Photographing Caribana 2011

This past weekend my friends and I took a trip to Toronto for Caribana.  Caribana is largest caribbean carnival in North American and outside of the Caribbean.  It is a 2 week long celebration of Caribbean culture highlighted by a huge parade attended to by over 1 million people.  During the parade bands mad up of people in costumes “playing mas” march down the road to music played on the back of huge flatbed trucks with stacks of speakers on them.  

The music is loud and energetic.  The people are many and enjoyable.  Everyone is out there to dance in the street and have a good time.  The costumes worn are elaborate and colorful.  Each band has a different them which goes a long with the design of the costumes.  The amount of work that goes into these costumes is incredible and what comes out is amazing.  It’s truely a sight to see.  

While this year (and probably many years to come) I didn’t particpate in the band wearing a costume, I was able to find my way into the media area, and shoot with the professional photographers.  It was a good experience.  Here are some things I thought of while out there, to help me and anyone else who can use them.

1. Bring water and snacks.  It was really hot out there.  The parade goes from 10-6, and there isn’t a lot of shade in the middle of the street.  From what I could tell the media section did not get any special treatment with regard to water or snacks.  I didn’t stay with the media the full time, but for the 3.5 hours I was out there shooting, I got drained quickly.  I had a camelback which I neglected to fill before i got there thinking I’d be able to fill it there.  I do believe they are a big help to anyone out there though.

2. Have at least one extra battery for each camera you bring.  At the minimum one extra battery.  Some people have two cameras with different lenses, I only have one.  Even worse I only had one battery too.  After over 500 shots in 3 hours, I had made it about half way through the bands, and my battery started limping.  I almost missed getting shots of my friends who were in band 6 of 12.  My camera died shortly after they showed up.  I wish I had an extra battery or two.  I got a lot, but I think I missed out on a lot as well.  One thing I didn’t realize until after, is that the parade is kinda in two parts.  There is the first section where they band puts on a small performance in front of some judges and then is judged, and there is the part where everyone is dancing in the street having a good time, for the next 2.5 miles.  I missed out on a lot of action shots during the second part, because my battery had died.  

3. Have a lens that can shoot really close up and one that can shoot medium range, or one that can do both.  I took my 55-200 and my 35-70.  I used the 55-200 most of the time, but there were moments where it would have been nice to have an 18-55 so I could get really good shots of people’s faces.  Where I placed myself I was in the middle of the band as they came off the stage area.  the 55-200 was good for when they were on the stage area, not so good when they are standing 2 feet in front of me.  Some of the media people there had 2 cameras, sadly i’m not one of them, but next time I hope to be more prepared.

4. Always be on the lookout for good shots.  All around us there was action going on.  Sometimes it would be people in the band dancing together, others it would be people in the crowd dancing with people in the band.  There were little kids in cute costumes, there were grown men in fully painted costumes.  Not only the costumes, the range of colors was amazing.  Finding ways to capture all of them only makes the experience that much more fun and challenging.

5. Have fun.  I noticed several times when people in the band would walk up to a security guard and start dancing on them.  Everyone is out there to have fun and a good time.  So put on a smile and have a good time.  No one wants to be out there in the head angry or bored.  Enjoy yourself and the culture and have fun taking pictures at the same time.

My First and Not Last Trip to Japan pt1.

I just got back...

In case you didn't know I was in Japan for the past couple days. I didn't get a chance to see as many sites as I would have liked, but I was able to get a good dose of culture and experience many new things. I experience a lot in my few days there and will be spreading my recountings (probably a made up word... so what) across a few posts. Mainly because I know its hard for people, especially myself, to read long wordy blog posts, essays, and any other form of written communication. Also this entails a lot of writing, editing, and uploading photos and my friends can't wait see it, read it, and leave comments. :-) With that said here goes part 1...

My trip started off from Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. Apparently there is only one flight per day that leaves from this area and goes to Tokyo, Japan non-stop. The flight was a little over 14 hours. During this time I was either sleeping(5 hours), watching movies(5 hours of Hancock and Speed Racer), or attempting to read something(2 hours). I think I actually made it through half of a magazine and two chapters in a book I was reading. Its not easy reading on a 14 hour flight. After we arrived we got our luggage, made it through customs, and encountered our first chance at the language barrier. We had to get from the airport to the hotel. Our hotel was just under 2 hours outside of the hotel so we had to take the train to get there. So we had to find the booth where they sold the train tickets to the Narita Express, buy our passes for that, and find our way to the train. This all turned out to be fairly easy.

This is a map of the Tokyo metro stops. This is not the subway map, this is just for the trains that do not go underground. Pretty crazy right? Luckily we only had to deal with the circle in the middle. Our the Narita Express went to Tokyo Central, where we were able to hop on the Yamamote Line(the lime green circle in the center) which after 28 minutes took us to Ikebukuro where our hotel was. After walking around the stop for a few minutes partially because we were shocked we made it that far in Tokyo, and partially because we were guessing where our hotel was, we were able to locate the hotel and get to our rooms.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Metropolitan. It was really nice, definitely a quality hotel. It had restaurants on the 25th floors with excellent views and 5 star Japanese and Chinese restaurants(with plates starting at $37 bucks a person), as well as banquet halls. They seemed to always be busy with weddings as well. From the moment we entered the hotel we were treated as if we were staying in first class and we were pseudo-important. Not that hotel wasn't nice, but the people went out of their way to accommodate us. They took our luggage soon as we walked into the lobby, escorted us to our rooms, holding elevator doors, and even carrying our luggage into our rooms. Get this... They did not even ask for a tip!!! The thing that got me was all of the "bus boys" were all female. While the people working a the front desk were both made and female. I wonder why this is.


The rooms inside the hotel were small and minimalist. The Japanese know how to take a small space and use it efficiently. Everything did seem a little smaller, but it was enough. Nothing overdone and over sized like the hotels here. For most people this may actually mean things were too small. The two things I thought were awesome in the room that I wanted in my room were a light switch near the bed that turned off all the lights in the room, and a heated mirror in the bathroom. You know when you take a shower and the mirror gets all fogged up? This mirror was heated in a small section right above the sink that didn't get fogged up... Genius!!! There was a small flat screen tv, a small tv, a small tea pot, and a small desk.

After freshening up I went to see the night lights of Ikebukuro and to get something to eat. I felt like I was in Las Vegas, with all the bright lights all around. To our surprise Ikebukuro is a pretty active area at night. There are places to place slots and pachinko, bars, karaoke bars, and small food places all around. Also near we stayed was the Arts Center and Convention Center, as well as one of the major stops on the Yamanote Line. As we walked around we marveled that the lights, the sounds, the people, and the smoke from people smoking. There were taxi's zipping around us, people on bikes dashing on and off the sidewalk, and people on the move. Most people either had earphones on listening to music on the phones or ipods and were going to and from. Only outside of the station did people seem to loiter.

We walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat. We did not know how to go about ordering food but noticed many of the places had food in the window. I guessed correctly that this was the menu for that restaurant. So we gathered our yen and our courage and stepped into the establishment. First all the doors are either automatic or have you touch a little pad to open it. Genius!!! Inside there was just one counter with people sitting down eating. To my right here was a machine with small pictures and numbers of foods that were on display outside. Kind of like a vending machine for food. So we put our money in and make a selection. I choose what looked like noodles to me(2nd to bottom row on the left), inserted my money, and out came a ticket. I looked puzzled for a second. I didn't know if I expected my food or something else to come out of the machine, but I wasn't expecting a ticket. Quickly I realized you take the ticket to the counter, where they take it and bring your your food. The noodles were cold, but I didn't care. I ordered my successfully my first meal in Japan... without speaking Japanese!!!

That pretty much sums up the first day. I will be covering the rest of the trip in posts coming later this week. Complete with pictures on flickr...