This one is a bit out of the time line, but hey, it’s also a bit late in the day. This is one picture (and probably the best defined) of people doing their best to hit the camera.
Some background: I’m 6 feet tall, and at the time, 200 pounds. I’m also standing on a step ladder, so let’s push that to 9′. So, in and of myself, I’m not exactly easy to miss.
Add to this, most of the time, I’ve got a 70-200 F2.8 L ISM lens mounted to a Canon 5D Mark II with the battery grip, and 580 flash on the top. It looks like a medium sized missile array launcher. Multiple frames, WITH the flash firing, means that just about every head in the parade swivel towards the second Sun that has suddenly appeared on the horizon.
So… I became quite the target. This gentleman was quite kind, as he simply tried to ring the lens. We had very large bags of beads hurled, and practically everything else. I think we ended up throwing some of our clothes away simply to fit the beads and throws we received into the van for the trip home.
The other point of this picture was that I burn a TON of flash memory during these parades. We are heading back down for Mardi Gras this year, and I’m considering bringing an additional terabyte drive or two for the weekend. So, it’s always fun when I find a shot like this during culling.. where you thought you got it, but weren’t quite sure, and then, you notice a well defined ring of beads heading straight down the muzzle of the camera.