416 - Teatro La Paz
I went into the Día de Los Muertos festival of La Paz with absolutely no idea what to expect. I'd never been to one, nor met anyone in real life that had ever been to the festival. Needless to say, it changed my life.
OK. That might be a tad dramatic.
But it works, because in preparation for the shoot, I was a tad dramatic. I had no idea how "safe" this festival would be, namely because I've never been to a Mexican festival before. Especially one at night, in a part of town I didn't know. For all I knew, there would be pick pocketers, muggers, and members of the cartel at every turn.*
*I want to take a second to point out that I'm not racist- I grew up in the United States where every single bad thing about Mexico is being replayed on the news over and over. In my subconscious mind I knew we'd probably be fine, but my brain was also programmed to be cautious nonetheless.
So to ease my troubled mind, I packed my backup camera (Sony a6600) with as singular lens (Sony 50mm f/1.8). I figured if I were to be mugged, it wouldn't be a terrible loss. Only my backup camera and my least used lens would be gone. The good thing was that the a6600 is light as a feather, and the 50mm would be a solid choice for night/portrait photography because it stops down to 1.8.
I'd also never done a whole adventure with a single focal length before (believe it or not,) and I was excited to test my skills. I've always heard that if you want to challenge yourself, shoot at one focal length.
In addition to the small setup, I carried a backpack that I could hide the camera in if things looked dicey. I zipped my wallet and phone up in my shorts pockets, and I was good to go.
We arrived at the festival a little early, right after dark when they were still setting things up. Almost all the seats were empty- I didn't realize how late these things started. We did a full walk-through of the place, to get a feel for what was going on.
Essentially it was divided in three main areas- the main stage/seating area, the food court, and backstage, where there was an art exhibit.
Within 15 minutes of arriving, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about safety. Families with kids were pouring in everywhere, teenagers were taking photos on their smartphones, police were roaming the lot, and people were smiling. It was a wholesome event.
And about an hour after we arrived, it started to kick up a notch. The festivities began on the stage, and more people began to arrive. I wasn't sure how I was going to get any type of shot here, namely because the stage was so far with my 50mm lens.
It was at that moment the first Catalina walked by. If you don't know, Catalinas are essentially the girls who dress up like skeletons and paint their face. This chick was absolutely breath taking. Her outfit was all out insane!
I tried to snag a pic as she walked by in the crowd, but I missed the timing completely.
I figured I could ASK her for a photo, but I didn't know if that was culturally acceptable. To figure this out, I followed some other photographers around and observed.
Turns out, the Catalinas love to be photographed. One dude HAD to have been a professional portrait shooter, because he was stopping Catalinas left and right, and asking them to do all sorts of poses.
It was incredible to watch. He was positioning their umbrella certain ways, their lanterns, their hands, hats, dresses. I've never seen a professional portrait shooter in action- and it was clear he didn't work for the festival either.
Realizing my opportunity, I milked the shit out it. While he was posing them, I was shooting away. I captured a ton of different angles and poses, and settled on these two shots from two models:
“Catalina Negra”
Taken on Sony a6600 + Sony 50mm f/1.8
[ISO 1600 ~ 50mm ~ f/1.8 ~ 1/3200s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Catalina Rojo”
Taken on Sony a6600 + Sony 50mm f/1.8
[ISO 1600 ~ 50mm ~ f/1.8 ~ 1/500s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Both of those are fantastic. Essentially studio level photography, right at an event with hundreds of people. The only thing I had to do to pull it off was edit them into darkness.
I love Photoshop. Seriously. If you want to take your photography to the next level, you NEED to learn it.
Their was a lot of "clutter" behind them (i.e. lights, people, food stands), so I cut them out to make the portrait completely isolated. The nice thing about the Catalinas is since their "theme" is darkness, the black behind them could be played into extremely easily.
That's my first lesson of shooting night portraits at a festival. Simply make sure the source lighting is off to their side, so you get their face half-lit up. This looks most natural for portraits. Also aim to get an angle that's darker in the background, so cutting your subject out isn't difficult. It took me maybe 15 minutes with each photo to cut them out.
After the shots I went up and thanked them for the photos, so I didn't look like some vulture scavenging photos of the other dude's poses.
After those shots, I was happy as a clam. I KNEW they were gonna be sick.
Nonetheless, I wanted some shots of the dancers on the stage, because shit was getting wild. The dancers had all sorts of crazy costumes, the lighting was insane, and there was even fog effects happening.
But I knew I'd never get anything from the front of the stage, because we were too far away and the angle was flat.
So we went to the back of the stage and could see the dancers much more clearly, and I found a staircase that got me some elevation to look down on them. It was essentially front row seats, and the perfect distance for my 50mm f/1.8.
I wasn't sure if we were SUPPOSED to be up there, but I figured they'd tell me if I had to leave. Being assertive at events will get you far- I always say take the chance and wait for THEM to tell you to move. As long as you're not in the way, so they'll ignore you and assume you work for the event.
Since everything was happening so fast, I was shooting on a fast release shutter whenever I saw a dancer isolate from the rest on the stage. I wanted a singular subject:
“Catalina Anaranjado”
Taken on Sony a6600 + Sony 50mm f/1.8
[ISO 1600 ~ 50mm ~ f/1.8 ~ 1/250s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Again, in the edit process I blacked out the "clutter" in the background to make it seem more surreal. AKA I edited out parts of the stage, other dancers, and lights that didn't due the scene justice.
Oh! One more thing I learned here, namely in the edit process. Since I was shooting on the a6600 which isn't exactly IDEAL in low light situations, I ended up with quite a bit of grain. The DENOISE slider worked well on Lightroom to clean up the noise. I don't do much night photography so it was nice to experiment with it for once.
Jesus. I learned a lot on this shoot. Mainly because I don't do a lot of shoots like this. This whole thing was basically event photography mixed with creative portraiture, a genre I rarely shoot.
The good thing is, a lot of the same rules in lighting from landscape photography applied here. One thing I could get better at is posing, because I was extremely lucky that man was able to do the hard work for me. If I asked them for a shot myself I probably would have gotten 30 seconds before they moved on because I had no idea how to pose them correctly.
Look for opportunities! They're everywhere.
Alright, that's it for this shoot. Solid session. And now I can say I've experienced my first Día de Los Muertos.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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