Festival (Photograph)

Every Spring on Memorial Day weekend the annual Alma Highland Festival takes place in Alma, Michigan on the grounds of Alma College. I try to make this pilgrimage every year as my family has a lot of heritage in Scotland and I enjoy the bagpipe music. The weather every year seems to be the same—cold clear air but full strong sun. Or maybe I just pick the good weather years to attend. But it always seems to be prime weather for the first facial sunburn of the season.

This picture was taken at the 2007 games and is quintessentially bagpipe competition for me. From the well manicured lawn, to the careful gate of the pipers, to the quiet expectancy of the onlookers and judges I think this photo catches the ambiance well. The full sun also seems apparent in this photo as well. Some might want to correct more for this in the photo than I did but I wanted the sense of possible sunburn to come through in the picture.