Dickens on the Strand – People

2012 Dickens on the Strand

There were all kinds of interesting costumes taking essentially three themes.  Some were just dressed in Victorian clothes.

2012 Dickens on the Strand

I am not sure how many of the costumes were “vintage” and how many were made for the event.  Galveston does have several shops that specialize in these kinds of clothes.  But, lots of people wore these things.

2012 Dickens on the Strand

There were also lots of street performers and stage performers.  They had several stages, and they all seemed to have magicians and jugglers performing when we were there.  There were also people just performing in the street. This is a girl who just sat in the middle of the street playing her violin.

2012 Dickens on the Strand

 

 

Dickens on the Strand

2012 Dickens on the Strand

Last Saturday was “Dickens on the Strand.” It’s a Christmas festival in Galveston where people dress up in Victorian clothes, and everyone pretends they are in Victorian London. Lots of people and lots of fun.

2012 Dickens on the Strand

It used to be that if you can in costume, you got in free.  I don’t know if it is still that way or not, but most people were dressed up.

2012 Dickens on the Strand

Everyone lines the street, and in the middle of the afternoon, they have “The Queen’s Parade.”  I am not sure how one gets chosen to be in the parade, but they march up Mechanic and down The Strand.

 

Wedding – Reception

After the ceremony, all the guests were made to go out into the foyer while the formal portraits were taken and the chairs removed.  There were refreshments and a calypso band.  Once the ballroom was ready, everyone was ushered back in.  The first event on the agenda was the toasts.  I don’t remember what the best man said, but it got a reaction from the others.

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The bride did not want pictures of the guests at their tables for dinner, and that was fine with us.  There were too many guests, the lighting was terrible, and we got to rest just a little.  After dinner, they started the dances.  The bride and groom danced, then the groom and his mother.  The bride’s father was deceased.  So, she decided to do four dances, one with each of her brothers.  Her brothers came from Puerto Rico.  So, it  was a special occasion for them.  Cindy said that this meant a lot to the bride.  So, we concentrated on getting really good pictures of these dances.  Again, the lights were down really low.  So, focusing was a serious problem.  Even at that, this is a picture of the bride dancing with one of her brothers.

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The rest of the evening was spent dancing and visiting, and we got some nice pictures of the rest of the reception.

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Wedding – Ceremony

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The wedding was in the ballroom of the convention center.  It was obviously not the easiest place to decorate.  The wedding planner did an outstanding job with what she had to work with. The ceremony was held in the center area, and tables and chairs for dinner and the reception were set off to the sides.  After the ceremony, the chairs in the center were quickly removed to form a dance floor for the reception.

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Sometimes you capture a moment.  This was in the middle of the ceremony.  I am not sure of the precise context as it happened so fast.  But, the preacher looked up to the heavens, and I snapped the picture. This made for a unique image for their wedding folio.

These pictures look pretty good because they could not find anyone who could turn the lights down.  Although it was far from bright sunlight, there was really good, diffuse inside light and that helped us a great deal.

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Wedding – Groom Preparation

Cindy finished her editing of the over 5000 pictures we took at the wedding three weeks ago, and the bride and groom have seen them. So, now I can post some of mine.

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This was a pretty standard shot of the groom anticipating the day’s events.  My assignment was to get the groom pics.  The groom and his groomsmen were in a room in the Hilton hotel.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, he was already dressed. So, I only got a couple pics of him dressing.  There was pretty good light from this window.  So, I closed the drapes to restrain it and good this shot.

I took some more of the groom, his parents, and the groomsmen around the Hilton.  One of the shots they wanted was of the groom’s party coming from the Hilton to the Convention Center.  There is an open walkway, but the light was terrible.  The walkway is covered and kind of dark, but the surrounding area was very light.  With bright sunlight, there was really contrasty light that made a good exposure difficult.  Much of this shot was saved in processing. The background was blown out in order to get good exposure of the faces.

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While we were doing this, the groom commented that it was kind of a “rat pack” thing – a bunch of guys in tuxedos.  Someone else commented that it was kind of an “Ocean’s 11” thing.  I had a little different slant.  I told them it looked more like a “Reservoir Dogs” to me. To each his own, I guess.

I posted the rest of the preparation pics in the Wedding Gallery and will post more tomorrow.

Lone Star Rally Equipment Statistics

Using Aperture Inspector, here is a quick analysis of the equipment I used at The Lone Star Rally. I took 152 (63%) images with the a700 body and 89 (37%) with the a550.  I used three lenses.  I took 139 (58%) pictures with my old Quantaray Tech 10 70 – 210 f/2.8 lens.  I took 73 (30%) with my Quantaray 18 – 35 f/3.5 lens, and 29 (12%) with my Tamron 90 mm f/2.8 Macro.

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The Skull Fetish of Motorcyclists

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There is an obvious fetish in the motorcycle community. Although skulls are the most common expression of this fetish, it goes a little wider than just simply skulls.

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Skulls are painted onto motorcycle parts, and they are incorporated into parts that are cast.

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They can be rather straight forward depictions, or more stylized.

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They are universal in the culture.

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But, I believe the skull is just a convenient icon for a broader involvement.

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The skull fetish is really an expression of a wider fetish with the morbid.

 

Lone Star Rally – The Event

SONY DSCWe went to the Lone Star Rally on Saturday. There were probably 200,000 motorcycles there. We got there about noon and stayed until about 3:30.  The motorcycles are parked two and three deep all along Strand and Mechanic Streets.

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There is barely enough room in the middle of the street for a line of motorcycles to ride in.  There is a constant parade of motorcycles all day long. SONY DSC

There is lots of food and entertainment and a competition for the best custom cycle.

Trip to Atlantic City

I just returned from a trip to Atlantic City for a meeting.  I was supposed to fly out of Waco, but the flight was cancelled due to fog in Dallas.  So, I had to drive to Dallas to get the plane to Philadelphia.

Atlantic City does not have good air service.  So, from the Philadelphia airport I had to take a commuter train to the downtown AMTRAK station, and from there take an AMTRAK train to Atlantic City.  In the 30th St Station, there is a memorial to workers who died building the railroad.

The train took about an hour and a half to get to Atlantic City. So, I got there rather late in the evening.  I stayed in the Trump Taj Mahal.  Thursday morning, I went out for a walk. About a block away was this building.  Pigeons were roosting along the fire escape and on the roof.  At one point, one of the tenants opened a window and threw some food out.  Pigeons from all over flocked to the ground to fight over the food.

Later, I took a walk on the boardwalk.  Looking up from the boardwalk at the Taj Mahal, I took this picture.