Carnival 08' - Sigh...Highs and lows

Ayinde Just sent this one over so I thought I'd just include it in this post. Boy do I look unkempt, but that's Photography for you. That's the D80 with the 1.8 85mm in my hand, one of the rare times I mounted that lens for the day. I used the D80 for the most part, the D200 was just heavier and in that sun an ounce of weight can make a big difference.

Well I may have told some people that I'm not really involved in Carnival and that's quite true, but I still ventured to take some pics this Carnival Monday and Tuesday...only reason being that i didn't want to dissapoint Abigail (my apprentice) after saying that I was going and that she could come along. Plus my good Paparazzi friend Ayinde was in on the action as well.

Jouvert was good as usual mud, body paint, steel pan, the whole shabang and a wealth of creative photographic opportunities.

Tuesday however... was Tuesday.

Most Carnival bands can be summed up into an experience I had on Tuesday while doing some light photography in Port of Spain.

Ayinde, Abby and myself were looking for some friends of Ayinde's and while walking through the band that we knew they were in, we could not find them so we kept on walking through all the sections of the band.
I somehow ended up leading the march (even though I had no idea who we were looking for) and at some point I heard Ayinde calling out to me so I turned around. He then pointed to the security in the band...and i noticed that their t-shirt colour had changed...so I was like "is this some type of exclusive section or something?" Then Ayinde signalled and pointed to the print on the security's t-shirt...it was not that the band security t-shirt colour had changed but this was a completely different band!
It all just looked the same, the costumes were all just bikini's with a splash of colour and you couldn't tell where one band ended and another began.

There was no creative signature that made the costumes distinct. As usual.

There was however one band that DID stand out and it stood out so greatly I wondered whether there should just be two bands this Carnival...one massively big bikini band, with a splash of colour, called the "Splash of Colour Bikini Band" which would mostly be all the bands combined competing against Brian Mac Falane's 2008 presentation "EARTH" for band of the year.

I was captivated buy the elaborate detail and care put into creating the Brian Mac Farlane costumes. They were in a word "outstanding".

So thumbs up to Brian Mac Farlane and his creative team for bringing some sanity to an otherwise parade of half naked people.

I can't decide which photos I want to put up what so in the mean time, I'll just put up my favorite pics from Jouvert and Carnival Tuesday and a couple of the crew.

My Favorite 08 Jouvert Photo.

I'm sure people will ask why this is my favorite pic...no mud, no steel pan but this photo has character and some thing I just...well I dunno, the more I look at it the more I love it...the grey stubble on his face, the squinting eyes, the fact that he is chipping like this unwaveringly...just a nice pic.

A nail-biting-ly close second

I like this photo because you can see the detail of the bottle cap on the top of his head, the photo is cut in two and he's right in front of one half almost like if he is just about to cross the border , I love all the feet framing the top of the photo and the only pair of feet at the at the bottom, oddly but wondrously so is facing in the opposite direction almost like a perimeter is being formed around him while he's doing his Jouvert ritual. I also love the colour and texture of the mud on his skin.


My Favorite 08 Carnival Photo (arguably)

I love the perspective on this and the fact that he's just about to move out of the frame. It gives him a feel like a tall tree and the sky is lovely and of course this is Brian Mac Farlane's band.

A fighting second

I love this because It does not necessarily have anything to do with Carnival, the only thing that is connecting this photo to Carnival is the reflection of the masquerader in her sunglasses.

As things become clearer I'll post more.

Ayinde and Abigail...keeping a sharp eye out for photo ops.

My, what big knees you have Grandma...this is me checking my mail @ Ayinde's, Abby took this photo.