Life through a lens

This past weekend was the junior king & queen / prince & princess contests of Carnaval held at Everett middle school auditorium on Church street in San Francisco. Carnaval crowned a new junior queen, a prince and a princess to add to its 2008 royalty.

The event had its moments - a perky six year old dressed in bright green takes the stage, starts and then freezes seeing the massive stage and lights. “Do you want to dance again?” Shake of the head indicates negative. Three requests to dance follow but no luck; kiddo wants to come back to the shelter of the side of stage.

After two more performances by others, the kid comes on encouraged by parent and under flashes of the camera, dances graceful movements to a perfect rhythm, looking to his parent for approval from time to time. The music finishes and happy and buoyed by the dance, he returns thrilled with his performance. Everyone on this stage is a winner for me.

I remember when I first went to recite poetry on a big stage with lights and hundreds of eyes watching me in the lighted up auditorium. There was no lectern to lean on and my legs were shaking uncontrollably but with hands clasped behind my back, I put up a brave front, recited my poem and somehow moved into a different zone. When my poem finished and the clapping sound brought me back to earth, it was a moment of relief that the recital went well without any lines being bungled. Yes, I could certainly understand what the six-year old was going through initially.

A good rhythm and dancing never fails to have my feet tapping. If I were not behind the camera, I think I would be dancing.

Though there were many stellar performances, I really loved Cassandra’s performance. She was the first participant on the roster for teen queen and she had a charismatic brilliance. Moving very gracefully, her steps flowed like a trained ballerina and those included an air split.

My Congratulations to all the youngsters and to their parents who provide the all necessary support and encouragement for them to follow their dreams. Much goes on behind the scenes to put up any such event; kudos to Roberto Hernandez and Karol An Meier for their loving dedication and the legacy they impart to these kids for years to come.

Some portraits follow…more photos of all the participants may be seen in my event galleries .

For the uninitiated, ‘Gung Hay Fat Choy’ literally means ‘May prosperity be with you’ in Cantonese. On the occasion of the lunar new year, people wish each other with this greeting.

San Francisco has a sizable Chinese community and the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. In 1849, with the discovery of gold and the Gold Rush in California, a large number of people moved to California to seek fortune. Among these were many Chinese, who came to work in the gold mines and on the railroad. Today, Chinese New Year is celebrated in San Francisco with street festivals and a big parade with dragons, dancers, people carrying colorful flags, banners, lanterns, and drums and firecrackers to drive away evil spirits.

Whenever possible, I try and go to a Chinese New Year parade, for it gives me a glimpse into an ancient culture and its modern adaptations.

I photographed these Beijing Opera artists on the occasion of Chinese new year a couple of years back.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Embrace the old, explore the new.

‘Was an overcast day for the San Francisco Carnaval parade in mission district this year. After the parade, I went to the street festival on Harrison St. I have not been doing any street photography for quite some time. I have always liked meeting and photographing strangers on the streets. The photos in this post incorporate the colorful murals along Harrison.

I have been guilty of keeping too busy yet again. Couple of weeks back, I attended the Scorpio ball in San Francisco as a photographer. Although, I would love to be dancing but taking pictures is what I love more than anything else. The decor by Bonnie and folks was fantastic…a rainforest had been created and superb music permeated the mind.

Till I post the pics, I thought I would share a picture of an Apache Indian at the Scorpio ball. The red and green light coupled with no flash is what makes this photo for me. I loved it! What do you think?

The last couple of months have been incredibly busy. Just haven’t had the energy to post anything for a while. It’s halloween and this time I did not go to San Francisco to take pictures.

This was also the first year I went to burning man in Black Rock desert. I have been to two Kumbh melas and this was the closest to Kumbh mela. I was there for only two and a half days and sure hope I get to go again. There was so much energy and art around; I loved it! I slept about four hours each night getting back after my feet hurt - tottering back to my tent with my camera bag which felt even heavier. I met some real nice and cool people at burning man. Having had this experience, I can officially call myself a ‘burner’.

At the belgian burn, I met Surya, resplendent in a dazzling silver dress. She is a rafter and a real estate agent and very kindly agreed to pose. I am posting two images that I took of her. More pictures of some cool people to follow on my website…hopefully soon!

Happy Halloween to you! Take pictures and don’t get spooked.

Drum beats and colorful dancers. Add a gorgeous day to the mix and this would sum up the San Francisco Carnaval parade this year. I chose to drive and got to the parade bright and early and walked to where the participants were warming up, getting ready for the parade. Along the way, met a photographer friend and we walked some ways together, ready for a long day taking pictures.

I always want to shoot portraits but then, I am also interested in action portraits of the beautiful people dancing. Ofcourse, it’s another story that I end up liking the posed portraits much more. Maybe, next year, if I am around to photograph the parade, I’ll shoot more portraits instead of action. Or maybe not. I am too fickle, maybe too moody.

I met the three musketeers warming up next to the gray wall.

Yuyi, my friend, is an accomplished artist. You can see some of her illustration work on Yuyi’s site.

I met Nina with her friends at the Carnaval wall in Mission district. This was her first time participating in the parade.

Monique is the reigning queen of SF Carnaval 2006. Dressed in bright fluorescent green feathers, apparently her creation, flashes me her brilliant smile.

Christy has a beautiful smile with dimples. Dancing with her contingent, Mara Reggae, she stopped briefly, to allow me to compose the picture.

Kim Anderson sashayed down the Mission street with the Mara Reggae troupe. She has has an infectious personality with a ready smile, makes you want to take a picture of her.

Throughout the day, my senses have an overload of visual and auditory stimulations. And, I keep on shooting. At the end of the day, after I am back home, I feel dehydrated, sunburnt, yet happy with a long day’s shoot. It energizes my spirits. Does photography energize you too?

I have been away from the blog for quite some time. To make amends, here are some images from the King and Queen contest of San Francisco Carnaval 2006. If you like, see many more unprocessed proofs in my event galleries.

Carnaval is always colorful with fantastic rhythms, music and spirited dancing by the beautiful people.

Luis Fernando, the newly crowned king of SF Carnaval is all smiles with his electrifying moves.

I chatted with the newly crowned queen, Monique Perry after the event when I took this picture. She was very gracious and soft-spoken. As I waited for the ballroom light to shine blue, she posed very patiently.

My congratulations to the newly crowned royalty of San Francisco Carnaval!

I love dance photography.

In Dec 2004, I was in Bangalore on an assignment. It was the last evening of Bangalore Habba ‘04 at the Palace grounds. A grand stage was set in front of the majestic Bangalore Palace. Thanks to Inayat, I was able to photograph a spirited dance performance by Nirupama-Rajendra and Abhinava Ensemble. All the photos in this post are from that performance.

I have been thinking of putting up a portfolio of dance photography on my website. Over the past two years, I’ve photographed quite many dance performances but I have just not been able to share the pictures on the web. Slowly, I am gleaning pictures from those performances.

Have you seen the studio photography of RJ Muna? About two and a half years back, I saw his dance photography. Even though those were studio images, my heart yearned to shoot dance performances. His images inspired me to shoot dance.

Photographing dance performances is fun and challenging as well. One has to shoot without flash, have fast film speed, an arsenal of fast lenses and like everything, you learn to anticipate movements and shoot on instinct.

Long back, I read somewhere -
“Work like You don’t need the money.
Love like You’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.”

Maybe, I should add to this -
“Photograph something like you’ve never seen it before.”