South Carolina State Fair 2009, Fairgrounds: 25 October 2009 4 comments
Well, The South Carolina State Fair was fun as usual. My only regret is that I did not get to ride the bumper-cars this year since I would have been the only one on the floor at the time I went by, and what's the fun of that? Oh, and I didn't manage to score a free yardstick anywhere this year.
Other than that, you've got your french fries, Italian sausage, fried mushrooms, cinimon rolls, performing sealions, elephants, rides, art and lots and lots of neon. What's not to like?
You can pretty much stop here if you don't like lots of photos, that's about all that's after the jump. I'm a little disappointed in how my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 handled the neon. Last year my deceased Kodak DX3600 tried its little heart out to make sense of the low light conditions it was never built for, and I think actually got better saturation on the neon than the Lumix, even though the Lumix is a much better camera. On the other hand, I just locked the Lumix F-stop at 2.2 and let it do whatever it wanted with the shutter, there's probably a better neon setting somewhere. (The thing has the most driest, most snoozeworthy manual of nearly anything I've seen). Interestingly, whereas usually the JPGs I get by manually processing the camera raw files are more pleasing than the ones the camera creates, the opposite was true here. Anyway, even if the average quality wasn't as pleasing, I still think I got some very nice shots. So if you like that kind of thing, and have a while to download, hit the "MORE" link.
Setup:
Day During the Fair:
Night During the Fair:
Teardown:
4 Responses to 'South Carolina State Fair 2009, Fairgrounds: 25 October 2009'
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Michael Taylor
27 Oct 09 at 11:13 pm
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Thanks!
It was definitely *much* less crowded when I took the night shots this year (Sunday the 18th) than last year, which I suspect was a Friday or Saturday.
Also, last year, a big guy got prety incensed that I had taken his picture, so I was trying to avoid a lot of face shots.
ted
27 Oct 09 at 11:40 pm
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Ted
Thanks for the sand sculpture shots. When I walked through the building it was only 1/2 completed. Was this shot at F2.2 also? -
Actually when I said F2.2, I was wrong (thinking about the lowest stop on my old 35mm SLR). I believe it was f2.0, and the EXIF info seems to mostly back that up, though it also looks like the AperturePriority algorithm did step it up in some cases, which surprises me.
ted
28 Oct 09 at 12:14 pm
I actually like the saturation with the Lumix shots this year more than last year's Kodak moment. They seem to be in better focus as well. The one thing that I do miss this year in your photos is people. In last year's photographs they are all over the place. Fairs are people events. At any rate, thanks for posting them because I don't go to the fair anymore and it's nice to see what I'm missing from time to time. To be honest with you, I'm impressed with how the camera handled the neons and night scenes. I think you and the Lumix did a fine job. Now if you could only figure out how to get all the food smells into your blog, that would really be something.