Despite chilly temperatures and overcast skies, this year’s parade was as beautiful as ever. A celebration of music and cultures, Carnaval is one of the most joyful annual events in the bay area. It’s also one of the most colorful. Scantily costumed women are among my favorite subjects, but with smiles as infectious as the Latin rhythms, the children always steal the show.

For photographers who want their shots to look like these, here are a few tips from thedude.

1. Engage your subjects. Peek out from behind the camera. Make eye contact. Smile. Wave. You will be rewarded.
2. Move in close. At an event like this, it’s almost impossible to get wide shots. There is just too much noise in the background. You could use a longer lens, but this is a lot harder to work with. Your chances of producing an in-focus image without motion blur drops significantly with focal lengths over 150 mm.
3. Use a flash! No matter what the weather is like, you will get better results at an event like this one with a flash. Set it to underexpose slightly in flash-fill mode. The flash will do a couple of important things for you. It will soften shadows, which can be very important on sunny days. The flash can help give more consistent color-balance and it will create nice specular highlights on shiny objects like costume jewelry. Best of all, the flash will put a twinkle in your subject’s eyes. See them sparkle? Beautiful.