my All Souls Procession photo contest entries

I entered this year's All Souls Procession Photo Contest and thought I'd share my entries here.  Each entrant could submit up to 4 photos for consideration.  The photos were judged by Mary Virginia Swanson with awards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place plus honorable mention.  The top 20 photos are going to be hung at Delectables restaurant for a show running October 5th through November 8th.

This year there were 43 photographers entering a total of 161 photos, dare I say some stiff competition with many excellent photographers and images!  I didn't make the top 20, but that's cool, I learned a number of useful things by participating and can't wait to see all the images submitted.  :-)

One of the fun challenges was that the contest was encouraging "outside the box" interpretations of passing, transformation, renewal, and rebirth.  So rather than going for my traditional favorite pictures taken during the All Souls Procession, I found myself digging for more unusual images -- a really good exercise.

I've posted the 4 photos I submitted in order of my personal preference.  My favorite of the set is the image of the woman and child above.

The photo below is from last year's Procession of Little Angels.  Who's carrying who?  Who's watching over who?

This photo is of a woman watching last year's Procession from the sidewalk as the Procession neared the finale grounds.  She's on oxygen and yet dressed up very nicely for the event. 

And finally, this image of two people at the start of last year's procession.  Both with very different face paint and appearances than one traditionally sees at the event.  I like their unusual appearance and how their eyes are fixated in different directions.

I took all of the above pictures last November under "run & gun" circumstances typical at the All Souls Procession -- low light and either I'm in motion or my subject is in motion while I'm trying to capture an image, a lot of one-shot opportunities.  That's one of the fun challenges of photographing moving events.  Another fun thing with the All Souls Procession is that everyone sees something different during it, including photographers.  There are some subjects that it seems everyone gets, and then a handful of unique people or shots that you didn't even see during the evening.

I enjoyed entering the contest and learned a few new tricks by doing so that should serve me well with future photographs.

If you are in the Tucson area and want to see some great images, drop on by Delectables and grab a bite to eat while you're there.  On October 5th from 6pm - 10pm at Delectables on 4th Ave, there will be an opening show of this year's submitted photos (open invitation).  On this night you will not only be able to see the selected 20 prints that will be hung in Delectables, but also a slide show of all 161 entries in this year's contest.  Bound to be some great images and a good time!  Drop on by if you have a chance.

Kathleen Dreier (an excellent Tucson photographer from Esens Photography) did a great job of organizing this year's All Souls Procession Photo contest.

This year's Procession is coming up November 3rd.  Remember, this is far more than just some kind of parade, it is a time of remembrance, reflection, mourning, and celebration.

The All Souls Procession is organized by a non-profit (Many Mouths One Stomach) which depends on the people of our community (you & me) to contribute donations each year to pull it off.  Personally, I feel that the All Souls Procession is not only special to our community, but that it is very healthy for our community as well.  It pulls people from different walks of life together.  It brings young and old together.  It brings people downtown who may not have even realized that we have an increasingly nice downtown.  Healthy.

If you would like to support the All Souls Procession, support the Tucson community, here is information on how you can make your tax-deductable gift.

Procession of Little Angels (2012)

Here are a few of my pictures of the Procession of Little Angels (PoLA) held on Saturday afternoon/evening, November 3rd, 2012 in Armory Park as part of the All Souls Procession weekend.

This family-friendly event focuses on acknowledging and celebrating deceased loved ones from the perspective of the child.  The kids all looked like they really enjoyed having their faces painted and working with arts and crafts to make wings, stars, and painted sugar skulls.

Painting wings

The picture below is actually among my favorite shots for the whole weekend.  Somehow, to me at least, it seems to capture the spirit of angels and stars looking down and watching the activities, memories, and celebration by those still on earth of those who have passed on.

There were a number of very nice memorial altars in the park.

There was some great harp music during the afternoon to go with the angels.  All angels should have harp music, right?

and of course, lots of photos to be taken by everyone

As evening approached, there were a number of great performances, including stilt walkers and performers who are students of Tucson Circus Arts.  I like the picture of Nadia Hagen pictured below on the right.  The look, the smile, the hand out: challenge, support, confidence, success, happiness -- says a lot about how their student program must work.

Once it got dark, the Procession of Little Angels began, walking around the Armory Park block, led by a great bagpipe player and stilt walkers.  Everyone was having fun.

Every Procession needs some great drumbeats, and they delivered.

Just like the bigger All Souls Procession held downtown Sunday night (also family friendly), some children carried pictures of loved ones who have passed on.

This group were having a total blast dancing, clapping, and jumping in the air as they walked along to the beat!

Back at the main stage, more performances to enjoy.

A lot of the kids really got into dancing to the drum beat at the end of the evening, a great way to end the day.

Also at the PoLA, the new water cut stainless steel urn for this year.  This urn is filled with people's notes of memories, wishes, and remembrances during the PoLA and the next day's All Souls Procession and then burnt up during the finale (as shown in my prior post).  Amazing work and designs on this new urn!

Congrats and kudos to Jhon Sanders and all the other folks who put so much tireless effort and spirit into making this a successful event!

Here is a Flickr slideshow of my full set of PoLA pictures (click lower right icon to expand fullscreen)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727418@N02/sets/72157631949784585/with/8163118880/

All Souls Procession (2012)

Here are a few pictures that I took at last Sunday's All Souls Procession held in downtown Tucson, an event I look forward to attending every year.  Amazing creativity among participants during this Dia de Los Muertos influenced event.

Many people carry pictures of relatives and pets who have passed on.

Procession participants become spectators and spectators become participants, everyone is in the remembrance celebration / ceremony in one way or another.  All 30 to 40 thousand of us.

Cameras are quite literally everywhere.  This is a picture that I took from inside the procession looking out at spectators lining the street.

This guy was playing a great mournful jazzy saxophone.  Other parts of the Procession had drummers, bag pipe players, and a trumpet player.

I was surprised by this shot.  As the procession neared the finale grounds one of the people lining the street was holding up a somewhat dimly lit painting.  I fired off a shot with flash to expose this very nice painting was being held up over the other people's heads.   It almost looks like a postcard photoshopped into my picture, but it was really there.  Nice!

As is the norm for the All Souls Procession every year, Urn attendants in elaborate handmade costumes collect notes of remembrance / wishes from participants along the procession route.   They then transfer the notes from their handheld urns to the very large metal urn that will be lit on fire during the finale ceremony.

A beautiful, brand new, stainless steel urn that was pulled by hand through the procession route is lowered by crane onto a tall platform during the finale.

At the end of the finale, the urn is lit on fire and to the cheers of the crowd everyone watches their notes burn up and head skyward.  Isn't that cool and intricate work on the metal urn designs?

Here is a slideshow on flickr of my full set of event photos for this year (click lower right corner icon to expand to full screen):



http://www.flickr.com/photos/23727418@N02/sets/72157631957972622/

In the next few days I'll post pictures of last Saturday's Procession of Little Angels which was held at Armory Park as part of the All Souls Procession weekend.

If you are interested in seeing all of my blog post related to the All Souls Procession over the last few years, click here.

2011 All Souls Procession (Tucson) videos

I only took still photos of the All Souls Procession for my blog this year, so I went looking on YouTube to find a couple of videos to share more of the look and feel of this great event.

Here is a great video by T. Stone of the 2011 All Souls Procession that includes some great shots of finale firedancers:




This is another person's short video of the portion of the finale where the urn (people placed remembrance notes/messages in it earlier as it was pulled along the Procession route) is lit on fire. This year there were three aerialists suspended from the crane including a silk performance artist.



And a more distant video of the urn lighting by Johnnyangelb that shows the height of the crane:

2011 All Souls Procession

I enjoyed participating in this year's All Souls Procession held Sunday night in downtown Tucson -- such a cool event!  I look forward to it every year as one of my favorite Tucson events.  Here are a few pictures I took during this year's Procession.  The couple above really out did themselves -- great look!

These guys sounded great!

Part of the pyrotechnic theatrical show during the finale at the end of the Procession

I was surprised to find after the fact that there is a ghost-like person behind a veil to her left.

Slideshow of my full set of pics from the 2011 All Souls Procession

To view my All Souls Procession posts for previous years, click on the All Souls Procession label below (and keep hitting older posts until you run out posts on the topic).

Did any of you attend this year?  How did you like it?