Each year, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOP) has a float in the Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. KC’s parade is the third largest in the country! Along with having a float, they also do street evangelism, using video cameras and survey questions.
They put out a call for all sorts of participation, including photography! I was so excited, I signed up the first day! Little did I know that the weather was going to be more suited for ducks than leprechauns. The prediction for the time of the parade, according to the Weather Underground was “Definite Showers. Definite Thunderstorms.” Ugh! For one, I hate being wet. For two, I really can’t get my camera soaked. With a little nudging from Tracy, I went anyway, and had a great time!
For the street evangelism part, we stayed indoors at the Crown Center and the skyways to Union Station in order to keep dry. When the parade started, I had no choice but to brave the elements. I put a plastic bag over my camera and took frequent breaks in the IHOP shuttle following the parade in order to dry off my camera and change lenses. I carried two lenses – wide angle Canon 17-40, and the Canon 135mm. I shot mostly at 1600ISO indoors because it was very dark outside, and at ISO 640 and 800 ISO outside.
Allen Hood doing an interview.
Dave Sliker doing an interview.
Wes Hall interviewing a group of about 20!
Random Reveler. Now that’s some St. Pat’s bling!
A couple of my very fun students: Samuel Hood and Zac Dinsmore.
A couple of crazy cameramen.
This is my favorite photo of the whole day. It really sums up the beautiful, joyful attitude of the IHOPers. Weather didn’t dampen our spirits!!
I have no idea how many showed up to dance behind the float, but it was a lot!
The float is a big green mountain with “St. Patrick” on top, preaching the gospel. Because of the rain, he couldn’t really preach with amplification. I feel bad for our St. Patrick, Justin Perry, because he practiced that accent really hard! I hope he got to use it a lot before the parade.
Rain Dance.
Bad Hair Day.
This is Hal Linhardt, our fearless leader!
I loved how her braids flew around when this little girl danced!
High fiving the crowd!
Kristi Cooper, singing and dancing!
Normally, they have a full band following the float playing a worship song, but the only instruments we could have out today were drums. It still worked. This was one of the drummers.
The end of our part of the parade.
I put more photos on Flickr.