Year Of The Tiger - Millbrae Edition

Each city in San Mateo County has its own personality. The city of San Mateo had a small celebration in the Hillsdale Mall. Millbrae, just to the north, chose to close off two blocks of Broadway Avenue. It erected a stage at one end, while allowing street vendors to set up shop along the rest of the venue. Brick and mortar establishments stayed open for business. I learned from past experience to park at some distance from the venue and approach the event on foot. Since going mirrorless, my bag weighs considerably less than when I carried a pair of Nikon DSLRs with big zoom lenses.

The lead photo was chosen for submission. The troupe had two dances scheduled. The first one, shown here, was simply titled "Chinese New Years Dance". 

There's an old photographer's rule that the best community photos will contain one of the Four Bs: Babes, Babies, Beasts, or Blood. You can't go wrong with photographing babies or children, providing you use your discretion and get permission from a parent or guardian whenever possible. While this is a public performance, it's still an important public relations gesture, as I'm a Daily Journal photographer, and am therefore a di facto representative. In addition, it's also  important to identify any organizations that send performers to these events, as everybody likes to have their efforts acknowledged. I will often introduce myself to the event MD and ask if I can see the program so I can properly identify the participating organizations. If you explain exactly why you need the information, you'll usually get their cooperation. Besides, they soon realize it's easier to let you photograph the program than to spell out the names of the organizations. When I get home, I usually Google the name of the organization in case some additional information is called for.

The second performance, a Ribbon Dance, is shown here.  As usual, I made a lot of photos so I'd have a variety to choose from. Unfortunately, the four dancers were spaced too far apart, so their faces would be too small to recognize. The ribbons were visually interesting, but their inclusion created too much empty space. While I could have moved closer to the stage, I've found that it sometimes emboldens all the Mommies, Daddies, Uncles and Aunts to start crowding the stage, creating something of a mini-scrum in the front row. 

I thought this shot had some potential until I saw the blue safety rails growing out of this young dancer's head. The rails could not have been more perfectly placed!  Had I noticed it sooner, I could have moved to the left or right, but I try to stay in one spot as much as possible. 

One other point against the photograph: The framing cuts off the tips of the dancer's feet. This may be putting too fine a point on the composition, but it has always bothered me when an appendage falls off the edge of the photo. This may seem that I violated my own rule with the image I submitted. I consider it a much stronger image in spite of the act that some legs were lost, since the contrast of the red a gains the black background and the "Rule of Thirds" composition keeps your attention on their faces.

Someone very creative went to a lot of effort to sew two lion costumes for their two dogs. For a few moments I thought there was a photo here, but it seems like dull, flat lighting and short working distances were working against me. They were fun to look at, and added a bit of whimsey to my day. Maybe I'll catch them next year.