The most wonderful time of the year

The circus festival is back! The circus festival is back! Forget all other ways of marking Peace Corps service time, I am now just counting time in between festivals of acrobatics. Tonight was the kick-off of the 5th annual Festival Internacional Alternativo de Artes Escénicas, or Siguientescena. It seems a little smaller than last year, but […]

Critical Mass in Mexico

Or, as it is known here, Saca la Bici. It passes my window every Wednesday evening and I often watch them go without my camera. Finally I more than just got off my duff to stick myself and my camera out the window. Now I just need a bicycle to join them.  

January Cultural Leftovers

From the Down the Street on a Friday Night post, here are some of the other images I captured at the stumbled upon cultural event in the next neighborhood over from mine. The costumes were amazing, and I wish the pictures weren’t so blurry. My good lens still couldn’t quite handle the combination of low light […]

These kids today…

…and their violent games. They are either beating on something with a stick, or just playing with fire.

Day of the Dead – Ofrendas

It boggles the mind how much better sugar and chocolate can get, but make them into amazing skulls and other decorations and there you have it. The ofrendas, or offerings for the day of the dead altars can be pictures, food, flowers, and many symbolic items. The pictures that I took, mostly in the markets, […]

Day of the Dead – El Panteón Municipal

On the morning of Dia de los Muertos, my mother (visit arranged to correspond with this fascinating holiday) and I went down the main cemetery in town. We had been told that it would be buzzing with activity, but I don’t think we were prepared for how active it was. It seemed like nearly every […]

Day of the Dead – Altars

The Day of the Dead altars around town were beautiful and impressive in the amount of work that went into them. Each was dedicated to several people with varying levels of historical significance. Photographing the altars presented some challenges to my panorama-editing abilities, but I’m definitely learning a lot about the software that I have […]

Day of the Dead — La Catrina(s)

Many of these photos are among my favorites that I shot over the holiday. I thought about keeping these for the last Dia de los Muertos post, but then I was motivated to edit them first. So, here they are, from two events. The first was a La Catrina contest with large paper mache designs, […]

The last was the best

I have sought out and photographed so many La Catrinas during this Day of the Dead, but the last was the best. Better yet, I’m still editing the 200 or so photos I took during the show of the 4 Catrinas. I’m down to about 95 photos, and editing further. Many, many more to come. […]

Day of the Dead – Part 1

About to head out to explore more of the city for Day of the Dead, but the altars have been up around town for a few days.

Just hanging around…

…getting ready for Day of the Dead, and I am excited. I rereading that and I don’t know if it sounds wrong or insensitive, but I really enjoy the art and learning about this aspect of the Mexican culture. It is going to be a couple of crazy weeks, and actually I had a great, […]