Dragon Boat Festival, Funan River, Chengdu June 6, 2007 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn
As much as I feel sorry for the duck I feel good about this picture. I'm very satisfied with it: Great lighting, action, humor (sick humor), emotion and composition. So why is the guy in the water strangling a duck? The annual Dragon Boat Festival is held on the Funan River here in Chengdu. At the very end after the dragon boats have competed there are humorous competitions like tug-of-war until the loser boat sinks and....a number of ducks are released (actually thrown up into the air)...and whoever catches them first gets to keep them. Most of the ducks looked quite shellshocked (or dead) when they were finally man-handled to shore. An unhappy ending to a very good day.
