Yesterday saw Liverpool’s main day for celebrating the coming Year of the Ox with the traditional lion and dragon dances together with accompanying firecrackers.

It’s been a few years since I’ve spent the day in Chinatown during celebrations mainly because, well, when you’ve seen the lion dance a dozen times it kinda gets a bit samey.  This year is different because it’s my first Chinese new year with a DSLR and it was an opportunity too good to miss.

Something new to me was that the surrounding roads had all been closed for the celebrations.  Presumably, this had something to do with the Capital of Culture year drawing in a larger volume of visitors and it also made it much easier for the parade to make its way around all of the Chinese businesses on the outskirts of Chinatown.

Also new was the appearance of a fun fair rides and the numerous displays and stalls, but I have to agree with Zak in that they were the lesser attraction on the day; a bit like the discarded, token salad you get with a takeaway curry.

The event was well-attended, but not jam-packed which meant that there was plenty of movement of the main crowd as it followed the lion dance up and down Berry Street and Nelson Street.  There were plenty of opportunities to be had for candid street photography, but I’m still not well-practised enough to take advantage of every one that comes my way especially as I was primarily focussed on the performers.

Movement around the crowd and getting right up to where the action was was difficult.  An unpredictable subject matter, people and structures getting in the way also didn’t help matters.  So, even though I almost filled two 8GB cards most had at least one big issue I just wasn’t happy with.  The light was also very contrasty with sunny skies combined with dark shadows from buildings and shiny costumes.  All in all, very challenging, but also great fun!