Photographing A New Orleans Second Line

What actually happens when the brass band steps off, and how to plan the parade so the photographs hold the whole thing.

The second line is the loudest, fastest and least repeatable part of a New Orleans wedding day. Once the band steps off, it does not stop and it does not reset.

The moment worth planning for is the step-off itself: the doors open, the grand marshal raises the umbrella, the band hits, and the couple comes out into the street. That happens once. Everything around it — the handkerchiefs, the crowd folding in, strangers on the sidewalk joining the parade — keeps going for the length of the route.

Route length is the main planning decision. Four or five blocks is enough to build and end well. Longer than that in August and the parade becomes an endurance event, and the photographs start to look like one.

Permits are required for a parade with a band in the street in New Orleans, and the band or planner usually handles them. It is worth confirming who is filing, because the police escort and the route are tied to it.

Timing-wise, second lines photograph best in the last hour of daylight or fully after dark with the band lit from the front. The in-between — bright, high sun — is the hardest, because the umbrellas cast hard shadows over faces.

The wedding day timeline page covers where the second line usually sits in the order of the day.