• Photos
    • LATEST
    • ARCHIVES
    • Process
    • Fujifilm
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
Menu

PETE TAKES PICTURES

  • Photos
  • BLOG
    • LATEST
    • ARCHIVES
  • Fujifilm-Thoughts
    • Process
    • Fujifilm
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT

Carnival

July 20, 2015

Home again to Huddersfield. Mum and dad wait for me outside the station. We're fair clemmed and need to slake our thirst, so it's off to the pub for us. As I'm tucking into my Yorkshire pizza (blue cheese and crumbled black pudding topping) and drinking some IPA I hear pumping heavy bass from outside. Then cheering, laughter, singing. 

Good timing, Huddersfield Carnival is rolling past my window. Images flash through my mind from summer days of my youth, of the old Afro-Caribbean festivals in Greenhead Park -  Bob Marley tributes and DJs spinning cuts from Trojan Records. I dive outside, camera in hand, and get swept up off my feet - down under the railway bridge, into delirious chaos. Mum and dad follow, grinning. I lose them in the surge. Keep your head, raise the camera, start shooting...


Shot with the X-E2 and 18mm f/2 and 35mm f/1.4 lenses.


Carnival-3.JPG
Carnival-4.JPG
Carnival-6.JPG

View fullsize Carnival-1.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-8.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-2.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-13.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-9.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-11.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-16.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-15.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-17.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-19.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-20.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-22.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-26.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-27.JPG
View fullsize Carnival-18.JPG

Carnival-5.JPG
Carnival-28.JPG
Carnival-7.JPG

There's just something strangely right about the blending of Jamaica and Yorkshire, which is odd considering the seemingly perpetual rain that besoddens my Northern birthplace. Folk from the West Indies came over to the old market mill town in the fifties and sixties and brought with them reggae music and the sounds of such artists as Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker and Toots and the Maytals. To service the appetite for this music there arose among the West Indies youth the curious culture of custom made sound-systems. As commercial sound-systems were too expensive, the kids built their own; giant, boxy, mildly dangerous cabinet affairs with gaping echo chambers - the bigger the better. These brilliant, towering monstrosities were wheeled from garage to club to pub to park for gigs and local festivals, and a thriving reggae music scene soon built up around them. Although that scene sadly somewhat faded into the nineties, it found in this festival parade a resonant echo - as if born from the chambers of one of those old, leviathan, custom sound boxes.

Good to be back, Huddersfield. Flags of yellow, red and green flutter between the dour 19th century sandstone buildings. Today it's dancing in the cobbled streets, and to hell with the weather forecast. Funny, I hit town tired from a long journey and now I find I can't stop myself from weaving and shooting...

 


BLOG RSS
Subscribe to Pete Takes Pictures by Email

Featured
StormDennisExtra0 49.jpg
Feb 17, 2020
Storm Dennis
Feb 17, 2020
Feb 17, 2020
Title Image0 1.jpg
Oct 27, 2019
Space Invaders
Oct 27, 2019
Oct 27, 2019
Exploration in Colour - on Capture One & Fujifilm
Jun 7, 2019
Exploration in Colour - on Capture One & Fujifilm
Jun 7, 2019
Jun 7, 2019
Groundwork - International Women's Day
Mar 15, 2019
Groundwork - International Women's Day
Mar 15, 2019
Mar 15, 2019
Beth1BlockLandscape-5.jpg
Feb 1, 2019
Dreamscape
Feb 1, 2019
Feb 1, 2019
Becoming Human
Dec 2, 2018
Becoming Human
Dec 2, 2018
Dec 2, 2018
Dungerness Landscape-15.jpg
Sep 5, 2018
Strange Lands
Sep 5, 2018
Sep 5, 2018
ReferendumBlog-3.jpg
Jul 26, 2018
Second Referendum
Jul 26, 2018
Jul 26, 2018
HomeBlog-6.jpg
Jun 11, 2018
Magnum - HOME
Jun 11, 2018
Jun 11, 2018
TheShard-16.jpg
May 12, 2018
London Calling with the X100F
May 12, 2018
May 12, 2018
Snowblind2-9.jpg
Mar 26, 2018
Sunburst & Snowblind - Part Two
Mar 26, 2018
Mar 26, 2018
Snowfall-12.jpg
Mar 18, 2018
Sunburst & Snowblind - Part One
Mar 18, 2018
Mar 18, 2018
Hurnlandscape-6.jpg
Feb 6, 2018
Magnum Photographs with Hurn, Home and Fujifilm
Feb 6, 2018
Feb 6, 2018
HepBlog-5.jpg
Dec 14, 2017
The Colour and The Shape
Dec 14, 2017
Dec 14, 2017
Wilde-1.jpg
Nov 30, 2017
The Trial of Oscar Wilde
Nov 30, 2017
Nov 30, 2017
X100FTitle-1.jpg
Nov 7, 2017
X100F - The Storyteller
Nov 7, 2017
Nov 7, 2017
HubFestBlog-2.jpg
Sep 14, 2017
The Hub Festival - Capturing Music and Motion
Sep 14, 2017
Sep 14, 2017
Aug 9, 2017
Film & Vision - Finding Inspiration
Aug 9, 2017
Aug 9, 2017
Jun 18, 2017
Nine Hours in London
Jun 18, 2017
Jun 18, 2017
Jun 7, 2017
Gracias Cardiff - At the UEFA Champions League Final
Jun 7, 2017
Jun 7, 2017
Apr 28, 2017
Film & Vision - Making Fuji-X Simulations Work For You
Apr 28, 2017
Apr 28, 2017
Twisted by Design
Feb 27, 2017
Twisted by Design
Feb 27, 2017
Feb 27, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Cardiff After Dark
Feb 1, 2017
Feb 1, 2017
Jan 26, 2017
Six Months with the X-Pro2
Jan 26, 2017
Jan 26, 2017
Jan 7, 2017
2016 - A Fujifilm Year in Thirty-Six Exposures
Jan 7, 2017
Jan 7, 2017
Dec 11, 2016
Gimme Shelter
Dec 11, 2016
Dec 11, 2016
Nov 5, 2016
Fear of Future
Nov 5, 2016
Nov 5, 2016
Sep 14, 2016
A Judgement in Black & White
Sep 14, 2016
Sep 14, 2016
Jul 23, 2016
A Tale of One City
Jul 23, 2016
Jul 23, 2016
Jun 19, 2016
Vigil
Jun 19, 2016
Jun 19, 2016

In Street Photography, X-E2, Archive 1 Tags carnival, huddersfield, x-e2, fuji, fujifilm, 18mm, 18mm f/2, 35mm, 35mm f/1.4, home, street
← American Adventures in Kodak 120Undergrowth →

Latest Posts

Summary Block
This is example content. Double-click here and select a page to feature its content. Learn more
Featured
May 13, 2025
Porta
May 13, 2025
May 13, 2025
May 6, 2025
Etiam Ultricies
May 6, 2025
May 6, 2025
Apr 29, 2025
Vulputate Commodo Ligula
Apr 29, 2025
Apr 29, 2025
Apr 22, 2025
Elit Condimentum
Apr 22, 2025
Apr 22, 2025
Apr 15, 2025
Aenean eu leo Quam
Apr 15, 2025
Apr 15, 2025
Apr 8, 2025
Cursus Amet
Apr 8, 2025
Apr 8, 2025
Apr 1, 2025
Pellentesque Risus Ridiculus
Apr 1, 2025
Apr 1, 2025
Mar 25, 2025
Porta
Mar 25, 2025
Mar 25, 2025
Mar 18, 2025
Etiam Ultricies
Mar 18, 2025
Mar 18, 2025
Mar 11, 2025
Vulputate Commodo Ligula
Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025

Powered by Squarespace