Scenes from St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade happened on Sunday, March 15. Drawing an estimated one million people, the parade shuts down Boston’s South End neighborhood and brings countless, mainly young, people into the streets in glitter and green. This year’s celebration was notably subdued compared to past years, due in large part to a significant effort by City Hall to tamp down on underage drinking. The parade was started two hours earlier than usual, the route was reversed, family-friendly zones were set up, and police drones flew overhead to spot incidents and crowded rooftop parties. The atmosphere was still quite boisterous, and crowded streets overflowed with college-aged people. But gone were the BORGs (blackout rage gallons) typically polluting miles of Southie streets after the festivities. At least one other friend I met at the parade noted the comparative quietude.

Photographing the parade was my first significant street-photography outing in months. A bitter winter made long walks tough and emptied Boston’s streets. While the spring and summer struggle is finding images that pass muster, winter’s struggle is making images at all.

I felt the rust in my photos. Faced with endless masses of people, I struggled to find subjects that were interesting and scenes other than the parade itself. My goal was to find images that held promise and disregard any urges to grab random crowd shots and people passing by. I don’t think these images tend to leave one wondering and hold low interest over time. The objective is not documenting the event.

I did not sense that I had captured any particularly special images. I remember thinking that I was glad to have seen friends, met some new photographers, and walked ten miles. I ended up making about 100 pictures during the event. I ended up selecting five that I am living with for the moment.

While documentary in nature, the above image is visually interesting. There is a lot happening in the frame, and the arrangement of subjects is pleasing to my eye. The foreground onlooker adds depth. I believe the store sign saves the image by occupying an otherwise empty sky. I am weary of images with a strong horizon, which gives the eye an escape. I am pleased that I purposely included the sign in the frame to address this.

I like the depth, scale, and composition here, despite the fact that the image is quite plain.

I waited for the person on the left with the backpack to leave, but alas. I like the interesting people, and that most of the faces are at least partly visible. I also like the two people on the left of the frame, creating a second scene.

I try not to mix horizontal and vertical images, but I felt this worked vertically. I like the expression of the woman in the foreground and the interesting expressions of the people assembled on the stairs. I should have spent more time trying to find an ideal frame here, but I’m not sure that would have resolved itself. I certainly would not have gotten this expression.

I like this collection of subjects and the frame. I feel like there may be enough to keep a viewer occupied, finding the faces and objects in the background. It’s a frame that draws one in.

Have you noticed anything about this set of images so far?

If you said that they are all very similarly composed, you’re right! Notice how the subjects in these images are dead-center. They even share an arch-like composition of subjects within the frame. Seeing a pattern in work is not necessarily a ‘bad’ thing, but it should be noticed. Images with very similar composition mean that my eye might be seeking a particular symmetry, which can be limiting. I would not want to sequence images that share very similar compositions because the composition begins to override the subject.

I believe this image is my favorite from the day. While I would have liked to take a few more frames and lower my perspective a bit, I didn’t. This is the best of the two frames I made before being noticed and bruising the scene. I like the arrangement of subjects and the tension on the edges. There is a timelessness to this scene. Multiple generations represented. The children hold wonderful expressions and are neatly dressed. The adults all wear hats. No one but the children notices the camera. One could wonder what these people were discussing, what the relationships were, what was happening here. This, to me, harkens to an earlier time when families sat on stoops and lived life outdoors.

I’ll be sleeping on these and sharing them in the next critique meeting.