This year was my fifth time going to the Pride Parade in San Francisco. I feel the event has been getting more corporate and less authentic every year. Howevere, this year was a little better, in that there didn’t seem to be as many corporate groups promoting themselves and more members of the LGBTQ community in San Francisco.

I brought only my fixed-lens 28mm camera again, like I did for Carnaval. Because it’s an autofocus camera, unlike my other ones, it’s a lot easier to photograph moving subjects.

Here are Emperor Norton and Lola Montez, who, AFAIK, don’t have anything to do with the gay community, but they apparently like getting dressed up.

I stood next to this woman for most of the parade. She was friendly, and had brought hand-made signs, like this one.

Not sure what the Pride connection was with these performers, but they were colorful.

With a 28mm, the closer people are, the more impact the image has, and the easier it is to defocus the background, which helps at events like this.

At parades and festivals, I’m always deciding whether to make the principal subject small, and show a lot of the scene, or make the subject big. You can see the two approaches in the previous image and the one below.

I almost didn’t go to Pride this year, because I’d already been four times. But I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t, because it happens only once a year, and is too good a photo op to pass up.