Palace of the Gods

It’s not the palace of the gods of course. It’s Chessman Park in Denver. But the pavilion was a great setting for this god and goddess shoot organized by Aaron Ernesto.

What makes shooting her so challenging is just the sheer number of people. There were a couple of dozen people practicing flow arts, some shuffle dancers, some roller skaters, other photographers with their subjects, and then just the regular crowd walking or biking by. There are benches and garbage cans and people like to string up hammocks in the trees. To the west are apartment buildings. You’re constantly moving around the pavilion trying to find an angle that removes as much of the background activity as possible and waiting for people to walk out of your frame so you can click the shutter.

So the decision for framing and location is not guided as much by good composition as it is by just trying to avoid getting unwanted people and things in your frame so you don’t have to do object removal in Photoshop. Despite the obstacles, it’s still possible to get some lovely shots.