The day after the big show, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC, there are local Macy’s-sponsored parades all across the country. I happened to be in PDX for the 2009 Macy’s Holiday Parade. My niece’s school band was marching (hey, she’s first saxophone!) – thus my presence – and a rare beautiful day in PDX at the end of November prompted me to record (and thus share) a few images.
The parade began at 09:00 PDT on Friday, November 29, 2009. The route started at the corner of NW Park and NW Davis, ran down Davis to SW Broadway, then turned south and ran down to SW Alder. From there the route turned east and ran down Alder to SW 4th Avenue, where it then turned back north, and ran all the way up to NW Flanders, turned back west, and ended where Flanders crosses Park.
Those of you who sometimes check in on this blog will recognize that I’ve been trying to challenge myself with something other than my traditional interests. I’m never gonna try to be a press photog, but the attempt to capture a couple of representative images was quite a lot of fun.
And of course you get it all at this sort of event… Marching bands, clowns, dancers, and if you’re lucky, they’ll even include the princess of the rodeo.
Here’s a bit I never quite got – the Holiday King and Queen. I’m pretty certain that this set up is not in the official rule book, but was added back in the 1920’s as some sort of marketing deal. Anyway, here’s this year’s royalty – looking, well, pretty royal…of course.
No Holiday Parade could be complete without an official visit from the big guy, Kris Kringle. Okay boys and girls, it’s officially time to amend your wicked ways and be seriously good, in the hope that Kris gives credit for last minute effort – myself, I’d be preparing for that lump-of-coal Bob Dylan Christmas CD…
All images were recorded using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED. Shutter-priority capture (+/0/1 one stop around 1/400s), ISO 3200 (mostly).
Tags: Macy's Holiday Parade, PDX
Great shots of the parade! The light was great and you captured the vibe of the day quite well. The shot of the Sax players was top notch. Good work
Hi B,
Thanks for the note. Yeah, a grand day out. Really kooky. Here’s a funny factoid… I stood about a meter from the curb – out of the way of the procession, but in clear view of the participants. The ladies politely pose in the most lovely fashion – once you get their attention, you got ’em for 10 seconds or so. The gents, forget it, they ignore you – even Kris Kringle! I had to really work that sax shot. I had it all clearly visualized, but it took a lot of shots at many angles to isolate the 1st sax. The color and contrast worked out pretty naturally.
Cheers,
P.