Frozen fingers and parades

I get the feeling this would look good large …

EDIT: This post was linked from Bob Collins’ News Cut on Minnesota Public Radio’s Web site. Cool!

I spent part of my Saturday at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival in Saint Paul, Minn. It was really cold, and the breeze was like … well, it was really cold. But it was still a lot of fun.

I snapped a few pictures around with Katie’s camera (a Nikon D50, still an excellent choice), but was limited by a dying battery and my poor, freezing fingers. Still, I snapped some fun shots and got a decent spot for some parade action.

I got on the curb, quite a bit down from where I wanted to shoot. I had a 50-200 mm lens, so I had plenty of zoom. But it also meant I had to get my shot before the subject came to me. If there was a little more time, I might have scouted to see what buildings and backgrounds/foregrounds looked best, but I think the spot we wound up was quite nice.

It was sunny and nearly cloudless, so I had to crank up the shutter. I was going for the “sunny 16″ rule thing (shoot at f/16 in the sun, basically), but decided I wanted to blur the backgrounds to help the marchers stand out. This resulted in a much higher shutter speed, which also helped freeze the action.

Yeah, the fire kinda contradicts the cold theme, huh?

I wanted to experiment with panning, but it was so cold and so sunny, I don’t think it would really have been reasonable. Oh well, next parade, right? Another thing I might have done if not for the freezing cold is to have sat on the ground for some shots. I could have even experimented with finding a skyway or other higher vantage point to shoot from. In general, the most interesting shots are from angles we don’t see every day. But this is not a rule that always applies!

Anyway, after about 10 minutes of the parade, I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, and it was time to head home. I really need to get some mittens …

Watching: Everything is Illuminated
Listening: The Talking Heads