2016 Portland Pride
Staging Area on SW Couch St.
2016 Portland Pride Parade
My blog is pretty useful. I read what I did Last Year and worked a similar schedule. Unintentionally, I left the house 15 minutes late - at 9:45 am. I again parked at the SmartPark at Galleria but skipped the stop at Target. I arrived at the parade staging area at 10:15 - only 5 minutes later than last year.
This year, instead of staying with my group prior to the start of the parade, I wandered up the park blocks to check in on other groups - and to take pictures along the way. I did run into a number of people - from my church, from SMYRC, and from other groups I’d been in contact with. Even though my chats were fairly brief, I did find I needed to scurry back to my group just before the parade started. The time got away from me.
For more than a week I’d been monitoring the weather forecast… and thankfully the hot weather got shoved out one day, giving us a perfect 62°F sunny start ramping up smoothly to 72°F at 2:00 pm. One could not ask for better weather.
My lessons from last year included not shooting the backs of people and not trying to do wide-angle shots. I decided to force a constraint on myself and shoot at only one focal length - 58mm. Pictures this year would be a challenge. Unlike last year, this year I got ahead of my group and photographed them from the front as they passed by. I did that in four different spots along the parade route. But sometimes I jumped back into the group so that I could walk with my tribe.
It was a loud, boisterous parade by the participants and the onlookers. A joyous energy was everywhere. Walking the route was fun - and like last year we finished in 35 minutes. It was 11:45 when we reached Waterfront Park. Instead of immediately going into the Festival, I stayed outside for 25 minutes, mingling with the crowd and taking a few pictures here and there. With a suggested donation of $7 to enter the festival, many marchers and onlookers chose to stay outside in the unfenced portion of the park.
Around 12:10 pm I entered the festival area. For 15 minutes I wandered and took pictures. But then I decided to stop and eat lunch. I got myself a slice of pizza from Firebox Food. It was quite good.
Lunch
Portland Pride Festival • Waterfront Park • Portland, Oregon
After lunch I stopped at the Ben & Jerry’s stand and got a free dish of ice cream. They gave us a choice of two flavors, and I chose Empower Mint. Yum!
After eating, for the next hour I continued to roam through the festival, taking pictures, and occasionally stopping at a booth to check out the offerings and/or people. I didn’t know anyone at the SMYRC booth, but I did chat with an NWGA member at a different booth. I also stopped by the table for the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ. I was stunned to discover that the free rainbow wrist bands they were giving away were imprinted with the URL of My Church. How is it that I didn’t know that my church had made these wristbands? No matter. I proudly put one on my wrist.
UCC Rainbow Wristbands
At 1:35 pm I left the festival throught the south exit and then walked back up the parkway to Oak street, where I would cut over to catch MAX. I stopped to watch the parade. While the parade route turned east into Waterfront Park, cars and larger banners continued south on Naito Parkway. I wanted to see how much of the parade had finished. It was 1:40 pm when the U.S. Bank group came through. They were #105 out of 149. That meant it might take another hour for the parade to finish. Amazing. One of these days I’ll sit and watch the three-hour parade.
I walked over to the MAX stop on SW 1st. Checking the PDX Bus app, I saw that the next train would arrive in just a couple of minutes. Good timing. Interestingly, the same three furries that I saw in the park blocks in the morning were there to get on the same train that I was taking. Coincidence?
The MAX was crowded - and got more packed with every stop. I had to wriggle my way through to the door when MAX had reached Galleria. There was a line of cars trying to get out of the SmartPark, also. I didn’t leave Galleria until 2:00 pm. I got home about 25 minutes later.
It may be a couple of days until I am able to process all the photos. I’ve started… but it will take more time, and my evenings are tightly scheduled. As I did last year, there will be a separate photography post. For now, I’ve posted a few samples.
Photos: 2016 Portland Pride Photo Gallery
Related Post: Pride Photography 2016
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