There are two lunar new year parades in Chicago. These images are from the "south side" Chinatown. I am a lazy photographer, lol. I went out only twenty minutes before the parade was to start so I did not have a good spot from which to shoot. I must confess. I have not been to this parade since I was a child. So when I started the editing process I knew I wanted to use some film presets for a "retro" look. Only problem is that digital grain doesn't look exactly like film emulsion, but hopefully the mood comes across in my images.

I actually got a good spot for the lighting of these strings of firecrackers. Switching to the Fuji mirrorless camera system has been great. I can use the LCD screen on the back of the camera to shoot shots like this. I just stuck my arm up in the air and looked at the screen. I never shot with live view when I was in the Canon SLR system. I like the people across the street covering their ears.

Most of the time I spent at this spot I had to look through a window such as this. I need to be a little taller!

I was shooting pictures of Chinese members of the American Foreign Legion parading by when this gentleman walked into the scene. I included the image because I like this character.

I like it when the guys swoop the dragons down toward children in the crowd. Some kids delight in it and some show apprehension like the little girl in pink below.

I will forever have the lion dance drum and gong beat in my head.

I don't have great images from the parade, but it was still hard to keep the number of images here to a limit. I don't want these photo essays to be very long, but I don't have a very good reason for that either. I'm still trying to figure out what this blog is supposed to be.

Click images to view on black.