February 2014, Part I: Lunar New Year Parade

(I'm almost certain there will be a Part II)

I had a day to myself on Super Bowl Sunday earlier this month, and in the days before, I began looking for something to do. I realized that the Chinese/Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown was being held that same morning. I figured out that I could attend the downtown morning service that Sunday morning and be but a few quick subway stops away from the start of the parade, and a plan was made.

As I went through my experience at the 2013 Pride Parade in my head, I recalled just how crowded and nearly miserable it was at the Pride parade, with so many people jostling for position on the parade barricades for a view (let alone a shot with their cameras); and I specifically remember being at the Pride parade and watching with envy (and exasperation) as photographers walked by on the inside of the barricades along with the parade participants. So a lightbulb went off. I fired off an email to the parade organizers requesting a media pass that would get my inside the gates, figuring I had nothing to lose.

And it worked!

So I set off that morning with the Sigma 50-150mm tele lens on my D7100 and the Sigma 10-20mm on my D40. (In hindsight, perhaps I should have swapped these. Also, I perhaps should have swapped the long tele for the 35mm?). I looked for some tips on shooting parades. The pieces of advice I found centered on filling the frame with people's faces, getting crowd reactions, and walking with the parade route. I only really followed the second one with any consistency. After shooting this first parade inside the barricade, my only insight or thing-to-remember for next time would be to get familiar with the parade route beforehand if possible to know where to (possibly run to) set up for shots; also, while I would encourage anyone/myself to get up in close to people but to keep awareness to avoid collision or embarrassing yourself/myself (I had at least one close call; also, there were other photographers there, some press guys included, and I tried to balancing getting in close to get a shot with not being a douche and getting *in* everyone else's shot).

Here are a few from the set. The whole set, for now, is hosted on my Google Plus page.