Heat, humidity, and most of all, colorful dancers, masks, and music! G6, GX7

Hello all

I posted a few pix on Thursday (or whenever!) from Day 1 of the National Mask and Warwagira Festival (Wednesday) here in Rabaul/Kokopo, in the New Guinea Islands (aka paradise) but after that, it got into full swing, the pace picked up, and by the end of it, I was staggering, I must confess.

Truth be told, after a day in the sun photographing the traditional dances, I needed a couple of hours snoozing to rebuild my strength for the night when the bands were playing. And after the 2km walk home, it was falling into bed time to gather strength for the next day! No time to edit and post!

On Sunday, the festival was ending with church choirs and gospel stuff. Nah! I spent a fair bit of the day asleep, some more time editing photos ready to post, and watched Mad Max 2 with the family in the evening. Yeck!

On Day 1 and Day 2, I sallied forth with the full kit -- the G6, the GX7, the 9-18, 12-32, 12-35, 45-150, and 100-300 lenses. By Day 4, I was down to the GX7, the 12-35, the 9-18, and the 100-300.

The most used lenses during the day were the 12-35 and 100-300.

For the evenings, I took the GX7, the 9-18 (but didn't use it; and it didn't make the bag on the last two nights), the 12-35, and the Oly f1.8 45.

What else would I have liked? The Oly f1.8 75mm for the nights. I shot nearly everything with the 45. It would have been good to be able to get closer for some shots -- and given the disastrous lighting, I needed every bit of that f1.8!

During the day, I generally carried one camera around my neck, perhaps one lens in a pocket (the 45-150 is good for that!) and the rest in one little zip-topped bag -- a Lowerpro perhaps 20 years old that came with an old Pentax film camera I bought on eBay as a keepsake 7 or 8 years ago!

Thank goodness for the light weight and compactness of m43 outfits! Quite seriously, I wouldn't have made it through the day with an FF kit of similar capability.

I'll do three consecutive posts covering the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th days of the festival.

DAY 2:

I love the headdresses and love to catch them "on the run" -- during the performances, rather than posing before or afterwards. They tend to look more lively but it sure poses a challenge with the dancers moving about fast and furiously and you as photog standing off with a tele lens drying to keep them in the frame and in focus. in fact, both the G6 and GX7 do terrific work with AFS and single focusing box. I tried AFC and multiple focusing areas too and did pretty well with that, and will use it more in future after more practice with it. This one is pretty standard looking pic but was taken during performance.

The full mask from one of the variations of the previous headdress.

Children's masks from the Bainings mountains. The Bainings people do the fire dance at night with masks of similar beaten bark and cane construction, but much bigger and more elaborate. These little masks worn during a daylight singsing (dance) are like training wheels for the big stuff.

The figures in the headdress at the top are Tubuans (members of the men's secret society), Tolai style (the Tolais are the eople who live in the Kokopo/Rabaul area). Ths is the same concept but from the Pomio area on the mountainous south coast of East New Britain. Totally different language and culture generally, but the Tubuan idea present.

Great feather detail!

Children are into singsings from the earliest age. I sometimes wonder whether they dance first and learn to walk later!

Muruk/murup (cassowary) dance heads.

Visitors were well entertained by the murup dancers.

A modern variation on a traditional headdress. Two years ago, this group of people carved these Catholic symbols variation of their traditional headdresses for a new singsing they composed giving thanks for the work of the German priest who had been with them for a number of years, and as a supplication to the bishop to return "their German" to them after his leave. They told me the story at the time, but their confidence then was misplaced. The bishop did not give "their German" back to them. But the singsing is now part of their repertoire so they brought it out again for the benefit of the tourists.

A fair bit of photography was going on! Most of Day 2 was overcast, even quite cloudy, which mean working in "Vivid" mode in the two Panasonic cameras and even then, being ready to bump up contrast and brightness a bit in PP. The upside was that it kept temperatures down a little a little.

The evening's entertainment on Day 2 was old style (like half a century ago) "string bands" -- guitars and ukeleles -- performing mainly their own songs with occasional variations of islands standards like Isa Lei from (I believe) Fiji. This is the Gilnata band from the Duke of York Islands. Many of the members, including the lead singer, have been performing in this band for 40+ years. They demonstrate some fine musicianship.

A group that is unusual in being all women. They have been playing together for a fair while as the Cousin Sisters Band. Lots of women sing and play guitar at home, but few are about to put on a public performance.