Today is Mardi gras, Fat Tuesday. This image is still my favorite Mardi gras photo to date, though the trombone player cuts a close second.
This Princess of the Krewe of Carrollton had just seen someone in the crowd that she not only recognized but was also very excited to see. This was the middle of a sequence of three shots I rattled off – I pretty much always have my cameras set to continuous shooting mode. Unlike the days when film was bulky and expensive to process, pixels are compact and can be readily recycled.
The day gets it's name from being the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the lenten period of forty days of fasting or giving up luxuries prior to Easter. Traditionally this on this day people ate richer, fattier foods, hence Fat Tuesday. Since Louisiana was originally colonized by the French, we have Mardi gras, rather than the English Shrove Tuesday. I'm sure many of the rich, royal, colors associated with mardi gras also come from the catholic tradition. Since the reformation in England resulted in the gilding and rich colors in English churches being removed to be replaced with drab natural stone and wood, I doubt the colorful spectacle that is mardi gras in New Orleans would exist but for it's French catholic heritage.
So, ‘Laissez les bons temps roulers' today for Lent starts tomorrow!
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Production Data
Camera: canon eos 5d
Lens: Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS
Processing: Lightroom 3.6
Processing: Photoshop CS5
Processing: OnOne Photo Suite 6 (onone) 10% discount with coupon code rdavisphoto
