August ended with my most favorite festival to photograph, Pride. This year's Pride Parade and Festival, held Sunday August 31st, seemed even bigger than most. It was also more colorful and family oriented (with lots of kids and dogs in the parade). It was also more fun, with the parade partakers doing their best to get the parade-watchers participating. I even got lassoed.
There was lots of action during the Parade, so much so that you almost just had to point your camera anywhere and shoot. I was focused on the woman in front, but love how I also caught the smiley guy waving the big Canadian Pride flag in the back.
While not a great shot, I include this one because of the hand edging towards the cop's firearm. The things you don't see until you edit.
My favorite photo I took. Then again I have a thing for really good looking firemen. Are there any other kind? During fire alarms at work a colleague and I almost coin toss to see who will be the one to meet the cute fireman in the stairwell.
Arh! Gotta love pirates.
Beautiful two spirit.
Even disabled puppies walked the Pride Parade.
This person was intent on lassoing me... and roped me good, too.
These two kids were great fun to photograph. They had great poses and engaged with the parade walkers in great colorful fun.
I didn't stay long for the Pride Festival, maybe a couple hours. It was hot and my style of chasing a parade to catch everything kind of tired me out.
On the way home I walked along the north bike path and caught a bunch of river surfers having fun with the waves near 10th Street Bridge.
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| This shot was chosen a PhotoRepublik Photo of the Day. |
There was a small crowd watching along the shore. Listening in I heard the following conversations.
"That looks dangerous."
"They could hit their heads on the rocks and die."
"You'd never get me to do that."
Which is why they were on the shore and not having fun surfing.
Further along I caught the tail end of the BBQ on the Bow event at Eau Claire Market. I wanted to try some catfish from the Blues Can truck, but they were sold out. Did see a really good blues band, though who were trying to get the lethargic audience dancing. I guess food and footwork don't go together 'cause the dancing didn't happen.
On Monday I got the chance to shoot the Tour de Nuit Ride the Road event. I got an email on Friday or Saturday as a reminder. Which was a good thing, because when I email chatted with the promoter earlier in the year they said they were going to move the event from June to August. I thought I had missed it because Carifest also moved their event from June to August. After I agreed to shoot I had a "what the hell am I thinking" moment. There are actually three rides involved with Ride the Road; a north spoke, a south spoke, and two main rides (one for kids). I'd only been on my bike once all year. This is gonna kill me, I thought, but I couldn't say no.
For this one I took two small cameras; the Pentax Q and my old Canon Powershot G10 as a backup. The Q was great for shots during the cycle from Tuxedo Sports to Stanley Park. The camera was slung close to my chest and I shot left handed with a kind of thumb action. I had no idea if any of it worked until editing time.
Finally, a big deal this week was the unveiling of the new Central Library. Almost 1100 people turned out to a free ticket event at the TELUS Convention Centre to see what the new Central Library building will look like. Once we got past the half hour of excruciatingly boring government official speeches, the presentation was really good. Chris Demeanor tried his best as host to make the whole thing entertaining, but even he poet-performer extraordinaire couldn't make the city officials or the young people reading essays at the end interesting.
Craig Dykers (Snøhetta) - Bill Ptacek (Library CEO) - Rob Adamson (DIALOG) answer questions at the unveiling of the New Central Library designs. This was one of those shots that I am really glad that I took several times. I could have stopped at one, because at a glance I thought I thought it looked good (great expressions, well exposed lighting). Then in editing I noticed in most of the shots Mr. Ptacek had his microphone held straight up from his crotch. Granted, the new Library building is exciting, but not that exciting. Actually, I think Craig Dykers looks a little sexy in this shot, but a nice sexy.
And here are some of the design drawings projected to large screens, shot with the Canon Powershot G15 using night time mode. Click on the photos to see them in larger sizes.
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