I tilt my hat to you

Dancer portrait during a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/1250 seconds @ f4 ISO 200.

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Drawing a feeble link between the content of this post’s photo and today’s date,  remembrance day, I tilt my hat to the veterans. Though I will also point out that WWI was an imperialist war that in my opinion served Australia in no way. We got slaughtered for king and country, a country not even our own. Over ten per cent of Australians served and the casualty rate was 65%, the highest for any country involved in the war. Why exactly? Well partly because that’s what war does, it kills people, but also because of poor management in high command. And what exactly did we get to show for it? Not much, although there is this curious photo of a kangaroo in Cairo (with the pyramids in the background and everything), where the Australian 9th and 10th battalions trained before being sent to Gallipoli.

I’d also like to point out that today we will see the most useless but beautiful of numerical alignments. In fact I’ve scheduled this post to publish precisely at that moment… sort of, in Turkey anyway, where it seemed most appropriate (and convenient for me). That time is of course 11:11.11 on the date of 11/11/11. Marvel at the wonder, and never mind that when it passed here in Australia I was out surfing.

Moving back to Bolivia’s fiestas.

At risk of a dancer portrait overload, here is yet another from the San Pedro festival I attended in Bolivia in April this year. I’d have stopped photographing them by now if they weren’t so damn photogenic. The bowler hat she is wearing is all the rage for women to wear in Bolivia. Supposedly it was adopted from the British somehow, but now they are ‘traditional’ I suppose and different styles can indicate marital status… or so someone told me.

More variety to come, I promise, we still have most of this month to flesh the theme out.

Cam.

Dancing in the street!

Local professional dancer from Boipeba, Izalice, spontaneously dances traditional 'Forro' in the street. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/400 seconds @ f4 ISO 800.

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Hi guys here’s a quick post again from Boipeba in Brazil. My friend Izalice (who features in the right portrait in the diptych from my last post) is a talented professional dancer. While giving me a last minute tour of Boipeba, Iza spontaneously broke out into some ‘Forró’ (a traditional northeastern Brazilian dance influenced by African, Indigenous and European music styles) right on the street.

The culture of music and dance in Brazil is definitely one of my favourite things about the country so I was stoked to capture a moment that shows a small piece of it. You should definitely check out some Forró music if you feel so inclined, some classics are Luiz Gonzaga and Dominguinhos or for something a little more electro-pop-contemporary check out Garota Safada.

More coming soon!

Cam.

Babes from Boipeba!

Diptych of local girls from Boipeba, Bahia, Brazil. Both shots taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details, left: 1/125 seconds @ f4 ISO 1250, right: 1/250 seconds @ f4 ISO 640.

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Today I’m posting my first diptych (two separate images presented together) on my blog. I took these two portraits in Boipeba of local girls Maria and Izalice on my last day on the island. I think these shots match nicely because they share the same dominant colours, white and blue. The dominant white in one contrasts nicely with the dominant blue of the other while the warm skin tones of the girls are complimentary to the blue. That I took them in the same lighting in front of the same building also adds a consistency.

But enough boring analysis, let’s face it, these girls make the photos. Their classic Brazilian exuberance leaps off the page. Maria and Izalice were actually giving me a bit of a last minute tour before I had to run off to catch a boat back to the mainland. While cruising around town I noticed some nice light reflecting into this picturesque house-front so I asked if the girls wanted to have their portraits taken. Given the good mood we were all in I had to do little more than suggest a few set ups as they ribbed each other over being models for a day. This provoked some really genuine laughter despite the semi-orchestrated nature of the shoot and was the key ingredient in making these shots feel natural.

Let me know what you think. Plenty more gems from Brazil on the way.

Cheers.

Cam.