the morning rain finally stopped by around noon, the time when the honk parade was just about to get started. li and i left around that time as well, walking down to porter square. i normally watch from elm and beech, so it was my first time seeing it from beech and mass ave. it was the perfect photo condition, with a diffused grey light in the sky and just enough moisture on the road for a little shine. i let li borrow my old canon XT camera mounted with my 70-300mm telephoto lens. it was too much for him to handle, not used to being only able to take far away photos, so i put the stock 18-55mm lens back on.

we didn't have to wait long before the procession came down beech street around 12:20pm. the mayors of somerville and cambridge led the parade, but somerville mayor joseph curtatone stepped aside once the parade route entered cambridge on mass ave.

after most of the procession had passed by, we continued walking towards harvard square. while i had no qualms about walking in the street, li was more hesitant and kept to the sidewalk.

eventually we made it to harvard square. though it was crowded, i think the threat of rain kept some people away from the annual oktoberfest festivities. we sat down to people watch a bit (including seeing a performance artist), before returning home. i left for belmont soon afterwards via bicycle.

patriots didn't play this sunday (they played on thursday) so there wasn't an urgency to get home and catch the game. there was still some football on television but i had no vested interests in any other teams. at some point i went outside and picked off all the orange habaneros so i could turn them into hot sauce. for dinner we just had rice porridge.

later in the evening i checked out some of the photos li took of the honk parade. it was weird viewing the parade from a different POV. as far as composition, li doesn't really have an eye for photography, though i have to give him some slack since it's only his 2nd time using a dSLR camera. part of that might have to do with the lens he's using, which doesn't have the reach of my 18-200mm or the 70-300mm (for parades, you really need a telephoto). i pulled the EXIF data of his photos (approximated 500) and here's what it revealed: 28% of his photos were taken at 18mm, the widest focal length. second highest was 18% at 55mm, the other end of the focal range (maximum zoom). 28mm 6%, 27mm 5.5%, 22mm 5%. when i do my own photos (approximately 1000), i'm more spread out. the largest percentage of my photos were taken at the maximum zoom of 200mm (10%), with the next highest being 40mm (8.4%), followed by 60mm (7.9%), 18mm (5.6%), and 50mm & 70mm (tied at 5.3%).