Feria de los Países – photographing the parade in Fuengirola

Deliberate gear constraints

I do not work as a professional photographer. Street photography is a hobby for me, but when an opportunity like this comes along, I cannot pass it up. Travelling light, however, has its limits and compromises were unavoidable.

I brought a Nikon Z6 II and only two lenses: the Nikkor 35 mm f/1.8 and the Nikkor 85 mm f/1.8. I left the wide angle at home and took nothing longer, even though I have been using a telephoto a lot lately. I skipped zooms, which in theory offer more flexibility (day to day I use technically excellent glass, but none of it is faster than f/4). I did not even pack ND filters. Instead of a camera bag or photo backpack, I experimented with a Think Tank Pro Speed Belt v3.0 and Lens Changer 25 v3.0 pouches.

Why tighten my options this much? I wanted to focus on finding emotion, interaction, and colour – rather than wasting time choosing the perfect focal length or fighting a heavy backpack.

The starting square

The parade sets off from the town hall at Plaza de España. I arrived early alongside the Puerto Rico delegation. Nothing has officially started yet. Last-minute choreography rehearsals, costume adjustments, trucks, platforms, cars, and floats being prepared. The square buzzes with energy.

For a photographer, this is a goldmine of backstage frames. People are not yet fully absorbed in the march, which makes it easier to get close and catch details.

An interesting observation from the middle of the chaos: when you go out to photograph an event like this, forget about being an invisible observer. You are one of the few people without a national costume or flag. Participants spot a camera in the crowd instantly. On the other hand, nobody makes a fuss about it.

The route

Once the parade started, I began hopping every few hundred metres between groups. That is when the real fight began.

Thousands of spectators line the route. In places they stand four or five rows deep. Either you push to the front and fight for space, or you settle for photographing the backs of the people in front of you. When you finally squeeze into the front row, reality hits. The background can be terrible (signs, poles, passers-by), the Andalusian sun burns mercilessly creating deep, harsh shadows, and so much is happening around you that your brain stops cooperating.

It is easy to fall into FOMO here – ending up with a mental gallery of great frames you never managed to shoot. You are afraid of missing something and start running in circles instead of taking pictures.

Pick one spot. See where the light falls, what you have in the background. Mount one lens and wait for the frame in the space you have chosen. Do not chase a better vantage point – you usually will not find one. Work like a wildlife photographer: settle where something interesting might happen and wait. Maybe it will, maybe it will not. There were also stops along the route where TV crews stood on raised platforms. Each nation performed its routine there.

The grand finale

The route ends at Recinto Ferial. Here the river of participants and spectators spills into the individual pavilions. The march turns into a series of smaller and larger parties. The light changes, the dynamics change.

Gear after the battle – what worked and what did not

The hip belt and pouches were a bullseye. In a crowd there is simply no room or time to take off a backpack. I swapped between 35 and 85 mm almost on the run. The Think Tank belt is thick, stable, and very comfortable (it did not loosen, even with more gear hanging from it).

Bright primes in southern sun forced a specific way of working. No ND filters meant no chance for longer exposures and motion blur tricks. I could, however, freeze action at will with a wide aperture.

What was missing? I definitely felt the lack of a wide angle. When the action happens half a metre from you, 35 mm is often too tight. A telephoto, on the other hand, would have helped flatten perspective and show the true mass of people from a distance.

Still – no regrets. The setup was enough, and working within tight constraints felt refreshing.

In my final selection, the wider perspective won. About 70% of chosen frames come from the 35 mm lens (some lightly recropped in editing), and 30% from the 85 mm. The apertures that stand out in the stats are f/1.8, f/4, and f/5.6. Interestingly, half the images were shot at shutter speeds faster than 1/2000 s!

The Nikon Z6 II performed well, though in the most dynamic, chaotic moments I felt a flagship AF system would have forgiven me a little more. Someone with a typical reportage mindset would probably have squeezed even more out of this body.

Takeaways

• Primes work well – 35 mm and 85 mm pair nicely, especially since the resolution of these lenses allows comfortable cropping as if shooting at intermediate focal lengths.
• The hip belt and lens changers are excellent. I recently had a holster with body, lens, and tripod on the belt (about 3 kg total) and it handled it fine.
• ND filters – for stills, missing them limits longer exposures. For video it is a real problem.
• Wide angle and telephoto: I see the lack of that gear in the images I brought back, but on site I think it would have caused too much chaos. Unless I had a second body.
• Calm is strength – do not chase what you missed. Focus on anticipating what will happen next.
• Bring something to drink.

See also the photo gallery from the fair.

More about the event and official routes can be found on the Ayuntamiento de Fuengirola website and in the local press (Málaga Hoy).