N.C. Mountain Fair

[dsiglin]

I keep finding myself at festivals, guess fall is the time for such things. Due to a last minute change in plans I found myself at this fair instead of hiking in the smokey mountains. Glad I did though as this was an honest-to-goodness traditional county fair complete with produce, quilt, and photo competitions. Add on lots of fun rides, horrible foods, and interesting craftsmen and it was a great time. It also gave me the perfect chance to try out the Minolta AF 35-105 via LEA2 adapter. I bought the lens and adapter for portrait work and other paid gigs where I wanted to have the extra comfort of autofocus without paying a lot for AF lenses. The 35-105 has a reputation for being sharp and I am fairly pleased with its performance, part of this set I shot forgetting live view was off and so the photos were underexposed, just in case you are wondering why some photos have so much grain during the day. Shooting mostly primes I did love the versatility of a zoom lens but as good as this lens can be it's no FD 50mm 1.4 or Helios 44m-7. Anyways, here's some photos of the day.

First event of the day was a duck race followed by some very fat and short little pigs.

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Watching all that wonderful bacon and pork chops run got us hungry so we stopped by this brilliant donut making contraption. It would drop a circle of dough into a channel of oil with timed gates to keep it till crispy on the outside and oh so soft on the inside.

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What would a fair be without a $2 cow milking booth.

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A calf born 4am that morning is tended to.

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Not sure why smokey the bear was there, but thought it was cool they used felt or something similar to make him more bear-ish.

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Live chainsaw sculpting.

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Making molasses, the yield on molasses is 10:1 compared to maple syrup which is only 40:1. The guy I talked to had been making molasses this way for over 40 years.

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Further on down the craftsmen stalls was a blacksmith making wrought iron ornaments.

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[dsiglin]

This gentleman's scrollsaw works are puzzles as well as intricately cut objects. For instance we bought a piece that spells "persian" in the shape of a cat which could be taken apart as a puzzle. Here he is giving the boy a dinosaur.

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The master craftsman at work.

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Some good healthy fair food.

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Future biker?

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One of the many prizes awaiting your test of skill.

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Taking the skyline across the fair.

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Waiting for the ride to start.

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Mmmmm deep fried Oreos.

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[dsiglin]

A very loving South African sea lion.

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Obligatory flag shot.

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[davect01]

Wow, thats a lot of shots.

Looks like fun.

 

[dsiglin]

I probably should edit it down to 15 or less. I'm horrible at picking what to throw and what to keep.

 

[NickCyprus]

Some nice shots here!
If I had to comment on something I would say that some appear a little on the soft side. Just a personal preference really but I'd prefer the colours more intense (that can easily be "fixed" in PP though)

 

[Bimjo]

Looks like you had fun and you captured the essense of the fair very well.

 

[dsiglin]

They had more contrast originally but I edited all of them to be softer in keeping with the aesthetic I was looking for. I wanted a feel-good nostalgia look in keeping with the fact that fairs are often viewed as relics of a happier, more idyllic era.

 

[NickCyprus]

They had more contrast originally but I edited all of them to be softer in keeping with the aesthetic I was looking for. I wanted a feel-good nostalgia look in keeping with the fact that fairs are often viewed as relics of a happier, more idyllic era.

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