It now marks one year on the calendar since last year’s Mermaid Parade. This time, I DO have that 85mm f1.8 lens that I wished I had last year. That AND a new Camera body. I’ll be rocking the Canon 60D for its first tour of duty during the parade. The forecast predicts clouds and spotty showers for tomorrow, but I’ve got my rain gear so I’ll be alright if we get wet. The 60D has a weather sealed body, interestingly enough.

This year I arrived 2 hrs before the parade start so that I’d have my choice spot. I was pretty early last year too, but ended up standing next to and just a little bit behind another photog with what seemed to be all of his kit with him in a rolling travel case. He was tall, and a smoker… not choice pickings.

The 60D’s menu is quite different from the T1I, and I needed this kind of event – with its marching patrons – to pose a challenge to my menu navigation and my subject tracking abilities. I didn’t try to use the sunny 16 this time , there wasn’t enough light to feel comfortable in manual at one setting. In fact, it took me quite a while to dial in settings that yielded good exposures, but the clouds were probably more a factor than my clumsy menu navigation. After a period of balanced and consistent light output from the sun, I had my stride.

Closing remarks :

This year the parade was a bit gummed up. Several moments the parade stood still because there were too many contestants waiting to be judged further up ahead.  This meant there were folks standing in front of us for up to 3 or 4 minutes at a time . In one way, this represented a fail on the part of those who set the pace of the route. However, during those pauses there was time to capture the floats and costumes ( or body paint ) .  But even this was tricky and frustrating;  with so many people packed tightly in the street there was hardly the chance to focus on individuals by themselves. Even with my 85mm or 70-200mm lens it wasn’t easy. I heard that the press passes were just $5.00 – maybe it’s worth investing if I shoot the parade again.

Check out the pictures from the 60D :

You can check out some more of the parade images I shot here on Flickr or on my home page photo gallery ( where you can purchase non-watermarked full resolution downloads)

Related articles on the web

• Sunshine & Poetry (editrixabby.wordpress.com)
• The 29th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade (laughingsquid.com)