Caribbean Festival Boston

Dorchester, MA 082711 Members of the Soca Associates Band of Boston take part in the Annual Caribbean Carnival and Parade on August 27, 2011 in Dorchester, MA to the delights of crowds lining the parade route. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/MET BEHIND THE SCENES: I love shooting stuff like this. I know a lot of my fellow shooters don't agree with me but I find situations like parades and outdoor celebration as a cornucopia of visual materials to feed the furnace of creativity. I still love tight-face shots, I think we in general react well to this kind of images. How else would the viewer notice the length on the fake lavender eyelashes of the pretty dancer? The photo of the kid pulling the big costume: This wouldn't have worked as well it weren't for the double yellow line in the middle of the street. The latter became and extra element to lead the viewer's eye into your subject. The girl on the ground: She had just tried a dance move which required her hips to go very low to the ground. Well she did achieve this but ended up falling down. In the true spirit of the day she was all smiles even after the fall. The kid in the red costume: Sometimes we as photographers find ourselves with such bountiful palette of colors, and elements to chose from it is easy to give in and to want to show more in your image. But that great rule still applies, "less is more." Good shooting my friends. TECH STUFF: WB cloudy, ISO 400-800, speeds 1/125th to 1/640th of a second. Lenses 16- 35mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 w a 1.4 TC.

Of Dogs and Men

Watertown, MA 081711 This series of images are meant to make us smile and to hopefully raise the spirits of my friend and Ninpo Tai Jutsu instructor, "Sensei Marc" , whom recently lost his beloved dog Choco. http://www.kusadojo.net/blog
Who knows what it was? It might have been our ancestor's admiration for the canine's graceful gait while hunting in packs. Or perhaps the old minds wondered about the furry beasts as they howled to one another on cold nights. But something indeed made us want to get to know them better. I'm sure once the original awkward bite and growl were over, this mutually-beneficial relationship just blossomed. And for some of us they just became another member of our families. May you have good travels Choco.