Dance Parade

This year the Dance Parade was awesome! Especially since I got a press pass and I could walk alongside the dancers. Once again, I had a hard time choosing between two lenses: the Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 and the Canon EF 300mm f/4L. It was a lot easier to take the photos with the Sigma but soon after the parade started I switched to Canon.  

Before the parade started I had some great opportunities to photograph the preparations: practicing, assembling gear and resting. The huge frog vehicle was a must for me. It came inside a yellow truck and they needed almost ten men to carry it out from there. The place was surrounded with some more interesting looking vehicles: a wolf like bike, two giants ponies, a purple bus and a furry little green car.

The scene was very colorful and festive, As soon as the ribbon cutting ceremony was over, the parade started marching on Broadway and 21st. I caught this cute girl popping her head out from the bus's window and went to look for my favorite act.

During the preparations I saw a Japanese act of two girls covered with the cherry blossom, hanging out with a golden man. They were fantastic and I immediately declared them as my favorites. Although I have been twice to the Sakura Matsuri festival I have never seen anything like it before.

Another one of my favorites was a pink-haired girl riding on a gigantic "My Little Pony". The pony was so big that I had a hard time capturing all of it. Finally, I snapped a photo with my cellphone.

As for real animals, at the beginning of the parade, I saw Oswaldo Gomez, also known as Ms. Colombia, with her African grey parrot named Rosita. Also, I saw two dogs walking in the parade, one of them was a Chihuahua named "Little One". I was told that Little One never missed a dance parade in the city.

The parade was fun as well as exhausting. By the end of it I could barely walk let alone carry my 300mm lens. I packed everything, took the city bike and headed to recharge myself at Shake Shack. See you all at the next Dance Parade :) 

Winter Wonderland

Last week, we had the final snow storm of the season. This time I was fully prepared for it and my route started at Times Square and ended, as always, at Central Park. However, from Times Square I walked downtown, on Broadway, towards Union Square and from there I took the yellow line uptown to the park.

By the time I took my camera out, at Times Square, the streets were already full with street photographers capturing photos with pretty professional gear. It seems like photographing snow storms is getting quite popular in the city these days.

While I was walking through the streets I got the feeling that this is all old news; like I have already seen it before. But when I arrived at Madison Square Park, I was blown away, it was absolutely spectacular. I stood on a bench near the dog run and waited for the perfect moment. At this point my hands were completely frozen because the snow on the gloves started melting and froze again into ice.

I decided to look for a shelter to warm up in but I couldn't resist taking a few shots of the adorable snowmen standing in front of the Flatiron building.

Finally, I found my refuge place in a nearby office building, which also gave me the opportunity to capture the storm from above.

After thawing my gloves and warming up I went to Union Square. In a few hours of snow the place was completely white and the chunks of snow falling down were the perfect addition to this "'winter wonderland" scene.