The 2012 Indiana State Fair ended yesterday. As a birthday present to myself I loaded my Olympus OM-1 with good old Fujicolor 200 and went to the fair to shoot people. (They all survived.) So in honor of this year’s fair, here are the best shots I got.
This is my favorite shot of the day. Huge John Deere tractors trailing long cars lined with benches shuttle fairgoers for a buck a ride. The woman collected the dollars; the gentleman was a rider. I captured their conversation at the best moment.
The shuttles are popular, as there’s a lot to see at the fair that would otherwise take a lot of walking.
The midway is colorful and, on a gray evening, well lit for photography.
The grayness didn’t stop me from shooting the midway entrance. This would have been so much more dramatic an hour or so later, but I couldn’t stay.
This old Chevy pickup is an annual fixture of the fair. This family sure was taken with it.
Do the cows at the fair wonder what all the hubbub is about? If so, do they care?
I was delighted to come upon a group singing old hymns a cappella in four-part harmony. Their hymnals were full of shaped notes, a 200-year-old way of simply communicating pitches on sheet music. This tradition caught on in the Churches of Christ, many of which still sing a cappella using shaped-note hymnals. The two people standing led the singing, swinging their arms in time to the song.
I’ll have more photos from the fair next time, too. I took my sons on a hot, sunny day with a new-to-me old camera in my hands.
Another truck that is a fixture at the fair is a 1938 International. See it here!
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