James Pratt

Photographer, Writer, Storyteller, IT networking professional

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OKC’s Martin Luther King Jr. Block Party

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Unofficial Martin Luthor King Jr. Parade at 23rd and MLK Blvd in Oklahoma City.

Once again I attended the Martin Luther King Jr. “unofficial” parade in Oklahoma City at 23rd Street and MLK Blvd. The “official” parade was in downtown Oklahoma City and lasted a couple of hours. This “unofficial” parade was more of a block party celebrating the freedom and vision of MLK and started well before noon and was going strong when I left at 5 pm.

To paraphrase my good friend Tommy Bolton, the downtown OKC parade was for the politicians, and the block party at 23rd and MLK was for the people. And the people wanted a party!

Camera & Lens

I took these pictures with my Nikon Z6 camera and used an old manual-focus Nikon 135mm lens primarily from around 1975. I took a few of the wide-angle photos at the bottom with a modern Nikon 40mm Z lens. I got a lot of practice with manual focus on this day.

The unofficial parade was full of burnouts, horses, four-wheelers, and lots of partying up and down 23rd Street.
Nobody got parade permits or lined up for a parade. People just “run what they brung” and drove up and down 23rd Street to the cheers of the crowd.
There were plenty of horses walking up and down 23rd Street and MLK Blvd, mingling with the crowds and the traffic. The horses had to be pretty calm because of all the noise, burnouts, and loud music.
People brought out their cool cars for the event.
The streets were lined with spectators. There was little if any police presence despite the huge crowd. Everyone was there to have a good time and no trouble at all from anyone.
My favorite is always all the motorcycles.

Subjects

4x5 film 4x5x365 agriculture Amazon Web Services bicycle Bill Dragoo BMW Brass Ball Bobbers combine Darwin Motorcycles dirt bike drag racing Edmond El Reno film Fortinet Guthrie Ilford Delta 100 Ilford Delta Pro 100 Ilford HP5 Jeep John Deere Kawasaki Kay Pratt Kodak TMAX-100 Lexington Micha Young motorcycle New Mexico Nikon Norman Conquest Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma Living Oklahoma Living Magazine Oklahoma Today Ride Oklahoma South Canadian River Thunder Valley Raceway Tombo Racing Tommy Bolton Toyo 45A Toyo VX-125 wheat harvest Wrangler

About James Pratt

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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Subjects

4x5 film 4x5x365 agriculture Amazon Web Services bicycle Bill Dragoo BMW Brass Ball Bobbers combine Darwin Motorcycles dirt bike drag racing Edmond El Reno film Fortinet Guthrie Ilford Delta 100 Ilford Delta Pro 100 Ilford HP5 Jeep John Deere Kawasaki Kay Pratt Kodak TMAX-100 Lexington Micha Young motorcycle New Mexico Nikon Norman Conquest Oklahoma Oklahoma City Oklahoma Living Oklahoma Living Magazine Oklahoma Today Ride Oklahoma South Canadian River Thunder Valley Raceway Tombo Racing Tommy Bolton Toyo 45A Toyo VX-125 wheat harvest Wrangler
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