Happy New Year everyone. It is New Year\’s Eve 2015 and today I went back out to Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale with the hopes of being able to photograph some of the completed floats for the 2016 Rose Parade before they were moved to Pasadena. While I have been photographing the construction of the floats over the past week, I have focused a lot on the City of Torrance entry for obvious reasons, but New Year\’s Eve is also the day that I meet up with the representatives of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC). Usually I meet up with them at the Rose Bowl, but this year the Miracle-Gro float was also a certified California Grown float, so I went earlier to meet up at Fiesta; it was a good move.
As fate would have it, they were actually judging the floats so all the floats were pretty much completed. That was the thing, when we were last there I mentioned to Tanya that I thought some floats were running behind schedule. Today there were a couple floats that still had scaffolding up for decorating. This was true at the Rose Bowl as well, so maybe the number of volunteers to decorate was down. I do seem to recall seeing more groups in the past.
I was also lucky enough to run into our recently retired chief of the Torrance Fire Department, William Racowschi, so I was able to get a couple photos of him and his fire-fighting buddies by the Torrance float. The City of Torrance thanks him for his service. Continue reading
It is New Year\’s Eve, and the time is up for the preparation of the floats for the 126th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade with will begin at 8:00 AM on January 1, 2015. I began my day by heading back out to Irwindale and Fiesta Parade Floats, the leading award winning float-builder in the Tournament of Roses Parade.
I lucked out today as I happened to arrive at Fiesta Floats after they had begun removing some floats from the building they were built in, giving me the ability to take some photos without dozens (or hundreds) of people vying for position to take their photos. If you have been following the progression of the float construction you can see that the Torrance entry dedicated to hometown hero, Louis Zamperini, came out very nice. It will be one of the first floats in tomorrow\’s parade. Continue reading
The running community is a pretty tight group; if I had any doubt about that before, the events of the past few days, culminating with the Unity Run Pasadena, erased any doubts I may have had. These photos were taken today at the Unity Run Pasadena, a 5K which was held today at the Rose Bowl; the event included members of at least 16 different running clubs in the area as well as individuals that came from at least as far away as Riverside participating to remember the victims of the Boston Marathon 2013 terrorist attack.
As events unfolded in Boston on April 15, John Beatty, vice president of Pasadena Pacers Running Club in California, was at work and already thinking that he had to do something to get local runners and their supporters out running again as soon as possible. He wanted to put on an event to show some unity in the running world. He decided a 5K (about 3 miles) would be a nice run that people would not have to train for, and he knew that a lap around the Rose Bowl would be just right. The problem is that the Rose Bowl can only have a certain number of \”events\” per year, so this would have to have less than 1,500 participants and a few other rules to abide by. By Wednesday evening, they had been given the green light and the Unity Run was formed on Facebook. Continue reading
These photos were taken Saturday at Lot I of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. Every once in a while, when I photograph a place or event, I will submit an accompanying article to CNN\’s iReport. I have a pretty good idea ahead of time whether or not they will find it suitable for use on CNN and I have a pretty good track record of getting vetted. I know that they have liked my photos from Candy Cane Lane and my coverage of the 123rd Annual Tournament of Roses Parade so it made sense for me to submit a pictorial using photos from my visits to Fiesta Parade Floats showing the preparation of some of the floats for this year\’s Rose Parade. While I was not surprised to be vetted, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my article was named an Editor\’s Pick which resulted in the article being placed on the front page of CNN.com. As one might guess, this resulted in a lot of exposure for both the article and me. Of the thousands that read the report, one was a representative of the California Cut Flower Commission (CCFC).
In my CNN report I had mentioned that my access to Fiesta Parade Floats had been cut off for the float decorating and that I was seeking a float sponsor that could provide me with a media pass. The CCFC contacted CNN, got my contact information and contacted me with an offer to come photograph the decorating of the float being entered by Cal Poly Universities at the Rose Bowl Stadium. They also provided me with some background information that they felt I would find interesting enough to write about; they were right. Continue reading