West Jordan City 4th of July Parade 2011

For the last few years we've been attending our city's 4th of July Parade it's a fun (although early) start to a long, fun filled day of celebrating our great nation, and spending some quality time together as a family. We always set up at the same place, right at the starting point of the parade. We like this location because it's usually pretty easy for us to get a place to sit, and since it's at the beginning the participants are full of energy, and as a bonus we get the whole thing over with sooner.

I never try too hard to get "good" pictures during the parade as the backgrounds are bad ( gas station, strip mall, grocery store), the light's all wrong, and I'm pretty much stuck in one place, with that in mind here are a few shots I liked and thought I'd share.

The West Jordan Motorcycle squad always starts it off

All lined up and ready to go 3 exp Handheld HDR

The D.A.R.E. car, 3 exp Handheld HDR

Pre Parade sweets!

The Fire Department follows the police, here is Ladder 53 3 exp Hand held HDR

Ladder 53 and some friends, 3 exp handheld HDR

"Killer" Hazmat Logo

Smokey! A serious crop to get rid of the truck he was riding in, Silver Effex Pro2 for B&W conversion

The Chick-fil-A Cow, The whole parade seems like one big marketing scheme!

Finally some action!

In Utah this has many, many, meanings...

Some serious drumming.More advertising! Good thing it was cloudy and cool this year

The local Bike club paraded, some with Cheerleaders on the back,this guy was too cool for that - Ok he had no back seat, but still...

No this is not SR. from O.C. Chopper

A local car club also showed up

He honked the horn after this, yep must be Utah! 3 exp Handheld HDR

"EWWW...", I love pictures taken out of context! But you can't have a parade without a "beauty" queen right?!

I'm  glad that I don't know that girl and that she'll never see this, otherwise I think I would be in some serious trouble.

This year the weather was perfect, 70's, overcast with just a few scattered raindrops here and there. We had a great time, kids got candy, and I didn't get sunburned.

Happy Shooting!