May 7, 2008

Loyalty parade pix

This last week was Loyalty Days week here, which is a holiday that celebrates the flag and other "all-American" sort of things. You can read about the history of the holiday HERE Basically, it was started in the '20s as a counterbalance to Labor Day, which was perceived as communist. Apparently Long Beach has the longest continually recognized celebration in the US.
There is a variety of events that take place, but the big ones are the kids parade in Ilwaco on Saturday and the big parade through Long Beach on Sunday.
You can see a gallery of pix from the two HERE
Here are some pix I liked from over the weekend:

This is by far my favorite shot from the weekend, and the funny thing is I didn't even realize all the elements as they were taking place. I saw the mother and two kids with the matching flag jackets and kinda hung out beside and behind them for a few minutes. As the tractor guys were coming through I started shooting like this but didn't see what the guy on the tractor was doing until my edit. I love surprises like this. Click on the pic to get a better look.

At one point during the big parade I went up in the Long Beach Fire Dept. bucket truck to get some aerial-type shots and saw this kid sleeping on the grass in one of the little downtown park areas just off the parade route. I call this one "Parade Malaise."

The Astoria Clowns at the Kid's Parade Saturday.

I also shot a feature on the IHS marching band — you can watch an audio slideshow from the story HERE

Here are some of the pix I liked from the story:






While practicing on Friday the band marched out to the highway to get some practice time on a real street


As we got to the end of the route it was discovered that trumpeter Andy Schott had been carrying on with a bum heel after his shoe rubbed it raw early in the route, so Jason Huntley carried him briefly as his other bandmates give him a round of applause. Check out the Curt Schilling-esque bloody sock!

-DKM

1 comment:

Michael said...

Saw your stuff on NPPA's site, and I just had to go check out more of your work. Loved that photo of the trombone player running up the stairs. Thought all three were well done. That portrait project one made me smile. Keep up the good work.