Archive for the ‘George Rogers Boulevard’ tag
South Carolina State Fair 2023, Fairgrounds: 22 October 2023 7 comments
Well the State Fair has come and gone. No big surprises this year. The retro swing ride at the intersection of the central way and the North Midway corridor is still gone. I guess it won't be coming back. Somehow the baby duck slide survived another year, and we had some new greasy goodness with doughnut-burgers and Wisconsin fried cheese curds. Aprt from the sky ride, the Bumper Cars were the only place I spent my tickets this year, and there's (somewhat badly focused) video of that below. Those issues (really time for a new camera) are apparent in the skyway video above as well, but I think it gets the spirit of things.
As for the rest, if you've followed these posts, you know what I like, and I liked the same things this year. It's always nice to be out and about on the grounds after sundown!
Next year is coming..
South Carolina State Fair 2019: 20 October 2019 no comments
I'm afraid I didn't get all the pictures I wanted at this year's State Fair. I usually get a bunch of neon shots at night back in the midway area, and a night video shot from the skyway. This year, it started to rain just as it was getting dark, and that put an end to the outdoor part of my visit.
I didn't notice any particular changes this year, other than that the dinosaur exhibit in the old Steel Building site was not back this year, and that the Rocket was done up in candy stripes for its 50th anniversary. This year was also the 150th anniversary of the fair as a whole, an occasion noted in the annual sand sculpture.
Anyway, it was fun, as usual, and I had my "fair food". Hopefully next year, I will get my normal assortment of pictures and video.
South Carolina State Fair 2017: 22 October 2017 2 comments
Well, this is the 9th South Carolina State Fair post here, so you probably know the drill by now. I like what I like, and I take pictures of it. I moved some pictures around to provide an entrance sequence, but as you can tell, I actually ended up up at the fair on two different days this year. I still miss the Steel Building, which was a bit more down-market than the new commercial exhibits in the new art building annex. In particular, no grey market videos, and no handwriting computer. This year, the flowers were moved in with the art, and the agricultural exhibits moved across the way where the flowers used to be. I didn't get into the animal area, so I don't know if the baby duck slide was still running.
I think I was running the camera at ISO-800 this year, higher than previously, and I'm not entirely happy with the results as the frequent bright lights interspersed with the booths tended to drown out everything else.
South Carolina State Fair 2016, Fairgrounds: 23 October 2016 3 comments
I got back to town a bit late this year, and missed out on some of my State Fair usuals because the buildings closed early the final day, so no art, flowers, sand sculpture or baby ducks this year. I was able to have my annual Italian sausage sandwich, Fiske fries and ride the skyway, swings and bumper cars. Most of the regular rides were there, along with a couple of new, or at least re-painted wacky-house type walk-throughs. Apparently the rocket is no longer the "Time-Warner Rocket" and is just back to "The Rocket", though it does have a few new sponsorship plaques at the base. I still miss the Steel Building: That corner just does not feel right without it.
South Carolina State Fair 2015: 25 October 2015 9 comments
Well, I had written a few paragraphs about the State Fair, mainly lamenting the demise of the Steel Building, had got it posted and even had a comment on the post when my whole database went *Kaflooey*!. Enjoy these pictures of the State Fair while I try to get back to a somewhat normal state..
UPDATE 28 October 2015
OK, I'm not going to be able to find the original text in google cache, so the post went something like this:
It turns out 2014 was the end of an era, though I didn't know it at the time. This year, the Steel Building which has been a central focus for the Fair for all of my life was gone. In its place is an open plaza called Hampton Plaza, this year the site of an animatronic exhibit called Enter The Dinosaurs. The function of the Steel Building has been largely picked up by a new building at the South wall called the Goodman Building. It houses many, though not all, of the exhibits and vendors typically in the Steel building, but seems designed to be slightly more upscale. The Cantey Building has been extensively reconfigured for the Art exhibit, and is now much better lit (and the upstairs arcade is unused). The flowers have moved across the corridor from the Ellison Building to the Cantey Building and most of the agricultural exhibits have made the opposite move.
Anyway, if you've followed my Fair posts, you know the kind of thing I like, and these pictures are more of it.
I'll also note that the Televac 86000 handwriting computer is still gone..
South Carolina State Fair 2012, Fairgrounds: 21 October 2012 16 comments
(Folks coming in from the link at the CarnivalWarehouse.com forum, you may be interested in my pictures from previous South Carolina State Fairs -- Ted)
Well, as always, the South Carolina State Fair was a good time, with lots of beautiful art, greasy food, neon in motion and oddball retail. If you've read one of these posts before, don't expect anything particularly new this year; it's pretty much the same sights I usually enjoy capturing. I didn't submit anything for the art exhibition this year, so no pictures of the pre-Fair ceremony.
I've got a couple of videos I'll add later as soon as I can get them uploaded to youtube. In the meantime, enjoy!
UPDATE 27 October: First video (cablecars) is uploaded above.
South Carolina State Fair 2011, Fairgrounds: 23 October 2011 6 comments
OK, you know the drill by now if you've followed my State Fair posts from previous years: I like what I like, and I like to take pictures of it, so there's nothing new or astounding here, just old friends like the Buxom Beer Girl, The Cotton Candy Stands and the ducklings, but I enjoyed being out and about amongst the neon and greasy delights as usual. I took the tripod, but really couldn't get into setting it up to try for HDRs this year, so I just got one, which is not as good as those from last year (2010). I did take a few videos this year, in particular the one above (which has some issues with light spikes, but is quite watchable) and one below the jump.
Meet your party at the (Time Warner) rocket!
South Carolina State Fair 2011 Fine Art Exhibition Premiere & Awards Reception, Fairgrounds: 9 October 2011 3 comments
South Carolina State Fair 2010, Fairgrounds: 24 October 2010 3 comments
These nine pictures are attempts at HDR. I took a tripod, and set the closing-cam to do 3 exposure brackets (1 "under exposed", 1 "over exposed" and 1 "correctly exposed"). I still have had trouble getting anything reasonable looking out of Qtpfsgui though other folks certainly have. There are just too many knobs and levers for me, at least for now. I did find another free program called Picturenaut, which actually produces nice results with the default settings. The downside is it only runs on Windows.
All the night pictures were taken on 15 October and the day pictures on 24 October. As usual, the fair remains an evergreen experience and if you missed it this year, you should try to catch it in 2011.
Lots and lots of other pictures after the jump. Be warned!
