It’s that time of the year. Many states and communities are having their annual fairs as we move into autumn. I love fairs, I can already smell the funnel cake. Fairs are a great venue for a day of photography as well. Everybody is having a good time, and the mood is festive. Last weekend Cree and I were hired to photograph the Alaska State Fair for tourism images, and we had a blast. Eight hours of non-stop photography, rides, food, crafts, music and livestock. Photographing fairs can be a lot fun, and you may try different techniques than your normal photography outings. Experimenting, and trying new genres of photography, are a great way to improve your creativity. Here are a few tips for fair photography.
Photograph people. Fairs are all about interesting people and great candid portraits. While the street photographers out there may not want to interact with their subjects, I always ask permission to take people pictures at fairs, especially if you are photographing children. Be friendly in your approach, and offer to send a jpeg if people ask. We photographed lots of people last weekend, including some great face painting on children, and families were happy to have their photos taken.
Photograph food. Fairs are also all about that great food! Find interesting food to photograph. Maybe you can get images of food being prepared, or someone eating cotton candy. I found this proud cookie maker, and I have to say the cookies were great. Remember to mix up your perspective. This image was created using a wide angle lens and tilting the camera to add a diagonal line to create more tension in the shot.
Take a ferris wheel ride. Most fairs aren’t going to allow you to fly a drone, but you can get great high perspectives from the ferris wheel. Cree and I had a blast riding one last weekend, and the high perspective was fresh and interesting.
Find the animals. The livestock section is always great for photography. Find those kids proudly showing off their prize winning animal.
Try slow motion. There is a lot of movement at fairs. People walking, roller coasters flying down the track, performers dancing and singing. Once you feel you have the tack sharp image in the camera, how about shooting some slow motion? For this dancing shot above I just rested my camera on a bench and shot at 1/4 section to blur the dancers.
Shoot at twilight. If you can wait for twilight, the neon will transform a fair experience. Head over to the amusement park area and try slow shutter speeds on the neon lit rides and booths.
Use two bodies. You really are going want to have from 24-200mm ready to go. I used two bodies with a 24-70mm and 70-200mm. Cree shot a 85mm 1.8 (portraits) and a 24-200mm for general images. You won’t want to change lenses with all the quick changing activity around you.
Fair photography may not be something you would think of trying, but that is even more reason to try it out. Go enjoy photographing the animals, rides, livestock and crafts, you might just enjoy some good old fashioned Americana. And don’t forget to eat some funnel cake…