Starlight Parade, Redmond. 

The intimacy of 6th Street in Redmond and its festive decorations offer a great backdrop for the Annual Starlight Parade. This sights and sounds of this charming small town event provides both fun and challenging night photography opportunities for both dynamic parade photography and street photography.

"Meet You There" Outing. Instead of ride sharing to the destination, this will again be a "Meet You There" event. This allows more flexibility for you to come early for festivities in Centennial Park before and/or after the parade.

The Holiday Village Market is held in the Plaza at Centennial Park from 10AM to 4PM. It is on the corner of SW 7th Street and Evergreen Avenue.

The Starlight Parade runs along 6th Street in Redmond between Dogwood and Forest and begins at 5pm. Sunset is at 4:28pm. Anticipate the prime shooting locations on 6th Street to fill up fast. I plan to photograph just South of Redmond Hotel as seen in the photo above. No recommendations at this time on best places to park.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

??:?? PM Come early for the Holiday Village Market, Centennial Park
04:30 PM Find a good spot along the Parade Route
06:30 PM Rumor says Santa will be in Centennial Park after the parade
??:?? PM Return home

PHOTOGRAPHY CONSIDERATIONS

Equipment Choices. Camera phones have become so good in low light situations that results can rival images made with DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Switching off your flash and turning on your night mode settings will be important keys to success.

Night Moves. With parade photography and street photography portraits, expect movement to occur. When combining these conditions with low lighting, expect to make necessary adjustments to increase the ISO on your camera (e.g., 800-8000) with wide open shutters (e.g., f2.8, f.4) to achieve a faster shutter speed (1/100th, 1/250th) to capture movement without blur. Shallow depths of field can also create nice bokeh effects in the right situations. Remember it is easy to remove noise than blur.

White Balance. The camera’s white balance settings will affect how the bright colors are captured. Different schools of thought range from using the auto-white balance to using tungsten (light bulb) settings to capture the more colors from iridescent bulbs. If photos are taken in RAW, adjustments can be made later. If not shooting in RAW, check your settings and test your results. Personal preference and artistic interpretation in the end determine your settings. If you can customize your white balance temperature settings, cooler settings (e.g., 3000 kelvin) might be a good starting point.

Flash off. For the most part and best results, make camera adjustments to maximize the ambient event lighting and disable the camera’s flash feature.

Tripods/Monopods. Due to limited space, monopods will be preferable if you have one. Otherwise, a tripod can still be used for support without spreading the legs fully.

For More Information. Here are a few links covering things to think about when photographing holiday lights. Please keep in mind the extra challenge of photographing moving subjects found in the Starlight Parade.

http://easybasicphotography.com/holiday-lights.html
http://www.boostyourphotography.com/2013/12/holiday-lights.html?m=1
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/christmas-light-photography-tips/