to do their act.  With each of them, I captured images using a variety of settings on my camera.

After around an hour, there was a break and then it continued until just after midnight as before. I collected my belongings after having both selfies and taking a photograph of all the drag acts then left.  With this shoot, I found it a little easier and researched my settings although when I got home I felt a little disappointed with some of the images.