toros de fuego

The Basques certainly have some dangerous traditions. We found ourselves in the middle of one of them at the end of the Semana Grande when we stumbled into a celebration that involved runners carrying wooden bulls with fireworks strapped to them. They were running right through a crowd with lots of enthusiastically scared children. Well, if that’s not a recipe for some serious burns I don’t know! In any case, of course we had to stay and take some pictures, although we were occasionally reduced to cowering behind old ladies (clearly Capa style) to hide from the sparks of the fireworks. And like a lot of dangerous things it was of course a lot of fun as well.

Considering that it was dark and that I was zone focussing on moving subjects with an automatic camera I’m really quite amazed about the results. And considering further that I had quite a number of “Oh shit, he’s right behind me” moments it’s quite unsurprising that the rest of the pictures from this roll had quite a bit of shake. I’m glad that so many turned out alright.

Just like my pictures from the world cup celebrations I shot these at ISO 800 and developed for ISO 1600.

All pictures taken with: Olympus XA, F.Zuiko 35mm f/2.8.
Kentmere 400 EI 800, stand-developed in Rodinal 1:100, 90min.

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

© Lilly Schwartz 2014

Comments

  • 9.75 of 10 for the images because I have to give 10/10 for the backstory – “cowering behind old ladies” and “Oh Shit he’s right behind me” … LOL LOL

    (Nice result for the XA – was the Rodinal stand developed at 1:100, or some stronger for a timed development).

    • Oh, never mind, NOW I see that it was stand developed …..

  • Mon Juan

    There are many Filipinos of Basque descent. They are among the richest people in the Philippines.

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