Novenario Celebrations, Olvera Street, Los Angeles, California, 2005.

This event, which takes place each night for nine nights, culminating on November 2nd, Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), is a blend of pre-Columbian and Catholic traditions and rituals. The procession makes its way around historic Olvera Street, in the heart of Los Angels, to the plaza, passing nine "ofrendas," or alters to the dead. The Novenario is beautiful, exciting, frightening and humorous, a symbolic gathering of both the living and the dead.

Photography Note: I usually favor razor sharp images - typically landscape or architecture - but that's not always possible following fast-moving subject after dark. While I used the flash on my camera many times to illuminate the Novenario particpants, I also tried experimenting with available light alone, and by coming the light from my camera with ambient. Did it work? The decision is up to the viewer.