Red Cathedral

Do you enjoy the baroque Venetian carnival costumes of the " Carnevale di Venezia "? The costuming group " Regards Vénitiens " travels every year from Namur to Venice to showcase their own costumes. But since these costumes are too much work to stay in the closet an entire year, they make it a habit to have parades, photo walks and photoshoots troughout the year. Last weekend they came to visit Bruges, the city that was named " The Venice of the North " in the Middle-Ages. And they were besieged by a legion of photographers & photoclubs. Who can blame them: it have been 2 strange years for events & shoots. For me it was the 1st event-test for the new Sony A7IV There are 3 short videos on Clapper: Video 1 Video 2 Video 3 And a load of pictures on Flickr .  Some Samples: . .

Every February Bruges may officially name itself The Venice of the North for another reason than the Reien (= city canals ) & the bowbridges who vaguely resemble the sinking Italian city-state. For one day the masked elegance of the carnaval parade takes over the streets. Not a carnaval like it is usually celebrated in the Lowlands, but a Venetian style citywalk. Is it pretty to behold? Absolutely. On top of that, this year the weather changed into a bright sunny weekend after 14 months of gloom & rain. Even better! Still this might have been my last visit to the event because it has become simply too crowded with dozens of photographers, entire photoclubs & a tenfold thereof in pushy cellphonographers. So I shot only a few stills, am - as usual - only satisfied by a handful - but that's typically me - and had that crazy Geert not stopped me, I would have walked away after only 1/3rd of those shots. So yes, the introvert part of my abivert personality is getting...

Every season Pairi Daiza, Le Jardin des Mondes , hosts special events. The festival of lights & carnaval have brought some light to the dark season.. which is probably not a very good thing for the resident animals.. but it was a blessing for us humans fearing the Dark of Winter . .  A photo gallery: The fire show was by Pyronix Productions & the beautiful Venetian carnevale costumes in the Dome are from Regards Vénitiens . Both splendid! The only 2 things I found a missed opportunity during the 3 weeks of Carnevale were: 1. The teams of costumed people were only to be found in the Dome and at the entrance. Please let them roam the entire park and how wonderful would it be to have them in themed costumes from the different regions in the park.  2. Organise a (1) Fully costumed visitors enter for free -day.. or for a reduced price. For us with a season's pass it doesn't change much, but imagine all the great pictures in the gorgeous archtitecture of the ...