Read Part 1 here.
I went to this year’s Muertos Y Marigolds Dia de los Muertos Parade with a better understanding of what I would encounter. After all, I’d been each of the past three years. It is a really fun and fascinating event with photo opportunities in nearly every direction. This year was no different; more so even!
My goal was to photograph images that could support previous efforts to create the feeling of being at the parade, so I started looking for more images of the spectators interacting with the participants. I found this really challenging though because so many of the spectators are dressed up, painted, and generally taking part in the entire spectacle. It is fabulous, and distracting!
It became quite challenging to tell the participants and spectators apart.
Eventually the sun dipped below the horizon and I broke out my flash. Using it off camera I began to play with some exposures of the tail end of the parade-those folks that hung in there, did the length of the parade route in the dark…and the cold.
In the end it was these last three images that have more of the feel that I was looking for.
Brian, these are great! What a spectacle this festival must be. This is vicarious living at its best 😀
Thanks so much, Charlene. Hard not to make good images at this event. It has grown tremendously in both participants and spectators in the past 3 years. It is just wonderful. We still treated it as our own personal photoshoot, though. Great fun to hop right in there like I was supposed to be there; like I was covering it for a newspaper or magazine or something. I’ve got more images as well but I’m deciding still if I want to post them.
Great shots. Yes, the last ones feel like what it’s like to be there, have the energy of the place. Especially the very last one.
Thanks, Kathy. I didn’t know how I was going to achieve my goal of transmitting the energy of the parade and I’m happy I stuck around until after dark. It forced me to break out my flash and start to play around. Happy accidents, I guess! 🙂
I’m so wow!! No words can express my thoughts right now.
Thanks, glad you like them.