a sunday evening bull fight

(we saw some super cool postcards with bull fight pictures and i really wanted to make some pictures that looked like they did. i think i love how these pictures came out.)

so, bull fighting is a lot more complex than one might think. i had no idea what all went into a bull fight- but learned quickly, we saw 6 in less than two hours.

during the first fight i was "humane" and really empathetic towards the bull, feeling so bad for him. and not that i lost any of my empathy, i still felt bad for the huge beautiful bulls that were in the ring and the fact that they were going to be killed, but you start to appreciate the matadors and their "art" or "sport." how can you not appreciate a man who dresses up in tight ornate pants and jacket, wears pink socks, and stuffs his pants (i am not going to draw any attention to his "package protection" here, promise).

so, if you want to know what happens in a bull fight, scroll on. if you don't, don't. i am not offended.

these pics are of three different matadors, all from different fights.

enter bull. his stats are on the board- breeder, birthdate and weight.

the bull that has just entered is pissed and energized. the matador and three banderilleros are in the ring. they have pink and yellow capes and get the bull to run around a bit to tire him out. also, the matador watches the bull to see what he is like.

if he gets too close they hide behind these wood entrance covers. if you can see, to the right of the boards they are hiding behind, there is a gash taken out of the wood from this bulls horns. they are pretty strong to say the least.

after the bull has been run around for a few minutes the band plays a little ditty (they do this at all the transition points in the fight) and two men come in on heavily padded and blindfolded horses. the bull charges the horse and the man sticks a large lance into his shoulder muscles. this weakens the bulls muscles and makes the bull lose a lot of blood.

next, the three banderilleros each stick two banderillas or sticks with barbs on the end into the bull. these guys are brave, they get so close to getting horns in their gut. if they do a good job the sticks stay put, which hurts the bull.

a hurt bull is a mad bull. i have some great sequence shots of some of the bulls doing pawing at the ground before they charge.

the matador comes out by himself now, with a red cape and does his thing. i like to call it the dance. at first he has a sword that is not so sharp, but as it comes closer to the time when he will use it, one of his assistants will bring him a sharp one. this particular matador cut his hand with his during his first fight, it was sort of funny.

then, the matador kills the bull with his sword. they have done a good job when the sword goes all the way into the bull and kills him.

if he has done a good job the crowd cheers. they all get out white hankies and wave them at the commissioner so that he will reward the matador with some part of the bull as a reward.

if he is lucky, the commissioner hangs his white hanky in agreement that he did a good job.

then they will cut something off the bull, in this case an ear, and give it to the matador.

thanks for the ear! the matador then walks around the ring and gets things thrown at him like teddy bears and roses. some people throw hats and he throws them back. this guy got two ears that night. i wonder what they do with them all- do they have a drawer full of them at home that they show to the ladies? are they impressed?

after the fight you leave bullring and cross street to go enjoy some horchata with the old men as they talk about the fight and wish you spoke spanish so you could understand what they are saying.

the end.

more about spanish bull fighting here.