The big brew-ha-ha at the Stampede Parade was getting William Shatner to be Grand Marshall.
Trekkers were abuzz. Would he ride a horse? He raises horses. Or will he be in a car? Turns out he chose to ride in a baby blue vintage car with Elizabeth, his beautiful wife and also a horse trainer, sitting beside him.
Now I'm not a Shatner fan. When I was a kid watching endless Star Trek re-runs I always preferred Leonard Nimoy. Still do. He's a generous and classy guy. And a photographer, to boot. As far as Star Fleet captains go, Jean Luc Picard is my number one choice. But Shatner has a reputation for being really pricey if you want a photo of him. I wanted to take his photo to spite him more than anything. Turns out he was wearing sunglasses which made him look like a pudgy bug wearing a cowboy hat.
Making the shot was tricky. I had a small window of opportunity that kept getting smaller with each cop, EMS staff, and parade watcher blocking the way. Only four shots were taken. Only one worked and it's a crop. Still, I wouldn't have gotten even that one if I hadn't scoped out the beginning of the parade route and saw the baby blue car with Shatner's banner on the sides. So when the parade started I knew what I was waiting for.
After taking the shot I walked over to The Bay parkade a few blocks away to take photos of the rest of the parade from the fifth level.
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| This lady was following the "High River Strong" float. High River is still recovering from last year's flood. |
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| Saw this construction worker watching the parade from hight up and thought he'd make a great shot. It wasn't until I looked at it that I realized the Calgary Public Library float was in the background. So I took the shot again to include the "Awesome" banner. |
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| From the Group of Five entry. |
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| Vulcans! |
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| The most fun float in the parade. |
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| A lively pioneer. |
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Rock. I took a photo of him a few Stampedes ago. Glad to see he's back and hope to see him dance.
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| Earlier, a huge tank did a 360 in the middle of the street. This Shriner on a segway decided to have some fun with it. |
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| Now I'm having fun with the tire tracks. |
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| I saw the two smiley guys in the middle and took the shot to show parade goers having fun. During editing though I discovered the boy on the left and the baby on the right both covering their eyes and thought it made the photo even better. |
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| Don't know why, but the military seems to evoke a very patriotic response whenever they parade. A bunch of parade-goers stood up and applauded. These two received numerous thumbs up after doing a smoking 360 in the middle of the street. |
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| When you're a kid it's really hard to sit still for over two hours. These three were fun to watch as they impatiently waited for something to see. |
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| This koala was schmoozing with the crowd. I watched him for a while and then noticed the little boy trying to get the koala's attention. The koala never saw him, but a marching band member did and gave the little guy a hand shake. |
Links:
- William Shatner - Biography
- William Shatner - The Biography Channel
- William Shatner - IMDB
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