9. Royal New Zealand Pipe Band Contest
Street Photography
It’s always worth attending the annual Royal New Zealand Pipe Band Association Contest in The Octagon here in Dunedin, especially on a fine day, as we had this year. Dunedin, New Zealand, was settled by Scottish immigrants, so Pipe Bands have special significance here. They are a regular feature at graduation ceremonies and other special events throughout the year in Dunedin.
This year, I paid more attention to the spectators, especially those who were documenting the event on their mobile phones, as many were. The uniforms, pipes, drums, and marching formations all provided an impressive display for still image and video documentation. But the contest is predominantly a musical event.
Although most mobile phones and dedicated cameras are capable of capturing good quality stills and videos, a decent quality audio recording requires a much better microphone than the ones built into our phones and cameras. Aside from video journalists working for the broadcast media, almost no one is equipped with a decent microphone, and we are not set up to record and edit audio. Although Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms can present short, looping videos, the audio track is usually pretty poor. We can quickly swipe through photographs and very short videos, but a significant audio experience takes more time to make an impression. Our time-sensitive culture prefers quick visual hits.
In the act of taking photos and recording videos, we also become public performers. Often, this includes a careful but unconscious choreography. This, too, can be something worth documenting. Perhaps, as I was intently focussed on capturing someone sweeping the scene with their camera as they recorded a marching pipe band, someone behind me was photographing me as I bolted, swerved, and crouched to get a good shot.
Download the photos
The photos in this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand (CC BY 3.0 NZ) license (required attribution: Mark McGuire). You can download the full-resolution original images from here.
What’s next?
I’ve recently been photographing street fairs, road markings, an A&P Show, and signs with nothing on them. I plan to publish a post about one of these topics, or something else, next weekend. You can receive the next post by email by subscribing below.
What do you think?
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I like the row of drummers in the background. I'm sure it was pre-visualized.