Every year I photograph our local 4th of July parade for the local newspaper. Here are some tips for photographing any parade.

Equipment

For most events, including parades, I use two cameras with lenses. Usually the camera straps hang around my neck and off my right shoulder so they are both ready to go at all times. My Canon 5D Mark III has a 24-105mm lens (my everyday, all purpose lens) and my Canon 7D Mark II has a 70-300mm telephoto lens. (Sometimes I use a 100-400mm lens instead of the 70-300mm lens.) At most events I take more photos with the 24-105mm lens. But at parades I usually take more photos with a telephoto lens.

A telephoto lens allows me to isolate individual subjects, especially at a distance, and it creates an interesting perspective when shooting a long line of subjects extending into the distance. In a backpack I also have two really wide angle lenses, a flash unit, plus memory cards and extra batteries.

Total Photos and “Selects”

Long ago a newspaper editor said, “Take a lot of photos and give me your very best selects.”  “Selects” is publishing talk for your best photos. Most editors don’t want to see all of your photos. They want you to select your very best and they will will pick from those the one they want to publish.

The point is not to be clicking the shutter just to have a lot of photos. You want to make every photo as good as you can make it. Doing you best to take good photos increases the quality of your best photos.

For this years parade, I ended up with:
24-105mm lens – 59 photos
70-300mm lens – 105 photos
iPhone – 2 photos

I usually pick 9-12 of the best parade photos to send to the local weekly newspaper and the paper usually publishes about 4-6 of them. If it is a slow news week, they might publish 8 or 9 photos.

What I Look For

When I photograph a parade, what am I looking for artistically and compositionally?

First, people and faces. It is all about people. I try to get a mixture of ages from adults to young children.

It is important to include people in the parade and people watching the parade. I try to get a good mix of both. I try to get a few closeups that include one, two or three people, photos that show small groups of people, and larger groups of people like some of the crowd all along the parade route.

I look for special moments like people with their hands over their hearts out of respect for the U.S. flag.

I look for action, like the children chasing candy that has been thrown out in the street.

I look for an abundance colors, and since it is the 4th of July I look especially for red, white, and blue. And of course, some American flags. There were dozens of vehicles in the parade and some had no 4th of July decorations at all. As the tractors, 4-wheelers, trucks and trailers rolled down the street, I looked for the most colorfully decorated. They look best in the paper.

Don’t forget to look for unusual angles. When I saw this flag coming down the street, I knew what I needed to do. My experience as a newspaper photographer taught me to look for unusual angles and to be bold enough to get in the right spot. So I ran out in the middle of the street and lay down in the street. The lead flag carriers looked a bit uncertain so I gestured for them to just walk right over me. They smiled and they did. I clicked several photos as the flag passed over me. This is one of my all time favorite parade photos.

Due to the layout of Lamoni’s Main Street and the hills at each end, I try to get some perspective photos that show the length of the parade down the street. Those photos have to be taken from near the middle of the street on the hill downtown near the west end of the parade route, looking all the way back to the hill at the east end of the parade route.

Links

Photo Gear for a Parade

Three articles on choosing “selects”:

How to Choose, Correct, and ID Football Photos for the Newspaper

Trunk or Treat: Choosing The Best Event Photos

Total Photos vs Choosing “Selects”: What Is Your Percentage of Keepers?