Bobby Deal
Well-Known Member
Last Sunday marked the close of the celebrations for Dia De Los Muertos and I spent the evening with my wife wondering the 180 acre Springs Preserve in Las Vegas viewing, meditating, photographing and talking with the family members of those who had built alters to honor those who had passed before them.
Dia Day Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a beautiful and colorful commemoration of life where friends and family members come together to celebrate the life of those who have gone before them. It is a celebration rich in history and culture and one that never fails to move me emotionally.
I have photographed this celebration in various locations but last nights was special. I photographed many of the alters, a few of the people and most of the La Calavera Catrinas and Calacas Bride and Grooms which can be very elaborate paper mache sculptures
All images were captured with a Nikon D3s and a 50 mm f/1.8 hand held by available light only with all but the very first few images in the gallery being shot at ISOs from 3200 - 12,800 with 6400 - 10,000 being common. None of these images have had any noise reduction done to them and many have had some high pass filtering so there is visible noise and grain in the shadow regions of the images but over all I was quite satisfied with the pixel quality of the images given that many were captured in available light that most would call unshootable without additional light. Many of the alters were simply lit with candles or strings of twinkle bulbs while a few were lit with multi color led cans and still others would be right under the horrible yellow glow of Mercury Vapor lamps but all the mixed lighting combines to add to the oddly surreal drama of the evening.
The full Gallery (200 images) can be found at Dia De Los Muertos 2013 - Free online photo gallery at PhotoCamel.com
and here are just a few of my favorites of the evening
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Dia Day Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a beautiful and colorful commemoration of life where friends and family members come together to celebrate the life of those who have gone before them. It is a celebration rich in history and culture and one that never fails to move me emotionally.
I have photographed this celebration in various locations but last nights was special. I photographed many of the alters, a few of the people and most of the La Calavera Catrinas and Calacas Bride and Grooms which can be very elaborate paper mache sculptures
All images were captured with a Nikon D3s and a 50 mm f/1.8 hand held by available light only with all but the very first few images in the gallery being shot at ISOs from 3200 - 12,800 with 6400 - 10,000 being common. None of these images have had any noise reduction done to them and many have had some high pass filtering so there is visible noise and grain in the shadow regions of the images but over all I was quite satisfied with the pixel quality of the images given that many were captured in available light that most would call unshootable without additional light. Many of the alters were simply lit with candles or strings of twinkle bulbs while a few were lit with multi color led cans and still others would be right under the horrible yellow glow of Mercury Vapor lamps but all the mixed lighting combines to add to the oddly surreal drama of the evening.
The full Gallery (200 images) can be found at Dia De Los Muertos 2013 - Free online photo gallery at PhotoCamel.com
and here are just a few of my favorites of the evening
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
