Bian lian

Also known as the Chinese art of face changing.

I took this at the beginning of the year during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square. I got there a bit late and started off at the back of the audience that gathered for the main stage. The weather was really wet and a lot of people who weren't prepared for the downpour were driven away, so I slowly made my way towards the front of the audience. I eventually ended up at the front of the stage, umbrella in one hand and camera in the other.

This performer was brilliant. It was extremely difficult to see how he managed to change masks so quickly. I've seen a couple of pics online where other performers have been sloppy and are "caught" at the moment where their mask changes, but the transition from one mask to the next on this act were just too smooth and very well hidden, and he was very fast.

I was mostly on shutter priority and burst mode by the evening, taking 3 or 4 shots per press. I bumped up exposure compension by about 1 stop so that I could keep my ISO fairly low, reason being that I only have my Tamron travel lens with a good enough reach and it's not brilliant in low light (I'd also just learned about exposure compensation so this was a bit of a test :D ). I shot in RAW which filled up my cards quickly but helped with retaining details in post-production. My camera also got rained on pretty hard despite me having an umbrella, but it survived the night thanks to my trusty microfibre cloth (pretty lucky for a camera/lens setup that has zero weather sealing).

Some of the other quick change masks he used. I didn't snap them all as I actually wanted to watch him perform:

The man behind the masks.

 

If you know his name, please let me know :)

Notting Hill Carnival 2013

What I wanted to do: walk the entire Notting Hill carnival route (from the top of Great Western Road all the way round to Ladbroke Grove).
What I ended up doing: walking against the route and deviating from it at the bottom of Great Western Road (the crowds got a bit too big to pass). Mission almost accomplished.

I've never walked the full carnival route from start to finish (or finish to start, whichever way you head). It takes a lot of patience and careful timing. Leave too early and there's nothing on the street, too late and you'll just see the tops of other people's heads. I live really near to the "holding area" of the route where the floats and dancers line up before starting the procession at 12 noon, so I could either walk with the flow and look at people, or walk in the opposite direction and re-join the procession somewhere in the middle. I started with the former, got to the top of Great Western Road then walked back, as going against the route would provide better photo opportunities. Crowds are good for street photography and candids but if you're only out for that when there's a carnival going on around you're a bit odd.

Some of the day's better shots:

 Air drumming

 Where's Wally?

This guy was fun, he was really feeling the music.

Train tickets costume.

 "On the Beat". For the bobbies.

I didn't ignore all street photo opportunities. This kid standing on a window sill with black bar shades was too good to pass up.

Eternity Drum. One of my favourite pictures of the day. You can really feel the energy and fun in their performance.

Then I couldn't walk the rest of the route (Great Western Road was completely rammed out, and basically one-way) so I had to take a detour through Portobello Road...

...snapping one more street shot along the way for good measure.


Also goes without saying that Monday is the day to go. Sunday is a little more chilled (kids day and all) but you don't really get the full-on experience of big costumes and crowds of people. And travelling light/safe is good. I carried my little Lowepro Toploader rather than my big Crumpler Cupcake, my camera was strapped into my Pacsafe strap and I had just the bare essentials in my front pockets.