Carnival!!

Tonight was Salisbury's Carnival and though I have covered this event officially for the organising City Council, this year I wasn't asked - and I have a miserable cold...

So, I had decided that I was just going to get my Blip and that was that. Famous last words...

Standing on an island in the middle of the main road en route, where giant articulated lorries would have to pass within inches of me, I eventually was asked by zealous security if I had permission to be there. A policeman joined in. Yes, I replied, I was taking official photos for the Council. So, all of a sudden, I had to take more than my few personal pics and actually stand there and take pictures for the City Council. My contact within the Council was at the front of the procession, all blu-toothed up and she winked at me in approval as she thought my position a canny one.

Part of my plan was not to bother with flash, nor wideangles. But it was dark, with only sporadic streetlights for illumination. The brightly lit floats with their on-board generators could be photographed with the slowest lens but for everything else, only the fastest would do.

I had struggled with my Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 last year and so it was down to my all-manual, old all-metal Nikkor 135mm f2, which on my D7000 equated to a 202mm f2. Fast indeed.

I got lots of failures - people getting in the way, too dark to focus and lots that were too close to fit in the frame. But of course there were my fellow freelancers, who just used flash with their wideangles as the procession slowly trundled by.

I chose this guy, who was actually wearing white, as he is in focus and has a nice recession of colour and light behind him, which gives a good impression of 'carnival'. He looks suitably theatrical too and he stood to pose for me. Check him out in LARGE. I edited a couple of other shots before this one but this visually describes the occasion and the feature of the lens best. Check out the high iso 4000 speed that was needed!

Came back in as the rain started and my head was thumping and felt quite unwell. I will edit the rest of the good ones and let the Council have them - I am glad that I made the extra effort but also glad that I didn't cover it so comprehensibly this year.