Shooting a parade / street festival...

[Scuzi]

St. Paddys day is coming up, 17th of March to be exact and I will be spending the day in Belfast with my camera before hitting the bar. There is going to be a bit of a street festival and a parade with floats and whatnot. I'm going to start planning ASAP as I want to get it right.

Has anyone any tips for taking photos in this sort of environment. I imagine there will be big enough crowds but I will be going down early to scout the place out to see where everything will be. I'll be bringing two lenses with me, the 17-40f4L and the 70-200f4L to go onto my 400D.

I have an idea of the type of photographs I'd like to take but I'm always willing to take advice. I imagine there will be quite a few candids of the crowd and the people taking part as well as some wider stuff.
Can anyone give me any tips or point me in the direction of examples?

I can't wait :D

[Dark Star]

I can't help I'm afraid as I've no real experience of this sort of thing but I'll be very interested in any advice given as I'd love to try this kind of project one day!

[petemc]

Best bit of advice, don't be afraid :) Try not to feel nervous if you point the cam at someone. Don't be afraid of increasing the ISO.

[Scuzi]

Best bit of advice, don't be afraid :) Try not to feel nervous if you point the cam at someone. Don't be afraid of increasing the ISO.
I've been trying out some candid stuff recently, more with the aim of getting over the nervousnes of pointing the cam at someone rather than with the aim of getting a good shot. The more I do it th more I find myself focusing on the shot rather than worrying about what they think so hopefully I'll be grand by the day :)

With regards to upping the ISO, the 400D is best under ISO400 but it is acceptable at 800. I suppose having a sharp but noisy shot at ISO1600 is better than having a blurry shot with a bit less noise.

I'll take that advice on board, thanks :)

[petemc]

Shoot in BW and noise = grain. Soooo nice :)