Yesterday was the Annual Downingtown Good Neighbor Christmas Parade, and once again, it appeared to be a big success!
The weather was definitely warmer than last year, with the temperatures in the low 40s, and mostly overcast. (Several members from the Flickr groups I belong to, also expressed delight with the warm weather!)
Madison and I were the only ones from our family that were able to go. Logan was coughing way too much for Mom to allow him to stand around outside. (Our whole family, plus many other folks I know, have been fighting this dreadful lingering cold…)
We headed downtown around 2:15pm, with the thought of trying to avoid the hassle of trying to find parking, and to get a good viewing spot.
As we got closer, there did not appear to be much of a crowd, which made parking a breeze.
We walked from our spot at the Downing Center lot, and headed over to the center of town.
As we arrived, there were some people already there, with unfolded chairs and blankets, but not as many as I would have expected with the parade starting so soon.
We decided to walk around, and ended by stopping into the Minquas Fire House, where the Christmas Committee was hosting an Open House with Cookies and Hot Drinks.
After a few minutes of warming up inside, and some cookies, we talked back down town, and eventually staked our claim in a little spot near the Rt. 322 intersection, almost the same spot as last year.
As we waited and watched, we noticed a group of parents and kids gathering to the right of us, in front of the Coffee Cup, getting ready to perform.
As the instructors started to move the littlest members onto the street and into position, things started to get a little strange.
To the left of us, you could see that the police had already stopped the Rt. 322 traffic from turning on to the main parade route, but several Township vehicles and Police cars were still driving up and down Rt. 30.
At one point, a fast moving township pickup truck seemed as if it was going to run right into the little performers sitting in the street!
Needless to say, the spectators were getting a little agitated with what they were seeing, causing one parent from across to street to yell out: “Guess they did not get the memo!”.
Leaping over the Streets (007)
The little dancers were easily cleared from the street without problems, and one of the adults from the Studio, did walk down the street, and confront an Official to confirm that it was okay to continue, and she was assured that is was.
Several minutes later, another unmarked gray police car drove back down the street, causing the kids to once again to scamper of the street, sparking an even more satirical comment “One more time!” from the same parent as earlier.
Getting a better view (047)
Finally, the Studio was able to continue without incident, and thrilled the crowd with their various dance routines.
On several occasions, with the music playing and the dancers jumping and spinning, children from the crowd entered the street and joined the performing Dancers.
As the performances continued, proud parents and children moved to the street to get a better view of the action, including one child, who seemed to just want to take a nap!
After about 30 minutes, the whole Troop gathered on the street to finish their performance.
The Finally – All hands on Deck! (053)
Now it was time for the Main Event!
The Start of the 2010 Parade! (058)
The celebration of the Holidays, is to look back to the past…
Old Fashion Steam Fire truck (142)
as well as what we have today…
Some of Downingtown’s Fire Trucks (119)
as well as trying to remember the innocent’s of youth…
“Hi There!” (072)
§ § § § §
“Look at that!!” (100)
and good food! (Think these pretzels are big enough??)
“I know I can finish this…” (039)
and our animal friends…
Apologies to the Commissioner! (065)
as well as the music of the season…
One of Santa’s musicians (080)
and the array of colors!
The Season of Colors (077)
or the First Family of the Holiday’s, that help to bring it all together!
Santa and Mrs. Claus (155)
Happy Holidays to all!
Additional Images of this Event can be found on Flickr
I have been meaning to write this blog entry for some time now, but as I am waiting for my bread’s second to rise…
As many of you know, I have been involved with Photography for over 35 years now, and I started with a simple Canon Canonetrangefinder from my dad, which Canon introduced in early 1961.
At some point in the late 1970’s, my Dad purchased a Canon AE-1, which was the family’s first Single-Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, and slowly, I was allowed to use the camera, which opened up new avenues in terms of different lens, the elimination of parallax errors and easier and more accurate focusing.
The summer after graduating high school (St. Andrew’s School, Middletown, DE), I worked as a Life Guard, and used the money that I earned, to finally purchase my first Camera, a Canon A-1!
I had allot of fun with that camera! It went every where with me, including Ithaca college.
In the Fall of 1983, during a Photography Field Trip to Watkins Glen, I was jumping around the base of one of the Falls, when the neck strap broke, and I watched my camera slowly sink to the bottom of the river.
I was heart broken…
Fast forward to early 1984, I had left Ithaca, and was working a Freelance Photography Assistant in the Philadelphia area, and during this time, I got to work with allot of different camera, and learned what I liked and did not like, and finally earned enough money to buy a replacement.
So what did I buy?
This time, I went for the top, and got a Canon F-1!
Now I was able to really play!
Lens, Motor drives and even drop-in replaceable Focus screens!
Needless to say, I was VERY happy!
Some more fast forwarding…
One of my first jobs after college, I worked for Kodak, and during this time, I was introduced to one of the first digital cameras, which was still a prototype, and a major issue, was the “Depth of Field” when using a flash, or should I say there was none!
In the fall of 2003, just before the birth of my daughter, Madison, we bought our first digital camera, a Canon PowerShoot A70, which was mostly used to capture the first moments of Parenthood, but quickly lead to the desire for something closer to a traditional film based camera.
Once again I was very happy, and was burning through allot of “film”!
As I used the camera more and more, one of the first things that was beginning to drive me nuts, was the Auto Focus.
In a majority of the times, it was fine, but as I got into certain situations, the Auto Focus could easily be fooled.
One can switch to Manual Focus, but without the “split screen” focus, it is nearly impossible to really be sure that your subject is actually in focus.
This past summer, I was involved with a Flickr Forum discussion on the lack of being able to really use the manual focus on today’s camera, when a fellow Forum Member, asked if I was aware of KatzEye Optics’ replaceable focus screens.
After reading their website, I am very intrigued, but at the same time, very cautious.
The bottom line is, there is an alternative to what is available, and I just wanted to let other folks know about the possibilities.
If have already make the conversion, I would really like to hear what you have to say, so please post a comment or send me an email with your experience!
As we continued with our Flickr-mail exchanges, and as I started to investigate her Profile and Links, I found out that Kim also runs the “365 Things to do in Chester County” on Facebook, which I have been a Fan of for a long time, and have used the suggestions to figure out stuff to do with the kids!
Kim and I agreed to talk more after the Holidays, but hopefully, sometime soon, you will read about my suggestions of what to do!
