Aloha Festival Parade - 09/28/2013

It seems like it's been forever since I've been to a mid-morning parade. I'd forgotten about the heat, bad lighting and did I mention the heat? I got to the parade a little after 9am, but found out they haven't even blocked off the entire Kalakaua Avenue yet. Anyway, I staked out a spot that wouldn't block anyone and was kinda shady. What I learned was that it doesn't matter if you get there early, because people coming late will come and sit right in front of you and you just hope they don't block your view when the parade starts. The second thing I learned is bring a zoom lens. There's no way you can get shots w/o tons of people in your shot. With my 70-200mm, I got tight shots and cropped out other photog that stood right in front of me. And lastly, the midday sun is horrible!! The brimmed hats, the raccoon eyes the uneven shadows..I got them all. When I first looked at my shots, I was really disappointed, but thank goodness for PSE 11 with the magic wand and shadows and higlights (in levels), I was able to recover a lot of them.  I spent an hour shooting then had to leave.  Even though it was short, it was a great learning experience.
Finally, waiting for almost 45 mins, the parade started.. This is the first time I've seen maile lei on the motorcycle patrol.

Can you spot the person NOT with a camera?  hmm.. People with all kinds of cameras and cellphones, ran into the middle of the street to capture just the right shot to post on their Facebook or Instagram.. There were some of the most aggressive photogs I've ever seen..

This is one of the few parades with real floral floats.  I love the colors of this parade.

This was one of the many shots I rescued.  My original shot was so dark under the hat I could hardly see his face.  After some simple work, I can even see the color in his eyes. I think even using a flash can't help since he was pretty far away when I shot it at max zoom.

I had wanted to have pics where the background was blurry and was told that I have to shoot at max zoom.

One of the reason I wanted to check out the parade was to see the original crew of the Hokulea.

And of course, there's always lots of marching bands.  This one is from Moanalua High School.

Most of the shots had to be close, else I'd get people in my shots.