I'd half to agree, i just want to put my name in as a professional photographer if you can get me a ticket to blizzcon 2010 I'll take free pictures for WoW Insider. As members of the media I couldn't imagine blizz restricting you from bringing in professional cameras with lenses.

on a bias note, it's probably the Macs fault for the poor pics i saw all most all of the WoW insiders bringing to blizzcon lol

While I am sure we all appreciate these pics since we can not get to bliz con, I also agree that just a little more knowledge of photography would increase viewablity of these photos 10 fold. If the poster of this is also the shooter then you said you had a Canon PowerShot SD100. The nicest thing I can say about this camera is... ummm... it can fit in your pocket. This camera is great for taking quick snapshots in med to bright light but is near useless in lower light settings. To tell the truth I am suprised how well these photos came out, she must have been sitting relatively close since the optial zoom is a measly 2x and minimal haze.

@Blacknimbus, Stomy, Lux:

Hi, the camera used was a Nikon D40, which is a fairly decent entry level DSLR using 18-55mm stock lens with 3x zoom. Photographers were only allowed a certain distance from the stage, even with a press pass, so that's about as close as I could get the pictures.

I was also using the P or Program Auto Exposure Mode with the ISO setting on 800 with the flash disabled on VI or Vivid preset to bring out the color. ISO 400 would yield blurrier pics, and 1600 would yield grainier ones. The contestants also tended to move very fast and did not pause for photographers, resulting in a lot of motion blur. In hindsight, more grain might've been preferable but I normally shun from it. It was like shooting sports photography, so I opted to set things at P rather than play catch-up on A, S, or God forbid, M.

Did we have a budget for a professional photographer? No, all the pictures were taken by the bloggers using their own equipment. Or in this case, I borrowed Joystiq's Kevin Kelly's D40. I personally have a D80 which has nine focus zones as opposed to the D40's three, but I didn't have it with me at the time.

The photographs aren't the best, I know, but we had to make do with what we had at the time. In fact, Kevin apparently uploaded almost all the photos, none of them color corrected or adjusted. As Stomy probably knows, Professional photographers ditch A LOT of shots to find ONE good one. Also, I'm not sure what Stomy is knocking Macs for when most pro photogs I know use Macs, particularly for Elements, Aperture, or CS4.

Thanks for the feedback, though. We'll try to do better next year.

@Stomy -
Also, you'd be surprised at exactly how restrictive Blizzard can be with many things, even with the media. Haha.

Well when you put it that way I feel like a bit of a jerk with my comment. Sounds like you where under some pretty harsh conditions. With what you have said I have to say you did a hell of a fine job on the photos. Motion shots in the dark with no flash from a distance with an unfamiliar body and lack of choice lenses? When put that way I am surprised so many of the shots turned out so well! I think your choice of iso was the right thing at the time and no one can fault you for uncooperative subjects. Good job on the photos!