Babbles of a Lover and a Fighter

Mardi Gras has come and gone. For some people (tourists), it’s all about Bourbon Street and boobies. For those of us who know better, it’s all about the parades and meeting new friends and dressing up and being awesome.

Mardi Gras is about getting hit in the face by gigantic pink beads…about screaming ’til you’re hoarse and have a bad case of the man-voice…about being handed a real rose by a guy in a mask you’re pretty positive is cute.

It’s about buying ridiculously colored backpacks at Walgreens for 7 bucks and filling them with crazy treasures like brilliantly engineered cooling cases for tasty beverages and heavily protected precious camera gear.

It’s about being SUPER excited for floats that proudly display your lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut…

It’s about cramming pasta in your pie hole on the way to a night parade because you were too busy having fun at the morning one to eat anything…

But most of all, it’s about friends.

Having not been in New Orleans for Mardi Gras in two years and having to march in all of the ones I have been able to go to, I realized this year that it really is like a second Christmas.  Work was closed, it was gorgeous weather (except for Saturday’s deluge), and everyone just seemed…happy.

The littlest of the Reyes’ living legacy of 4 generations had her first birthday party today.  This was my first family party since the beginning of January, Christmas if you only count parties with the “real food,”  (you guys know what I’m talking about.  Pansit, adobo, lumpia, rice, ube, an entire roasted pig…you know…the “real food.”) and in all of the hubbub of work and job searching and time away from the family, I found how much I really miss gatherings like the one today.

I got to meet my aunt-in-law’s side of the family.  They’re all really friendly, and damn, can they cook.  They’re right up there with Ninang.  I think they used to own a restaurant.

Talk about food coma.  They had already started cooking before we got there at 4, and they were still cooking when we left at around 8:30.  Of course, we had to bring home the obligatory 5 1-gallon bags of food.  Leftovers, anyone?

So, the reason for the party was this little princess right here:

And the main reason for this post is to share the pictures.  Indoor photography with dim lighting is pretty frustrating, especially without an external flash.  I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas, and the built-in flash tends to cast a shadow when it’s zoomed all the way out.  My indoor pictures tend to be blurry and awkwardly off-white-balanced, but hopefully with a bit more practice, they’ll turn out better in the future.  Just to get an idea of the whittling process, of the 141 pictures I took, I kept 73, and I’m posting 7.  That’s the way my photography has always been, I think.  I’m only satisfied with about 5% of a set, if that.  I guess that’s the beauty of digital photography.  No wasting film, no waiting for development…instant critiques.

I love taking pictures of people, I love learning new techniques with my camera and with Photoshop, so here’s to more photography posts in the future.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my photography page to get a feel of my psychedelic photoshop side and pic-taking style.

Stay classy!