Palm Sunday

We haven't been in San Miguel for Palm Sunday for a couple of years so of course I wanted to see the processions. After a great breakfast at the Parroquia Cafe, I headed up San Francisco to the El Calvario chapel at the top of the street. The procession assembled very quickly with Jesus on a donkey in the lead. It only travels a couple of blocks to the San Francisco church. It is a tough procession to photograph because the light is behind the procession and traffic is barely stopped for the procession. If you move out into the street you can get mowed down by a bus.

Today I tried to take advantage of the difficult light and I was hoping that when I photographed into the light I would get a string of light reflections across the image. No string of reflections but I did get this light blub leaking light. And somehow having Jesus and the donkey squeezed in by the bus and the car just seems appropriate for San Miguel.

The next procession starts in Parque Juarez and comes down Sollano which is a fairly narrow street. The sun is still a strong side light which reflects off of the painted buildings and back on the procession. I decided to use narrow depth of field and try to isolate some faces in the procession.

There were lots of photographers out today. All kinds of equipment from a simple point and shoot to some very impressive big long lenses on high end DSLRs. I think that everyone with a big camera was impersonating a National Geographic photographer. Get in, get close and get the shot no matter what. I hear there is a photography workshop or two here in town from now until Easter Sunday. I don't think I can stand to watch. It is like they paid their money and the religious processions have been arranged for them to photograph. I really don't think I want to see what they do at the solemn and silent procession on Friday night.