Local Squamish drag performers Amy Grindhouse and Sativa the Diva, The Squamish Pride Parade and Celebration.

I spent Sunday afternoon photographing the 2026 Squamish Pride Parade, which was an absolute blast.  Despite being kind of a typically cold, wet and rainy Squamish June, there was a really big crowd and a great turnout for the parade.  Before the pandemic, when I was still the photographer for the Squamish Chief, I’d been to one of the early Pride parades and I doubt they had twenty people for it.  This year most of Cleveland Avenue was packed with both marchers and spectators.

The Squamish Pride Parade is an annual community celebration of 2SLGBTQIA+ pride held in downtown Squamish. Organized by Pride Squamish, the event brings together local residents, community groups, businesses, artists, and allies to celebrate diversity, inclusion, visibility, and equal rights.   The parade features colorful floats, marchers, music, performers, and community organizations. It is designed to be family-friendly and welcoming to people of all ages and backgrounds.

My old friend Squamish Pride organizer Trevor Wulff, who wrangled me into covering the parade.

Squamish Pride organizers Trevor Wulff and Rachel Boguski.

Local Squamish drag performers Amy Grindhouse and Sativa the Diva brought the house down with a little K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Tech Stuff

I used two Nikon Z6 cameras, one with a 24-120mm f/4 S and the other with a 35mm f/1.8 S.  I really love the 35mm, it’s what I used to shoot the portrait of Amy Grindhouse and Sativa the Diva at the head of the blog.  Despite the rain, I didn’t use any special gear for keeping the cameras dry.  Nikon’s have really great weather proofing, so no problems with light rain.

PS.  I got a nice e-mail from a young photographer asking me about the high angle shot of the parade, so I wrote him back with some suggestions.  I thought I would share it in here  as well.

I shot the photo with a Nikon Z6 and a 24-120mm lens, which is basically what I use for 90% of my work.  That’s at 24mm at around f5.6 (I pretty much leave the lens there all the time).  One of the things drummed into me when I was a young photographer was if you’re at an event with a crowd of people, always find a high spot where you can get a shot of the scope of the crowd.  In the UK press, photographers are sometimes called monkeys because they’re always climbing trees.  I’m kind of old to be climbing trees anymore, so I just pulled out the rear screen on my camera so I could see the image without having my face up against the view finder and then held it over my head.  If your camera has one of those artificial horizon overlays, that’s a big help in keep the horizon level.
I do tons of corporate event photography, so all of this applies to doing that kind of work.
Anytime you go to some kind of big public event you want to get.
  • An elevated shot of the crowd to show how many people were there.  Try to find something to tie the crowd to the event, like the rainbow crosswalk.
  • Some shots of groups together to get a feel for the nature of the crowd.
  • Portraits of people in the crowd, preferably with signs or merch to tie them to the event.
  • Any pics of speakers or organizers