Sunday, September 9, 2007

State Fair-E-Go-Round


The 2007 Tennessee State Fair opened this weekend at the fairgrounds in Nashville. In addition to the rides and midway attractions, fair attractions include a petting zoo, stunt and thrill shows, a tiger exhibit, and fair food such as corndogs on a stick, french fries, funnel cakes, cotton candy and more. There are competitions in a variety of categories, including livestock (pigs, goats, cattle, etc), creative arts (quilting, photography, painting, etc.), and agriculture (vegetables, fruits, gourds, etc.). Because I owned a rubberstamp and scrapbooking store until a few months ago, fair officials asked me to judge the paper arts competition this year.

A couple of notes: You couldn't get me near most of the rides because they all seem to involve some kind of spinning wheel. The ride pictured above consists of the wheel (shown) and a number of steel harnesses that hang from it. Riders lay stomach down on a the harness and are locked in. The wheel spins around as LOUD music blares from speakers. Yuck.

I could not believe the number of foods-on-a-stick available at the fair. In addition to the corndogs, one could buy sausage, chicken, apples, frozen bananas, and FRIED SNICKERS or MILKY WAY CANDY BARS on a stick. YIKES!


12 comments:

lv2scpbk said...

Neat photo. I posted your link to my fair photo. Hope that's ok.

Bergson said...

Dynamics and coloured

cheer

Anonymous said...

Very clever way to portray the fair ride.

Chris said...

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate the link, Barb. If I can figure out how to do it, I'll link yours back!

Gwen said...

I haven't been on fair rides in a while, but the one in the picture is one I used to go on.

Jilly said...

Wow, how did you do this? Beautiful.

Lynette said...

That shot makes me dizzy just lookin' at it! You certainly captured the motion very well. And I loved the list of foods and fun at the fair. Thanks for sharing.

isa said...

Amazing shot, Chris! Makes me dizzy just looking at it...

Yes, the American fascination with the food on a stick! I can see all our foreign readers shaking their heads ;-)

How often do you visit your son in Ft. Myers?

Chris said...

Thanks, again, for the nice comments. Re: How I took the photo. . . .I just got a DSLR, and I haven't yet figured out the manual settings on it, so I had to play around a bit. On my film camera, I would just set the exposure to two seconds. On the Nikon, however, I had to find something in a dark area about the distance of the ride, focus on it and then hold the shutter button down 1/2 way until the ride started. The shutter speed was slow at that point because it had read the lighting in the dark area. I did, by the way, hand hold the camera.

Anonymous said...

This is a pretty good long exposure Chris, i love fairs.

South Shields Daily Photo

Coy Hill said...

Good shot! I like the motion blur you captured. Rides like this have a way of making food re-appear :) at least it would with me!

I found you through Barb's linkage and a great find it was!

Chad Oneil Myers said...

Nice light blur.

I found you through Salty's site. (he's my Dad)