Parade Photography

[FocalFrenzy]

Corners on the parade route are an excellent opportunity. Most of our parades don't have yellow tape or barriers, just alot of lawn chairs. What I have found handy is to set up a 2 or 3 step stool (light weight and easilly folds for moving), behind the chairs so that I am shooting well above the onlookers. I'm out of the way, and my flash doesn't seem to bother those in the chairs. Another plus, is that a flash from a height of 8 to 10 feet, will make parade members look at you, giving you some great face shots.

[Cheezman]

I was thrilled with my photos of Munich's Oktoberfest parade this year when I decided to take my long lens (70-300 zoom). This allowed me to fill the frame with the faces of individuals in the parade, rather than try to get shots of an entire band or whatever the particular group was passing by. Parades are groups, but I found that day the drama was in the joy and the concentration on the individual faces that I plucked out with the zoom. Another advantage of the long lens was a lot of shots with shallow depth of field, again highlighting the subject. Also, don't discount the cops as subjects. They are focussed on their work and their faces reflect this and they are worthy subjects too. Finally, when I did shoot a large parade group, it worked best for me if I slowed down the shutter speed a bit to catch some motion, for example with a group whirling large flags around. If you can position yourself in front, you should get the people in focus while the actions of their hands, feet and props are blurred. Oh, and really finally this time, if the costumes are colorful, I got some good shots just framing the legs of the group, in sychronous and colorful lock step motion. Good luck!

[Cheezman]

Here's the link to the photos mentioned in my comment: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zilavy/...7607429194281/

[Greenosity]

I just recently got some nights shots of a parade here. It was the "Parade of Lights" and I didn't want to use a flash because I think that would have 1) annoyed everyone trying to watch, 2) defeated the purpose of the parade of lights: the Christmas lights were a main attraction and a flash would have made it look unnatural. Obviously, I wasn't too obtrusive either as I have several shots with people's heads in the frame but I had to stay with my children and didn't want to block the view of other children by getting in front of them. I did try to pan along with the movement of the floats which helped reduce motion blur on many of the shots.

[BobC]

My longest lens is 200mm. Don't know if i'll be able to get that clsoe. Thanks for all the suggestions. Will post the best in my flickr when i get make on January 6th or shortly thereafter

[dhart]

Originally Posted by askj113

I also like the sitting on the curb suggestion, interesting idea.

Took me awhile to get them up, but here is the perspective from the curb:






these were taken with the 18-135 kit lens