Samba America

My short stay in Rio de Janeiro involved a samba show put up at this place called Plataforma and while enjoying the show, I also set about the task of using my new telephoto and see what I could do with it! I wasn't expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this entry-level piece of glass. (Most of the shots below are taken with the 55-200 - EXIF data available on Flickr)

Basically the gist of the show was about the history of Brazil with the Portuguese and stuff like that, so without further ado...

























You'd notice that they look like they are really enjoying themselves while performing and it's like more than a job to them. The normal working class can save up to a few months' pay just to get themselves a dress (that can weigh up to 20kg) for the samba festival every year, after which they will throw the dress away. It is a waste but they pride themselves on having a new costume every year so you can see how much they love this - it's like a national craze no one can wean themselves off (not that it's a bad thing for them and the tourists!).

The Brazilians are easy-going people and you can see this in the fluid and sometimes exaggerated movements on the stage, and they can go from one extreme (fully clothed) to another extreme (almost wearing nothing) as you can see from the different attires. They also flirt very openly and Brazil's a country with the male to female ratio skewed heavily towards the females, so nights of passion are very very common.

Hope you enjoyed this - I'll be doing up the tango photos take I took in Buenos Aires when I get the time to start on them... Been very busy with work but it's fulfilling so I'll try to make it back here as soon as I can spare the time to!

Have a great weekend ahead! (or whatever's left of it at least haha)