Bolivian Brass

Diptych of Bolivian musicians during a fiesta in San Pedro. Photographs taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: Left - 1/400 second @ f2.8 ISO 200. Right: 1/400 second @ f2.8 ISO 200.

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It seems that this month’s Bolivian Fiesta theme has so far been dominated by diptychs. I find diptychs tend to work best when they display two photographs taken in the same place around the same time. This is because the photographs will usually have been taken under similar lighting conditions and will thus involve similar colour schemes. This just seems to make complimentary conditions for any pair (or more I suppose) to be displayed together. Then I find it’s just a matter of choosing the right themes, aspect ratios and compositions that work well together.

In this diptych I’m presenting two portraits of musicians from the same band shot at the same time and under the same lighting conditions. Here not only is the light working in favour of their co-presentation, but also the theme (brass players), the matching colours in their uniform and the reflection like composition of the two horn instruments leading into one another in the top-centre of the diptych.

I photographed these characters at the San Pedro fiesta I attended in April.

More to come soon, why not like the facebook page in the meantime? It will like you too.

Cam.

San Pedro Mountain Fiesta

Fiesta celebrations in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Photographs taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details, left: 1/400 seconds @ f10 ISO 250, right: 1/400 seconds @ f10 ISO 320.

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Keeping the fiesta theme rolling here is a diptych from San Pedro, a tiny village in the mountains of Laz Paz province, Bolivia. Just like the 4WD pictured, I hitched a ride on a ute for over an hour sandwiched between moustachioed trumpet players and piles of bulky costumes. We cut along a hair-raising dirt track that clung to the side of a near-vertical valley. On each turn we sent dust and gravel over a ledge roughly 800 metres above the river. The trumpet-men around me joked in Aymara and laughed at my pitiful attempts to pronounce any expressions. Occasionally traffic would bank up as a vehicle coming from the other direction tried to squeeze past in one of the few places where the road was wide enough. When we arrived I had made a team of friends that would invite me to many beers and even insist I try on a costume for a dance… but I’m saving that story for another post, all shall come in time. This is the month of Bolivian fiesta shots afterall.

Don’t forget you can click on the image above to see it enlargened, I know these diptychs come out a little small in the blog post thread.

Till next post.

Cam.

Bolivian Character

Diptych of Bolivian musician during a fiesta in San Pedro. Photographs taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: Left - 1/125 second @ f2.5 ISO 6400. Right: 1/160 second @ f2.8 ISO 5000.

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In late April this year I was travelling through western Bolivia on my way to Peru. After seeing a photo in a coffee table photo-book I made an impulse detour to visit a place called Sorata. The photograph showed a town clinging to a mountainside above an apparently bottomless valley. Above rose fully cultivated hillsides of impossible incline and glacier capped mountains. The vertical scale in the photograph reminded me of Nepal and after months of summer in Brazil I was ready for some more temperate mountain air.

I arrived just as the town became engulfed in fiesta. For the next three days I was swept away in an endless deafening parade of marching brass bands, elaboarte costume dances and free flowing beer and chicha (a maize-based drink). There were many great moments and despite my generally inebriated state I managed to capture a nice collection of images from the festivities. I’ll be sharing them over the course of the next month beginning today with this Diptych of a trumpet player I hung out with for some beers during a break in the marching.

More to come soon =D

And don’t forget you can click on the image to see it in an enlargened size.

Happy Halloween / Feliz día de los Muertos

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.