County Fairs are Great Fun to Photograph

[fike]

I captured a bunch of nice frames at our county fair last weekend.  There are always so many opportunities to photograph people and bright lights and smiles and food and excitement and terror and etc....  I also noticed a photo blog about Greg Miller's photos of county fairs. I wasn't fond of his interpretation...he managed to make such a wonderful institution look so sad and desolate.  Maybe that was his point, but it didn't resonate with me. Slate Behold Photo Blog about Greg Miller.

Here is one of my favorites from our fair.


Here is the set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/sets/72157635123630103/


... and Rob C. here is one for you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/9541150454/in/set-72157635123630103

[RSL]

Very Martin Parr, Marc. I know some people don't like Parr's work, but I like it very much, so that's a compliment.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Very nice. You caught the body language of all the participants at just the right moment.

[seamus finn]

I love this stuff - nice work.

As an aside, like or hate this guy Greg Miller, there is tremendous depth in those pictures, something profoundly insightful and slightly disconcerting.

[Rob C]

... and Rob C. here is one for you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/9541150454/in/set-72157635123630103

Thank you, that was thoughful!

Always thought that female was the better gender. Have you noticed how much more confident they generally seem to be in public situations than the males?

8-)

Rob C

[fike]

Glad everybody likes the fair photos.  Barring a nice city park, county fairs and farmers markets are easy pickins' for great street photography. They have everything...preoccupied crowds, colorful backdrops, smiling faces.

[Peter Stacey]

Nice colours fike. All around a good set of photos.

[RSL]

Glad everybody likes the fair photos.  Barring a nice city park, county fairs and farmers markets are easy pickins' for great street photography. They have everything...preoccupied crowds, colorful backdrops, smiling faces.

I love 'em too, Marc. It's been a while since I've been able to get away to the state fair, but here's one from 2007. It was a real grab shot and I ended up with some artifacts from the post-processing, but I still like it.

[Iluvmycam]

Op Very Nice!  Beautiful color!

I also like shooting at the street gatherings. My little / dinky town does not have much street ops, but the fairs bring them all out. I will send in a few.

[Iluvmycam]

Very Martin Parr, Marc. I know some people don't like Parr's work, but I like it very much, so that's a compliment.

Never heard of him. I looked him up. I liked a lot of his work.

Why the hell would someone not like his work? Maybe an anal studio photog or some macro devotee. He does outstanding work! I saved a few of his pix to put in my 'guest photog' portfolio.

I would like to have seen his book 'Fair Day'

[Iluvmycam]

I love this stuff - nice work.

As an aside, like or hate this guy Greg Miller, there is tremendous depth in those pictures, something profoundly insightful and slightly disconcerting.

Never heard of him. I looked Miller up. He is so-so. Nice clean work, but lots of boring stuff.

I am a street / doc photog. I like things a little more interesting than Miller's work. (But I only looked a few of his shots and lost interest.)

EDIT...I looked at Millers fair work and I really liked it. But it is a mixed bag with Miller. Lots of boring plain jane portraits. I just have to sift through his work to find what I like. But this is how it is with many photogs. We seldom like everything they do. But with Parr, I like a lot more of his work over Miller. Both are great photogs in cany case.
 
I'm glad photogs are shooting more street color. I hate all the crappy BW street that is just that...BW crap. Very little of it is any good. They seem to think they are really producing something when they go to BW. But there was never anything there to start with whether color or BW.

I prefer hyper real HDR for street. But back in the day I shot lots of BW.

Here are a few of mine from some fairs...

http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/693477-copernican-heliocentrism

http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/693479-the-strutters

I love shooting kids. But nowadays your a pervert if your caught shooting kids on the street.

http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/721151-the-lost-princess

This one is from a little different type of fair...but still a fair!

http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/693488-pole-dancer-ross-county-ohio

http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/693483-homage-to-diane-arbus

I was going to shoot at the Twins festival in OH. They wanted $1200 for credentials to shoot there. So that fair got busted.

[Iluvmycam]

I captured a bunch of nice frames at our county fair last weekend.  There are always so many opportunities to photograph people and bright lights and smiles and food and excitement and terror and etc....  I also noticed a photo blog about Greg Miller's photos of county fairs. I wasn't fond of his interpretation...he managed to make such a wonderful institution look so sad and desolate.  Maybe that was his point, but it didn't resonate with me. Slate Behold Photo Blog about Greg Miller.

Here is one of my favorites from our fair.


Here is the set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/sets/72157635123630103/


... and Rob C. here is one for you: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailpixie/9541150454/in/set-72157635123630103

I liked Millers work. Yes, desolate, but that was part of what I likd about the shots. The first shot with the hoops looks like he used Alien Skin Bokeh Focus on it. What do you think?

BTW, great thread you started!

[Iluvmycam]

The more I look at Millers fair work, the more it looks posed. What do you think?

[fike]

The more I look at Millers fair work, the more it looks posed. What do you think?

the article says he is using an 8-by-10 view camera, so YES definitely staged scenes within a probably authentic landscape.  There isn't much spontaneity in photography using that kind of camera.  The scenes are highly staged and the subjects appear to be manipulated to accentuate that empty feeling he seems to love. 

[Iluvmycam]

the article says he is using an 8-by-10 view camera, so YES definitely staged scenes within a probably authentic landscape.  There isn't much spontaneity in photography using that kind of camera.  The scenes are highly staged and the subjects appear to be manipulated to accentuate that empty feeling he seems to love.  

WOW, I'm glad of you actually read the article and just don't look at the pix like I do!

His work looked pretty high grade. I thought he may use MF digital. Never thought about 8 x 10.

Sad my bubble was burst when you told me he used a view cam. He is no street photog then, he is a studio photog doing phony, staged work. Maybe he has reflectors, lights, assitants, models, a script, makeup, hair people, fixers and all sorts of BS.

Maybe not?

But with phony, staged work you never know what is real and what is not.

Here is the rundown on them...

Documentary photography is the highest and most noble of all branches of photography. The doc photog does not have a cushy studio with a couch, fridge and A/C to work in. The doc photog does not have the benefit of professional models, an art director, assistants, secretary, makeup artists, hair artists, fixers, location managers and a truck load of strobes, cams, reflectors, diffusers, tripods and the rest.
 
The doc photog cannot rely on endless takes and retakes, post process artists and Photoshop levitation bullshit to get the image. The doc photog must go far and away from home and comfort, whether freezing cold or boiling hot.
 
No matter what pestilence or disease is at hand. With bullets flying, bombs blasting, the doc photog goes out in the field and brings home the goods adopting the charge of the light brigade…“Theirs not to reason why…theirs but to do or die.”
 
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/syria-in-ruins/100402/
 
I am proud to be following humbly in the footsteps of the greatest camera men and women on the planet…the documentary photographer.

[Justan]

This work is more like a pop art painting than other traditional fair photography I've come across before.

Color, composition, time of day, subject and on and on all superb.

Very nicely done!

[Rob C]

Here is the rundown on them...

Documentary photography is the highest and most noble of all branches of photography. The doc photog does not have a cushy studio with a couch, fridge and A/C to work in. The doc photog does not have the benefit of professional models, an art director, assistants, secretary, makeup artists, hair artists, fixers, location managers and a truck load of strobes, cams, reflectors, diffusers, tripods and the rest.
 
The doc photog cannot rely on endless takes and retakes, post process artists and Photoshop levitation bullshit to get the image. The doc photog must go far and away from home and comfort, whether freezing cold or boiling hot.
 
No matter what pestilence or disease is at hand. With bullets flying, bombs blasting, the doc photog goes out in the field and brings home the goods adopting the charge of the light brigade…“Theirs not to reason why…theirs but to do or die.”
 
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/syria-in-ruins/100402/
 
I am proud to be following humbly in the footsteps of the greatest camera men and women on the planet…the documentary photographer.

You make it sound almost holy; have you heard of the condition known as 'war junkies'? You also seem to forget there's nobody at home pushing a gun to their heads: it's their buzz, their turn-on.

Mad as hatters.

Rob C

[RSL]

War photography has reached the point where it's mostly a collection of clichés. It all started with Matt Brady and his cohorts, moved through various small wars to Robert Capa during WW II, then onward with Capa to the French in Vietnam, on to Nick Utt and the napalm girl, and ultimately to Eddie Adams and General Loan executing Nguyen Van Lem, a man who richly deserved execution, in the middle of a Saigon street. At that point it maxed out.

What's actually there in a war picture? People shooting, people being shot, things blowing up, people blowing up. People blowing things up, people blowing other people up. Brady pretty much had to stick with corpses scattered on the ground, but Capa was able to carry the action further and by the time we get to Eddie Adams we've touched all the bases and exhausted all the possibilities.

In the end, it's the same thing over and over and over and over. It's all cliché nowadays, including these pictures.

[Iluvmycam]

War photography has reached the point where it's mostly a collection of clichés. It all started with Matt Brady and his cohorts, moved through various small wars to Robert Capa during WW II, then onward with Capa to the French in Vietnam, on to Nick Utt and the napalm girl, and ultimately to Eddie Adams and General Loan executing Nguyen Van Lem, a man who richly deserved execution, in the middle of a Saigon street. At that point it maxed out.

What's actually there in a war picture? People shooting, people being shot, things blowing up, people blowing up. People blowing things up, people blowing other people up. Brady pretty much had to stick with corpses scattered on the ground, but Capa was able to carry the action further and by the time we get to Eddie Adams we've touched all the bases and exhausted all the possibilities.

In the end, it's the same thing over and over and over and over. It's all cliché nowadays, including these pictures.

You can say that about any damn pix...it has mostly all been done before...many times over. So it is not just war pix. If you blame cliches all on war pix your wrong.

Star trails, blurred ocean waves, geometry shots, shadow dancing, macro bugs, giant moons, light painting, birds, flowers and on and on...ALL cliches.

Even the greats copied each other. Avedon copied Munkacski

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m90lqs9o351rw3fqbo1_1280.jpg

Or maybe I should say... paid homage to him.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QjojnnqQ9xE/T7p8-ZwijLI/AAAAAAAAHBc/quZBJNewIio/s640/96591251richard-avedon31.jpg

All those ladscapes you guys shoot in BW...WHY?

Ansel Adams did them a zillion times better than you? You will NEVER do as well with your shot. So why waste your time?

Why...do we do it??   Because it is in our blood. We all love to freeze time.

[Iluvmycam]

You make it sound almost holy; have you heard of the condition known as 'war junkies'? You also seem to forget there's nobody at home pushing a gun to their heads: it's their buzz, their turn-on.

Mad as hatters.

Rob C

Yes, a lot of them are war junkies. And the work is holy when compared to some of the other work I see being done.

You have to be a little or lot screwy to get in some of those war situations. But what would our world be like without the news? You guys loose the net for a day and you are screwed...aren't you. Think back when there was no news. And the invading army that raped, killed and pillaged your town was the news you waked up to that morning.