A Personal Amateur Photography Blog
It’s the 4th of July in Columbus, which means….Doo Dah!
This years motto is Slaying Political Dragons with Satire Since Dark Ages of 1984 (The Official Flyer is below)
This can mean one thing – the fun, silly, strange, weird and wonderful people of Columbus are marching in the streets. With the same bad national joke for the last 2.5 years the political satire was less, but still lots of photo ops were there for the taking.
As with any week spent in the city, you always run across interesting sights.
Starting with the Puerto Rico Day Parade
The view from the Roosevelt Island Tram
A Public Art exhibit on the High Line.
Brooklyn Subway Station Details – those familiar with the area will notice it is actually from two different stations.
Staying in Brooklyn – Barlay’s Center Arena.
A cool art deco power substation for the subway in Greenwich Village
Park Avenue just north of Grand Central Terminal.
Hudson Yards
The Alexander Hamilton House
And finally – the Apollo Theater in Harlem!
The fun continues at Parade the Circle.
The annual Parade the Circle in Cleveland puts the camera on overload! From the hundreds taken 40 are worthy of a posting, so it is split into 2.
This year’s theme is Mythology of Illusion.
Part 1
New Orleans does parades better than any other city in America, possibly the world. For Mardi Gras season alone there are more than 75 parades.
Making the props and floats for the parades is a big business. The largest company in this industry is Kern Studios.
In 1947 Blaine Kern was hired to make a float after someone had seen his work on a mural. From there the business took off, not only for New Orleans parades, but other cities, as well as Universal Studios and others.
Housed in a 300,000 square foot warehouse along the Mississippi River, the company produces amazing props.
It is here they come up with the idea, and with some creative construction methods, build their visions.
Today most are made out of Styrofoam, covered in paper mache.
From this base, and with talented artists they complete the huge pieces.
The final floats are massive. Because the Mardi Gras parades can last hours they even have porta potties hidden in the middle as the float participants can be on them for 5 hours +.
Below are some examples of their finest work.
Mardi Gras World is a fantastic photo op.
RDZ Photography 