We are jumping back to an event I shot at the end of October 2024. Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration, is a big deal in Austin, and the downtown parade has been going on for 41 years. I’ve attended multiple times over the years, and it’s a great opportunity for street photography.

I’ve been featuring a lot of photographs with the Leica D-Lux 8, but I didn’t use that camera. This event took place before I purchased it in December. And even if I had the compact Leica back then, I wouldn’t use it for this event. I was there to make the shallow depth-of-field portraits and to catch the fast-action dancing during the parade. The D-Lux 8 is not well equipped for either of those types of photography.

I brought cameras, both Sonys equipped with Sigma lenses. My primary was my newer Sony A7C II paired with the Sigma 85mm f1.4. My secondary was the Sony A7C with the Sigma 35mm f2. The two focal lengths gave me a wide and telephoto combination.

I made all these portraits with the Sigma 85mm f1.4, except for this one. Notice that the depth of the field is not as shallow. The wider angle also has a different distortion profile. Most evident is the distracting background on the left. However, I liked the portrait and the outfit, so I included it in the post.

Although the outfit is not as elaborate, this is my favorite portrait. I like the cheerful, smiling look, which makes it look less scary. Plus, the pink outfit contrasts beautifully with the blueish background. Best of all, the background is far enough away, and at f1.6, it’s all a smooth blur.

I made this portrait with the same settings as the one above. Notice how the background is not as defocused. There are two reasons for this. The people in the background were closer to the subject, while I was further away. The positioning of the subject relative to the background and the camera makes a significant difference.

It wasn’t always possible to shoot wide open at f1.4; the light was bright, and the Sony A7C II’s mechanical shutter tops out at 1/4000. Surprisingly, Sony has no settings that automatically switch from a mechanical shutter to an electronic one. It’s cumbersome to change manually and takes too much time. I opted to stay with a mechanical shutter for the entire event.

I made this last portrait at f1.4, but the background looks more cluttered than I like. There’s not much I can do with people standing close by other than move the subject, which I didn’t want to do. These were fast portraits I made during the pre-parade preparations. I shot many others, including groups. However, I narrowed it down to these five for your viewing pleasure.

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