Carnival

This is actually a "guest" so to speak in my Song Project. The song I think about any time I step foot into a carnival ground is Natalie Merchant's song aptly titled "Carnival". It doesn't mention photos or pictures, but it does have a lot of lines referring to "what my eyes have seen". Close enough.

I have brought a camera to a carnival every year for the last 7 years. I missed last year, but, I wasn't much in a happy mood then anyway.

First we have the creepy details that appear on the sides of rides and fun houses. I have a few more, but these are the most interesting.

Watching this ride, I was reminded this weekend was the biggest weekend in racing with Formula 1 hanging out in Monaco, a bunch of open wheel oval racers riding around Indy, and the tin tops were running under the lights in Charlotte. In honor of that I tried to emulate the first motor sport picture I saw that dropped my jaw. It was a shot by Darren Heath, and was a wide angle, low shutter speed, CLOSE shot of a car either navigating a tight turn or entering a pit box. I think I needed a bit wider of a lens, and needed to be a bit closer. But I'm happy enough with this.

A straight up shot of "the Dragon". Tobias' face here is priceless (so look at it bigger!)

The final ride shot of the night was one I wouldn't have if I didn't, at least, acknowledge the haughty critic that sits in the back of my head. I saw a guy with what looked like a brand new entry level SLR blasting away with his on board flash. My in-head critic pointed out he wasn't going to get what he expected blasting away like that -- and besides on camera flash sucks! After I told that voice to shut-up and let the guy have his fun, I decided to piss it off by throwing up my own on pop-up flash. I made sure rear curtain sync was on, and made sure my shutter speed was slow. However, I forgot to make sure the flash was in TTL mode. After taking a shot and realizing the camera wasn't doing what I expected, I experienced bit of panic scrolling through the menus to take the flash off of manual mode. After that, I got close to what I wanted. So, listen to your arrogant critic sometimes, it can provide inspiration! Sure, it would be better with an off camera flash-- but a Carnival trip with the kids isn't suppose to be a major photographic production!

The poll should be closed now. I will post my own answer sometime this week.