My Saturday morning began with a scary sneak attack by my friend Jo’s son Emit dressed as the Wolf Man. In through the basement door and up the stairs he tiptoed and came in on a growling run to scare me as I was watching the news.
Now I know he will be Lawrence Talbot (the Wolf Man) for Halloween.
I had just relaxed after being scared when his mother walked in and said, “We are going to the Salmon Arm Fair and you should come.”
My shop has been closed this past week while new flooring is put in the building and I was planning on a lazy Saturday. Oh well, I needed to take some photos for this week’s article anyway so I got dressed, fed my cats, grabbed my camera and headed out the door to join Jo, her children Emit and Evinn and their friend Cloie for a 9 a.m. drive to Salmon Arm.
I was disappointed and miss going to both the Barriere and Armstrong Fall Fairs. I always have a good time making candid photos at the fair and as lazy as I was I knew I’d have a good time.
As Jo drove I looked up the Salmon Arm fair. I had never attended and didn’t know there was one. The info page said, “The Salmon Arm Fairgrounds are located right in the heart of Salmon Arm. There are barns, a grandstand and arena, riding rings, plenty of parking and genuine agricultural fairgrounds – all of which are under the watchful eye of Mt. Ida to the south. The Salmon Arm Fair is the heart of Salmon Arm! If you haven’t been to the fair before, come see what you’ve been missing for the past 125 years…”
I had hoped to see the agricultural show, listen to the Elvis tribute artist, watch the Super dogs show and the Knights of Valour Jousting. However, I only had time to watch a bit of each of those. Remember Jo had three kids in tow and what was interesting to me was very hard for them to take when it was only a short walk across the fair grounds to the West Coast Amusements midway waiting with exciting rides.
I watched what I could, took a couple shots of the jousting and got my camera ready to photograph Emit, Evinn and Cloie having a great time on the rides.
I switched between my 18-55mm and 55-200mm depending on the ride. Its fun trying to get good photos of people on those fast, erratically moving rides. I try to get a feel for the timing and just keep shooting. I figure one out of six or eight shots is going to be good and chose where to stand as they got on the rides, metered the light and the best area to focus. I didn’t want lots of other people in my shots so I tightened up on the seated area they were on and prefocused – moving my camera with the ride.
I have some fun photos that I will print up and give to those three kids. I’ll make 8x10 prints that will be large enough to thumbtack to a bedroom wall.
I had a great time at the fair - there always is an opportunity to make photos.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net
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