I’m currently thinking about changing the site. The layout and theme might change without warning or something completely different might even gets put up instead 
St. Patrick’s Day is the big day for everyone involved.
It is also a day that started early with the groups meeting at the City Fusion HQ at 7am for makeup and dressing.
It was very interesting to watch the transformation from people coming in in normal clothes into fully blue people, red warriors, cabbage patch people and golden suns.
It was certainly not boring with such a great mix of cultures.
We went from the HQ to the parade start in two chartered buses even though the first step out of the building seemed to be a bigger challenge in some of the costumes than the parade itself.
We photographers were given access to the press buses at two locations, the start at Parnell Square and at City Hall. I was on the City Hall bus which was placed a bit too far from the street to have a good view.
Oh well… some days you lose, some days others win…
City Fusion is part of the St. Patrick’s parade, combining different cultural groups into one overall theme.
I was part of the new documentation group, every cultural group providing someone to photograph another group during their practice sessions and then of course the parade as well.
The groups were quite different, ranging from experienced dancers to youth groups, spanning the globe from Asia to Africa, to Europe and America.
It is a very ambitious project to train all the different groups within just 6 weeks. St. Patrick’s Day is on the 17th of March, a rather unfortunate timing for people to practice parading outside from mid February on.
Here are some photos of the training sessions
The official City Fusion blog
Phoenix Park contains many animals, not just in the Zoo.
Here are some of the other animals beyond the cages.
Can you guess what it is?
Condensation water on a glass lid
Some lovely colors on those leaves
The company sent me over to Copenhagen for a few days (no, not “The Company”) and of course one needs to bring the camera along. I brought only my 30D with the 24-105 attached to it as well as the ever present LX3.
This was the first real test for the LX3, taking more than family photos and walk along shots. I am really impressed with the quality of the photos even with the handicap of the short focal length. There’s not much reason to pack the ultra-wide lens for the SLR when the LX3 comes along anyway. And it’s quicker to pull the LX3 out of the belt pouch and have it ready for shooting than switching lenses.
This is my 4th year as official photographer for the Filipino Day in Ireland, the day celebrating the Independence Day of the Philippines.
Don’t I just look professional?
My set up is usually my 30D with the 100-400 L IS and my 300D with 24-105 L IS. Depending on the situation, I might do a quick change of the lenses if I need to get closer than the 100-400 can handle and faster shots than the 300D’s burst mode is able to deliver. I finally found the perfect way to hold the two bodies, both hanging on shorted neck straps hooked into the shoulder straps of my photo backpack with carbine hooks. The shoulder straps of the backpack are better cushioned than camera straps and I didn’t feel the camera weights even after a full day of walking around. Plus there’s no slipping of the straps as well and the bodies are always in reach and ready.
It is quite interesting to cover the same event again and again. I might not know the names but I do recognize many faces. It’s like extreme time lapse photography, especially with members of the youth groups.
The day usually starts with a mass, followed by the official address of the Consul, a representative of the city and the organizers. After that it’s time to get the show started with a variety of groups from all over the country showing traditional and modern acts of singing and dancing.
I wanted to try something new this year and Dave was kind enough to let me borrow the GigaPan.
Here are two 360 views to give you a sense of the set up.
I must say that I wasn’t too excited about some of the performances this year. 2 groups that I was looking forward too didn’t perform or just in a minimalistic way. Too many youth acts featuring dancing to American hip-hop, some very good but some also passionless and uninspired. Where’s the display of Filipino culture here? We had in the past years examples of hip-hop music in tagalog that would have been a much better choice than the use of the American music.
We were quite lucky with the weather this year after last year’s downpour. And somehow I once again managed to get a mild sunburn of the face even though I would have sworn that there wasn’t enough unclouded sunshine that day. But at least I didn’t have sunburn for weeks like it was 2 years ago
The main act this year was Randy Santiago. He definitely proved his status of being a great entertainer, performing a mix of modern classics and his own songs, involving the audience and some of members of the performing groups as well.
Overall it was a great success and we’ll see what the next year has in store.
Here’s a gallery with some shots. I took more than 1000 for the whole day
I was asked to take photos of the memorial ceremony for Former President Aquino in Dublin.
You can read more about it and see 3 of my photos here
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