Gasparilla Pirate Invasion and Parade
This year we decided to watch the Gasparilla festivities from our balcony. They extended the parade down Ashley drive for the first time to end at the new Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park across the street from our building. It was wild being able to see the boat invasion from start to finish, the parade, and the after party/concert (Collective Soul) all from the comfort of our home.
First, here are some blackberry pics showing my setup.
(above) What you see here is basically a wind kit. I switched to a pan-tilt head and lowered it to rest against the leg intersection for more stability. I removed the enormous lens hood from the 70-300mm because it was catching a lot of air. That bag has about five Microsoft Press books in it to weigh the whole thing down. I’m also using a cable release. Live view in tripod mode is what I used for composition. This view also allowed me to zoom in pixel close to adjust focus. Exposure and focus were both set manually.
(above) This was my view for the pirate invasion.
(above) Just as the ship began coming into view, it started to drizzle. Although my camera is designed to withstand light rain, I just don’t like the idea. It turned out the umbrella was also a great wind shield.
Below are the resulting photographs. It was rainy and hazy all day so the images were heavily post-processed to correct. Not my best work but an exercise in armchair photojournalism nonetheless.
Check out the videos below to get an idea of what we were able to hear from thirty floors up. The wind crossing the mic got in the way somewhat, but the band pictured above sounded clear as a bell. At the end of each video you can see the floats coming across the Platt St bridge.
