Viernes Dolores in Bigastro

Bigastro has traditionally held a mass on the Friday before Holy Week. This year though, the church organised a procession around the town as well.

In the procession were the statues of the Virgin Mary with her son down from the cross and Jesus on the cross. At various points en route the priest spoke and a choir of ladies chanted. The street lights were mostly switched off meaning that the sole illumination came from the torches that were carried and the dim lights on the thrones.

The atmosphere was suitably solemn and at the same time emotional - a very fitting start to the coming celebration of Holy Week.

You can see my photos in the album accessed via the sidebar.

The teccy stuff  

Since this was the first time such a procession has been held, I had no idea what to expect. How much light would there be? What route would they take? Where would be the best positions be for photos? There was lot of thinking on my feet for this one!

The first decision was, what equipment to take? I don't like to use flash for this sort of occasion so I would be relying on the ability of my camera to work in dim light. Fortunately, my 5D MkIII is good in poor light but it can't work miracles. It was then a toss up between my favourite 24-70mm f2.8 zoom or my 50mm f1.2 low light monster. The zoom gives me more flexibility for composition but loses two stops of light gathering power to the prime lens (1/4).

In the event I chose the zoom and ended up with the camera selecting the maximum ISO of 12,800 for some shots - that is insane!! There are very few cameras that can produce acceptable results at those speeds.  Please bear that in mind when you look at the photos.