The Fair! Be there!

Last night was my second round at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair. It's been about ten years since I've attended. Nothing's changed. But this year I had a new perspective on it, a world brought into focus by my Nikkor lens. With my tripod slung around my back, my photographer friend Rigo and I set out to shoot.

Our first stop of the night had nothing to do with photography. I'd been craving Elephant Ears since the fair arrived. After carefully eating the fried treat, and trying desperately to keep the powered sugar from falling on my D60, we left to our next stop, the giant Ferris Wheel.

I've been wanting to make an HDR image for some time. When I saw the wheel, I thought this might be a good first try. I wanted to catch it in motion, so I set up my tripod and snapped away. Below are the resulting shots, compiled from five separate exposures each.



Right around the corner from the Ferris Wheel were the bumper cars. I tried some shots with my SB-600 trying to bounce off the rides ceiling. This didn't work out too well. Instead I decided to try a photographic technique called panning. Panning is when you shoot at slow shutter speeds while following the subject with your lens, resulting in a blurred background and in-focus subject. Easier said than done. I was very satisfied with my results at the bumper cars.


But not so happy with the shots I took at the neighboring merry go round.


I still like the photo, but wish the horse could be more in focus. It was a hard capture because I had to sync with the left and right motion of the plastic beast as well as its up and down movement.

That's about it. I wish I could have gotten more good shots, but not bad for the first time shooting at a fair I think. For the full set of pictures on Flickr, click here.