Favorite {Photo} Friday #36--Carnivale

Over the next few days people in many different parts of the world are partying it UP! Ash Wednesday is next... well, obviously Wednesday... and that marks the start of Lent. So through Fat Tuesday they are partying and dancing and eating meat and consuming loads of bad, yummy food and drinks in preparation for 40 days of fasting and prayer. OR they're just partying because it's Mardi Gras, or Carnival, or Carnivale, and they won't actually observe Lent at all. Either way, it's party time, Baby!

In 2006 and 2007 I headed down to Venice (Italy, not California :)) for the big day, the final day of Carnivale. There is a large parade of sorts and a runway show and then the costumed participants sort of hang out in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) to be photographed.

In 2006 I was totally overwhelmed with the chaos and I took a bunch of photos like this one:


So not what I'd been hoping for, obviously. (And not a Favorite {Photo} on any Friday!) Here's another shot just to show how many people were there:


Uh, yeah, it was packed.

When I went back in 2007 I'd practiced working with my camera a bit more and I knew what to expect. I watched the professional photographers to see what they did. And what they did, basically, was to all crowd around one of the performers and while the amateurs were busy snapping away with their camera phones (what is even the friggin' point, honestly, you're in VENICE for crying out loud, use a real camera!) they would crouch down in front of the performer so that all the background of the other people was cut away and they were framed against the tops of the buildings or the sky. And they took like a zillion photos of each person, because inevitably one of those camera phone idiots would crash into you or walk in front of you at a key moment.

So I crouched. I crawled, almost literally, into the crowds around each performer to get close enough to get my shots. And I got shots like this:

Much better. :) This one is my favorite of all the shots I took that day because I love that the person in front is afire and the person in the background is so icy.

But I did take some other shots that I adore, too. This one is my second favorite but just by a smidge.


I wish that Jason had been there with me to photograph me taking photos. It was hilarious. For this photo there were people crammed in on every side of me. I had to literally get into a crouch and crawl between peoples' legs to get inside the circle surrounding this character. I love how the sun is shining across the face and making spiky shadows from the feathers on the hat.


For this photo I snuck behind the stage and took this photo of the Ice Prince (Princess?) waiting to walk onto the catwalk. I got one fraction of a second when noone was walking in the frame and I grabbed it. Or at least that's what I proudly thought, until I got home and found someone in the shadows (but that's what Photoshop's for, right?). :)


This one was taken outside of the square, overlooking the Grand Canal. I love the two faces.

I spent so many hours crouching down and standing back up and squatting to take photos, I could barely walk for two days afterwards! Oh, the suffering we do for art, right? :) Totally worth it! :)