Shooting a festival, by definition, means becoming somewhat aggressive. There are scores of other photographers who want to get their shots, and if you are too much of a pushover, you’ll never get the positioning, the backgrounds, and the expressions you want. This doesn’t mean you have to be rude or impolite, but it does mean you have to jostle into the position you want and hold it until you get the shot.
These images from Sunday’s Jember Fashion Carnival in Jember, Indonesia are the result of patience, fast shooting, and pre-visualization. I shot feverishly when the sun went behind a cloud to take advantage of that beautiful, diffused lighting, and I tried my best to eliminate distracting elements in the background.
I’ve never seen such a display of outrageous color, brilliant costumes, and stunning faces, and while I still have to go through most of the 1500 images I took (this is a huge number for me since I'm so deliberate in what I shoot), I am very pleased with what I captured so far.
