Parade Shoot

Friday nights rolls around.  One thing leads to another and a little (lots of) partying goes down.  Somehow I set my alarm for 8:45am and woke up feeling (not) great.  I had a newspaper shoot about 30 minutes away that started at 10:30am.  I HAD to go.  Although I didn't feel like it, I was NOT going to be a typical "all fluff no stuff" SOU student and bail on a commitment. A little tylenol here, a little water there, and a cup full of hot chai/coffee later, and I was on the road to a Chinese New Year parade.  I got there a bit early and things worked out.  I think a great way to get rid of a hangover it to occupy yourself with something else and straight forget about it.  Here are some shots I thought were interesting though they may not be of the parade itself. 
These were right next to the "white", "black", and "mexican" rubber duckies. JK.
Stylin' bag piper.
(Eminem says) "Segway's back...back again."  If you look very closely, his eyes are closed.  ridiculous.
This one goes out to Mr. Randalls.  
I don't know why I took this picture but when I got home and looked at it, there was more than meets the eye.  I thought it had a real cool feeling to it.  Can you see what I'm talking about?
spectators
No Chinese New Year parade is complete without the dragon.
There were lots of llammas (or alpacas I dont know the difference) there.
..... puke.  What is he doing with that nifty little dragon?!?! The parade was over too!
hehe
Alan Wong, from San Jose.  Nice guy.  He must have played this drum for hours.  I bet he'll be sore tomorrow.

"my precious..."   (no, not at the parade) 

So, this was a very good experience.  I'd say I learned quite a bit.  I was too much of a wuss to shoot "M" mode like I usually do.  Things changed too fast!  I usually chilled in "P" mode.  I don't like Pentax's Autofocus.  I also probably bombed the job from the newspaper's point of view because I got sooo involved with taking pictures, I forgot to get names of people/organizations.  Lesson learned.  I was also thinking about the Leica M8 rangefinder this weekend.   Quieter shutter would be sooo cool a few situations.  

This year I have been so out of touch with the mountain I didn't even realize the Rail Jam was today.  I had been looking forward to shooting that for a long while too. I felt I'd like to prove myself since last year's performance.  No snow = no snowboarding = LAME!

Keep it real.