Documentary - Festival de Bom Jesus

<p>I posted a blog entry with photos about the Festival of Bom Jesus in Araquari, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The documentary of the one day event is religious in nature, so know that going into it. I would like some constructive feedback on the photos if you have the time to give them a look.<br>

<a href="http://rockymeadow.net/2009/08/10/festival-of-bom-jesus-of-araquari/">http://rockymeadow.net/2009/08/10/festival-of-bom-jesus-of-araquari/</a><br>

Thanks - DS Meador</p><div></div>

<p>DS, I don't want to comment on the individual photos, but overall I think you did a great job! The layout of the page and the content of the text blend smoothly with the photography. I'm a little jealous. Nice work.</p>

<p>I look at the site and looking at the pictures reminded me of the first time I tried to do a documentary. Abysmall results and I was only saved by a lucky shot. LOL. The thing is, eversince that I couldn't stressed the importance of doing preliminary research for documentary. I still go blank, like when I shoot street, but I know the rudimentary shots I need to make the documentary happened.<br /> I actually enjoy reading DS Meador account of the festival and can't help but to feel somewhat disapointed that he didn't have the picture of the driver of the truck in his pictures. But there might be a gallery which I missed to spot. I also find a lot of interesting things that he mentioned in his writing that I can't find in the picture, e.g. the mystical aura that the village have, the fact that it's a religious and secular occassion (it will be great to see a picture of a pious elder person contrasted with a happy go lucky self indulgent mall rat. LOL), the suppose crowds of thousands that follow the statue, etc. But there is always a chance that DS Meador did take all those shots I wished to see, but he decided that they are not that interesting to show because the article has mentioned the thing they depicted and the other pictures are much more interesting for the viewer to see.<br /> Oh, gee, somebody just text me IRL and there goes my train of thought. Nice pictures and nice reading though, keep going!</p>

 

<p >Elmo – thanks for the compliment. I am a better writer than photographer at this point. I was also pretty surprised at how much the pictures changed when they were sized for the Internet – both softer and loss of detail.</p>

<p >Phalayasa – This was definitely a first time out and I knew I would write something up afterwards, but I didn’t know what that would be or what the day would actually hold. So, a lot of new territory for me in this one. Sadly, no picture of the driver is to be found anywhere. At the time I was talking with him I did not know the role he would actually play in the day and when I saw him after he drove, the sun’s reflections on the truck windows didn’t allow me a shot. I did get around 250-300 shots of the day. The ones I included work with the flow of the text pretty well (IMO). Adding more pictures would have meant adding more text or reducing the size of the pictures. The former would have altered the presentation of what I wanted to communicate and the latter would have reduced further still the IQ of the pictures. As for the introductory comments about the town – they were to set the stage and I don’t yet have pictures to illustrate much of that. (A few other pictures from that Festival have appeared in posts here, but randomly and I have no idea how long it would take to track them down and link to them.) However, in December there is another festival – this one will be a syncretism of Roman Catholicism and African animistic religion. I plan to go and photograph at that one too. That may provide the pictures necessary to illustrate better the items you wished to see pictures of.</p>

<p >Thanks to you both for your helpful comments.</p>

<p >DS Meador</p>

<p>Stan, in almost every single case uptil now people have kept advising you to get closer to your subject and that's what you did here. And for me that works. They are very good and fitting for illustrating your story. Frankly not all could stand on their own as single photos but in this context not all have too so it's a job done well.</p>

<p>Thanks Ton for the encouraging words. I did get closer, but I had an idea of what I wanted out of the day. And, there were some reporters milling around, so it was natural to have a camera out and snapping - the people expected for pictures to be taken that day. That helps. I also shot multiples of a lot of these just to have slight variations to choose from. I got what I consider to be my best street shot to date that day too, but it didn't fit the story so it isn't up. It was the first time I knew at the moment I pressed the shutter that I got the shot I wanted (in street photography anyway).<br>

Again, thanks!<br>

DS Meador</p>