Red, yellow, blue, purple and green powder was being painted on, and tossed in the air, by the joyful, dancing crowd at Chicago’s annual Holi Festival. Taking place at Navy Pier, this Hindu celebration of springtime and love was an irresistible, if tricky, opportunity, to show off the beautiful details of Medium Street photography. Dodging clouds of color, I got as close as possible, carefully upwind, to avoid contact with the Fuji GFX100 II. I don’t think any camera has a Holi powder rating, and I didn’t want to be the first person to find out how the Fuji might fare.
I walked the periphery, staying upwind, but as close as possible, using the Fuji lens GF32-64 to capture all the bright details. Shutter speed at 1/500s stopped the dancers in motion. I set the ISO to let the camera find the apertures I like, between f/5.6 and f/8. It was a clear, sunny day, with hard shadows between the closely packed celebrants, going from bright to dark. I adjusted the ISO to make it all work.
Camera people will be able to decode what I just wrote, but for everyone else, even the best semi-automatic cameras need some guidance from the photographer. Everything I had learned about the relationships between shutter speed, lens opening (aperture), and light sensitivity (ISO) was necessary to capture this fast moving, happy crowd. Dodging clouds of colored powder, framing the scene and choosing the zoom tested my reflexes as I captured each perfect moment.
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