I heard something about Pillow Fights in the U.S. a couple of times before, but never had the opportunity to participate in one. So when I was notified that a really big one would take place again like a tradition in Valentine's Day at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, I tried to persuade myself to be there. It was said hundreds of people would come with at least a pillow (some of them may bring more) and someone might get hurt in the previous events. In a word, it would be like a "war zone" if you want to name it. It is fascinating when I checked some online pictures of pillow fights from previous years, and soon after I realized I needed to go.
It was expected that I would get hit, more than a dozen times. In some moments, my head and ears hurt quite a bit. The plaza was like a chaos, and the people in there just had to keep fighting, during which nobody could differentiate who had a pillow and who only had a camera in hand. In the end, even my eyeglasses got scratched. But fortunately I prepared the mask in advance, so when the pillow feathers started falling like a big snow, I could be there to shoot through it.
The biggest challenge for this event is the focus and moment captures. Coupled with my Leica M9 are my trusted Zeiss Biogon 28 f/2.8 lens and Nikon SB910 flash, though near the end the flash suddenly stopped working with unknown reasons. After that, I just pushed the limit of my M9 and shot in ambient low light. The manual focus was intimidating but rewarding. Below are a few of my selected frames from this "crazy" event. Enjoy! ~~~
