Lysts on the Lake was a huge photographic success. We worked some long hours to bring you all the action from Thursday through Sunday. Remember to check the Facebook page for up to the minute updates. From early morning jousting lessons of an astronaut to late night dinners, with wooden tip blasting, dagger fighting, and a fun band that kept the beat to the action.
Hit Continue to see all the cool action!
I was pleasantly surprised by the ground combat. I have photographed this in the past, but they never popped the way I wanted. Part of what excited me for this years event is that I was allowed to use my remote lights to add and enhance images to their fullest. For the ground fighting I had small Canon strobes lighting each fighter independently to add the cool edge to each side. The light and throw in a Canon 300 f2.8L and some magic happens. Look closely in the below image and you can see the fighters eyes through his visor.


Another part of what made this event so fun was the aforementioned 300mm f2.8L. I used this lens on a variety of bodies (full frame, 1.3 and 1.6 crop) to get varyingly close to the action to show details in ways I haven’t been able to show jousting details in the past. I think the above illustrates my point well.



The jousting action was super intense with wooden tips flying around everywhere. A neat touch to the Lysts on the Lake was the involvement of charities and the knights. After each jousting session, the knights would sign the broken lance tips for donations to the affliated charities, cool touch.

Also in between rounds were various demonstration of horsemanship. Conner Combined Training gave jumping lessons, and The Horse Boy foundation showed how horses were used in combat.
Of course, what Austin-area event wouldn’t be complete with out some live music. The musicians kept an eye on the action to make changes to tempo and intensity of the music to match the action, nice job!

Make sure to come out next year to see the largest jousting tournament in North America!

Josh loves a good adventure and some of his favorite wedding and engagement shoots have involved “getting crazy” or going somewhere special to the couple.
Josh is a Texas native and long time Pflugerville resident. He started his photography business in 2009 and has never looked back. His photo business even allowed him to be daddy-day-care before his two sons reached school age. Over the years his business has expanded to include just about every type of photography including automotive, editorial portraits, corporate events, sports and food. Through it all, he has continued to love wedding photography for genuine moment, the fast pace and the diversity of subjects it offers. Josh is a co-founder of North Austin Pfoutographic Society and a resident instructor at Precision Camera & Video in Austin, Tx.