The Illinois State Fair is in town! The traffic is terrible. The food is greasy and costs more than printer ink. The rides are operated by people you normally wouldn’t trust to park your car, let alone control your fate while locked inside a swirling, diesel powered death cage. There are ill-behaved, latchkey boys running around everywhere, doing everything they can to impress a 14 year old girl dressed like a Reno gutter skank. The sun will sizzle your skin like a smattering of sausage on a slice of Sbarro (I am not proud of the preceding sentence).
Really though, it was fine and we had a good time. I burned through nearly all of the cash I had on me but the Fair only comes around once a year I suppose. It’s not like I can just make a Jamaican beef patty or a Vose’s corn dog, or a fire roasted corn on the cob dipped in butter at home! If I dipped my corn in a vat of melted butter at home I would labeled a sociopath, and shunned by my community. Do it at the fair and I’m just simply supporting hard working Illinois farmers.
I took most of my pictures around the rides at the midway because, you know, they’re shiny. I used my super light, super cheap travel tripod and it seemed to work ok with a 2 second timer. I would prefer to work with Jesse’s Manfrotto but it is a lot heavier. I felt bad, there were a lot of very considerate people who would stop before they walked in front of the camera and I would just wave them through. Since I was taking so many long exposures it didn’t really matter. For every one idiot who sticks their face in front of the camera, there are 2 dozen more who politely walk around you and don’t want to ruin a shot. I don’t mind those odds at all.