Life through a lens

Last year at the Carnaval parade, I saw a girl with a beautiful smile dressed in colorful clothes dancing with a joyous abandon.

This year, she has been crowned San Francisco Carnaval’s teen queen with an electrifying performance in the junior king and queen contest as I mentioned in the previous post. After the event, she and her family graciously gave photographers like me some time for portraits. Showing a patience and grace beyond her years, Cassandra posed with a cheerful smile on her face.

The way she had danced like a trained ballerina, it was a surprise for me to learn from her that she does not have any formal ballet training. She is in eighth grade and I really wish one of the numerous dance companies in San Francisco Bay area would take her under their wing. There was this slogan on the mural in Everett Middle school lobby - “Follow your dreams”.

Follow your dreams Cassandra! I wish you all the luck.

April 25, 2008 An Update
(courtesy Colleen Tiffenson from Mas Makers, a leading Carnival group of SF bay area ):
“Cassandra is a long time student of noted Bay Area Choreographer Linda Johnson and attends the Oakland School of Performing Arts. She is scheduled to be part of two dance camps this summer at UC Berkeley and Alvin Ailey in NY. As a member of Mas Makers performing cast, her talent is recognized and she is receiving guidance in the pursuit of her dreams.”

I was perusing some old photos today and came across photographs from Bhoomi Jathre held at Fireflies Ashram near Bangalore, India. This was a fantastic event held from dusk to dawn and with only word-of-mouth publicity. I went with Dada on the Yamaha RX-135 that Sukesh had lent me. Thanks to Sukesh, I was able to enjoy this event. Dada and I, both had a nice time enjoying quite a wide spectrum of music and dance performances. Looking at these photos that I have been hoarding for so long, I think I should share some photos from the evening.

These photos are from a dance performance called “Tale of a Tree” performed by the talented dancers from Shiri Dance Company. I wish I could credit the individual dancers but I do not know their individual names. I love the theatrical lighting on the dancers. All these photos are shot handheld without flash.

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.”