county fair

Great nights at the Fair!

This summer has been a blur.

Like, a full-out blur.

Between baseball trips, work and a few other things … it’s all of a sudden well into August. Before I know it, back to normal (as much as that can be) with work and everything will start to slowly turn to fall.

I’m not complaining — it’s been a fun summer. But whoa.

Softball is still going on (new league, so a different setup), but if things go well, it will at least end before September.

Baseball has been crazy fun — I’ve been to more than 50 games with still more to come — but it has taken up most weekends and such, so that makes the time go even faster.

I’ve been able to get out with my camera some and have enjoyed it. I haven’t, though, done much in regard to geocaching. In fact, I’ve only found 128 caches this entire year, which is on pace to likely be my lowest count since I started in 2008. That’s not to say that once baseball season ends I won’t get a few great days of caching in, but the summer has not been kind to the finds!

But all of a sudden it’s Fair week in my county. Our county fair is pretty solid and it’s usually a good time. I go once during the week just to experience it, and I am doing that today (though, to be fair, part of it is for work) just to walk around and get some sights and such when I am done with the work part. The weather has been fine for the Fair, which is always a good thing.

Later this month, I’ll be heading to the State Fair (again, work-related for part), which I haven’t been to in a few years. It’s always pretty fun, though. Fairs can be a ton of fun with some great (but bad for you) food, sights and sounds.

So how about you? Do you have any county or state fairs you head to each year? What are your favorite things about the fairs?

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

The fair in full motion!

I never used to be a huge fan of the county fair.

I’m sure, like around here, most areas have their county fairs and their mixed bags of fun and boredom. There’s the same sort of thing everywhere. Animals, art shows, fair food, the midway, a demolition derby or two, concerts etc.

It just never used to be my cup of tea, so to speak. Or my dough to fry, in fair speak.

That being said, the past few years, I always try to get down to the fair for a day. I’ll snap a few photos. I’ll eat some sort of fair food that is grossly bad for me. And then I’ll call it a day.

This year, I went twice. The first was the normal, walk around and all. The second was somewhat the same. But both times, I went with long-exposure photography in mind.

Fairs provide great opportunities for photos. Especially on the midway with the colors and the fast-moving rides or the fast-talking fair workers.

Both nights I went, I had the tripod and the camera with me ready to see what kind of images I could grab.

Both nights, too, without fail — those fast-talking game hosts tried to lure me into their lopsided games by noting if I won, it could be a “Kodak moment.” Sorry pal, I’ll take my chances with just taking photos over your crooked and oblong basketball net.

The top photo is likely my favorite of the week. I set up for a long exposure to capture both rides and decided to jostle the camera throughout the 15-second shot. I really liked how this came out as it’s something I might consider having printed on a canvas. For some reason, I just really think it’s wild.

Below, I have a few more images to share that I took at the fair. The link to the full set of images I took is at the bottom of the post.