Since 1970, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Wow! This stand at the Fair was indicative of so many of the booths. Lots of bright colors and lights. This one I thought would really look nice in B&W. I used onOne’s Perfect Black & White for the conversion from Lightroom 4. I used the preset “City Lights” and liked it so well I didn’t need much more.

Balloon Happiness, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

This Carny with the Balloons just looks too happy. Must be all the bright colors.

Tory, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Ran into our friend Tory at the Fair the other night. He says he loves to go to the Fair as it’s the best spot around for people watching. I have to agree that it is indeed a great place to watch (and shoot) people. It’s too bad that it’s such a short time and then it’s over. Oh well, next year!

The Candy Stand, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

One of the things I love about taking a camera to the Fair is all the color and lights. So many great subjects. Though I realize that I’ll need to try some of these in Black & White which could totally work as there are so many colors and things it may well make a fine B&W image.

Passing Time at the Pens, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

These guys were all sitting at the entrance to the Pig Pens and it seemed most of them were on their phones. The fruits of their labor or hobbies were impressive as many fine animals were at the Fair this year.

Bubble Gun, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

The Fair is a great place to go for people watching and people photos. The ones who live the carny life are an interesting lot and they do seem to get some enjoyment in their jobs at times. That’s probably overstating it but I can hope that is so.
I used Perfect Focus here to try and get some better separation from the background. Tools like Perfect Focus are great to use for “Street” Photography as it’s a bit harder to get the perfect background at times.

Snack Time, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

This guy was loads of fun. Unfortunately I missed part of his gig. When I was on my way over to the crowd he was riding around on a flaming unicycle and juggling these burning pins.
He had a nice circle of onlookers and was a hit with the kids of course.

Night Light, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Tonight was opening night at the Shasta County Fair. I’ve wanted to get some long exposure shots of Ferris Wheels for many years now and I finally got a chance. About 10 or so of us from the Photo Club met to do some shooting. The weather was pretty much perfect (high in the 80′s today). While I was taking shots of this Wheel a guy came up and asked what I thought. Told him it was pretty cool. He said he was the Electrician and that you could watch this for 20 minutes and not see the same thing twice. I looked at a few of the shots and yes, indeed the colors changed with each shot. He said the lights on the Wheel ran about $150,000.00.
All in all it was a nice first time for Fair shooting.

Orange Balls, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

Balls or Buoys? Or just floaty things. These are from Whiskeytown Lake and are bright orange. There’s three of them too!

Brothers, originally uploaded by ronWLS.

It’s always good to see these brothers together. They usually are having a good time as they don’t see each other too often. They’re growing up fast. Stephen is 18 now and done with High School. Andrew is 16 and has some time left. Hope to get to see them together many times in the future.