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.
To see all my photos from this year’s fair (and eventually more, if I hit up the State Fair), visit the set on my Flickr stream.
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.