Photographed guards with snake in parade (8)
I believe the answer is:
showboat
'parade' is the definition.
(behave in way to draw attention)
'photographed guards with snake' is the wordplay.
'photographed' becomes 'shot' ('shoot' can be a synonym of 'photograph').
'guards' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are guarded).
'with' becomes 'w' (short for with).
'snake' becomes 'boa' (boa constrictor, type of snake).
'w'+'boa'='wboa'
'shot' going around 'wboa' is 'SHOWBOAT'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for showboat that I've seen before include "Musical featuring "Old Man River"" , "Jerome's work" , "parade" , "Floating theatre - musical" , "Floating entertainment" .)