Moving with the Tradition
On September 19, I got the chance to cover the 13th annual Soboba Inter-tribal Pow Wow for the Valley Chronicle. It was the first work I done for the paper since June, and I was ready to take something on. The event presented a chance to capture some great color with the DSLRs and to try some new film things out with the AE-1. I even deployed the bbf for a little while near the end of my time there.
The pow wow was held in the arena at the Soboba Casino, on Indian land near San Jacinto. The ceremonies were stunning, filled with color and sound. I got to see the purifying Gourd Dance, a “tiny-tots” pow wow featuring the youngsters in full costume, and the dance, drum and song competitions. The highlight of the day was the Grand Entry, a procession of hundreds of people, from little children to tribal elders, all in the finest and most ornate ceremonial dress.
I started the day by asking the event’s chairman for permission to shoot, seeking any rules I might need to know about covering things respectfully. I mingled and did my best to be unobtrusive, and used the 30D with the long lens more than anything else. After getting photos to accompany specific story points for the paper, I let myself go and shot whatever I found appealing.
The selects I sent off to the Chronicle are here. The editor chose seven photos, and I hope to see two or three of those published tomorrow.
Along with the work for the paper, I wanted to try some new things with film. Since I’m developing black and white film, I decided to try push processing. With that in mind, I picked up some more Arista Premium 400 with the aim of shooting at 1600. Unfortunately, I underestimated the amount of light in the arena. I had counted on a solid roof, but the cover was a translucent American flag-styled canopy with substantial gaps between the panels that striped the faux-turf floor with sunlight, making it look like a football field. With my lack of experience at the processing technique, it wasn’t the right situation for success.
Grand Entry 1, originally uploaded by NoIdentity.
Despite those problems, I did manage to pull a handful of images out of the tank – fewer than 25% of the 48 exposures – that showed surprising contrast and a nice level of grain. Those that worked are among some of the best-looking photos I have ever taken. You can see a slide show of Soboba images from Flickr here.
