marchin' feet and costumes

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in the course of such a long event there are enough occasions to concentrate on the details. the chokers i've shown some days ago would be worth a photo essay of their own, and so could be the marchin' feet together with the lower parts of the costumes.

those half socks, covering only the calfs, are called 'stutzen' and are a significant part of the traditional clothes of the men in the alpine region. for festivals and holidays of course they are knitted with decorations, and colour and pattern again show the affiliation to a certain region or nowadays a certain costume group.

the men on these images wear 'haferlschuhe', brogues, and these shoes point to the landscape where their wearers live: the thick sole with a good grip predestines these shoes for hills and rough paths.

this is the last installment of the 'trachten-gaufest'. if you want to see more images of this event, just have a look at the slideshow of these images on flickr.

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brass bands marching

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bavaria generally and the traditional mountain costume associations (what a monster expression, we just say 'trachtler') especially are inseparably connected with brass music. only at indoor events, we call it 'hoagascht', guitar, zither and hammer dulcimer replace the wind instruments.

clear shapes and reflections of course make those brass units very photogenic. musically the bands at events like the present one are on a real high stage, and in the last decade fortunately a lot of re-discovered really traditional music went into the programs, replacing the innommable beer hall music of lowest possible niveau.

only the sheer level of the sound became a bit problematic in the moments when the procession stopped with the band playing some 2m away from my ear. but the little suffering for art (not with a capital a, nota bene) is neglectable in the greater context of 'hue and saturation to the max'.

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chokers

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the translation of 'kropfband' - the traditional necklace these women are wearing - as choker made me mistrust the various online dictionaries, as in my ears this sounds a bit weird. but as they all agree, who am i to dissent.

focusing on the chokers proofed to be difficult when the groups were marching, so i was more then grateful for several unintended stops that gave me the opportunity for close inspection. as everybody was in high spirits - the bad weather had stopped just for this day - photographing was no problem, just seeking eye content asking for consent and then making pictures.

even the impressive zoom with the long lens hood did not create any camera shyness, but of course it is not the right tool to capture unobserved moments. it was a different kind of street photography, where the chance for good picture was to behave so naturally that the subjects just noticed and forgot.

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