Long exposures in the midway

It is that time of year again in Indiana. And by that, I mean it is time for the State Fair!  I was fortunate enough to visit the fair a couple of times this year and had the opportunity to photograph some of the midway rides.  Unfortunately, more games, food stands and rides were packed into the midway area, making for a much tighter and confined space which took away a lot of the good vantage points for photographing the rides, unlike last year.  I was able to get three really good shots this year and I've posted those pictures below:

This is probably my favorite picture from the fair this year.  Not only was the swing set ride (YOYO) moving in the foreground, the ride in the background also started in motion. The colors in the game booths in the right of the picture also stand out very nicely.   I was really happy to see both rides in motion at the same time as I had waited a long time hoping to see both in action.  The rain and sparse crowds in the midway area had a lot to do with the minimal activity on the rides this night.  The black band that is present around the YoYo ride is the riders themselves in their swings.  I like the look of the rides against the blue sky just after sunset.  This settings for this shot are ISO 100,  f22 and a 6 second exposure. 

This is a closeup shot of the same Yoyo ride.  I was backed up against the bumper cars and had the lens as wide open as was possible. I was fortunate to not have people walking through the frame during this exposure and the picture turned out quite nicely as result. Sometimes the "ghost" images of people are quite useful and look good in some of the long exposure pictures I have done at the state fair, but for this one I'm glad I have a clean image. The settings for this shot are ISO 100, f22 and an 18 second exposure.

This ride is know as "Fireball" and this is so much better than the pictures I took of this same ride last year at the fair.  I was fortunate with this picture that the trucks and generators that cluttered my pictures of this ride last year from about this same view point were gone from the area this year.  I was able to get fairly close to the ride and made this wonderfully uncluttered picture of the ride.  This ride seemed to be very popular and it wasn't long before it was up and spinning and as a result, I have several good shots of this ride.  The settings for this ride were ISO 100, f22 and a 15 second exposure.

All in all, I had a good time shooting these rides at the fair.  The surroundings made for some tight angles and different compositions, but hey, I can't have it my way all the time when I am photographing, so in the end, I did the best I could and came up with some good pictures.  I had a lot of long stares and questions about what I was doing there, sitting on the ground looking up at these rides through a camera.  Most people liked what they saw when I showed them my results, while some people just shook their shoulders and moved on.  I guess they just couldn't understand the addiction of long exposure photography and moving lights!

If I can get motivated, I'll post a few more pictures from the fair this week. 

Duncan Schiedt, jazz musician photographer

Tonight at the meeting of the Indiana Photographic Society, we had the opportunity to listen to Duncan Schiedt, a noted jazz musician photographer.  Duncan has been photographing musicians for over 60 years and he has photographed some of the legends of the jazz world:  Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and many, many more great musicians. 

He told us of his first time listening to jazz music, via BBC radio while attending an English school.  After the overseas school trip ended, he returned home and was visiting a friend who showed Duncan his darkroom.  Duncan told us that after spending an hour in the darkroom, he was hooked on photography.  He then combined his two loves of jazz and photography into a lifelong passion.

His first ever picture was taken with an Argus camera and was of  Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton (he showed us this picture tonight). He only shoots using film or slides and still develops and prints his own pictures.  All of his work in the jazz field are done in B&W because as he puts it "Jazz music is black and white due to it's range of emotions, moods and the brilliance of the music."

During his presentation, he showed us over 80 slides of some of the various musicians he has photographed over the years and also told personal stories about the musicians.  Some of the stories were about the musicians he has befriended while other anecdotes were about the pictures, asking the musicians to pose in a certain way or just about the process involved in taking the pictures.

In addition to his work photographing jazz musicians, he has also worked as a fashion photographer, theater photographer, worked in the film industry on over 100 16mm films and has written several books.  His first book was a biography about the life of Fats Waller.  His work has also been used by Ken Burns in the PBS series "Jazz".  He brought several books to the meeting and I purchased a book and he was gracious enough to autograph it for me.

All in all, it was definitely one of our best meetings and I was thrilled to see his work.  I didn't know many of the musicians in the pictures (I'm learning who they are now by reading his book), but I know great photos when I see them, and his are definitely wonderful.  This book is something I will definitely treasure and will use it as inspiration for when I am out with the camera. 

The Black Widow

The Black Widow
Originally uploaded by indykaleu

Ahh, the start of fair season here in Indianapolis. This is a shot of the Black Widow ride and was taken at the Marion County State Fair. I always loved this ride as kid and now I have a picture of it...haha

When Rene and I arrived at the fair it was raining, which was frustrating for me but it was also good as Indy has not had any decent rain in a long time. After walking around the fair for about 20 minutes and getting our caricatures drawn (fantastic work by the way), the rain stopped and we headed out once again to see the rides.

Rene pointed out that people were in line for this ride and we headed over for some pictures. I took a few pictures with another ride in the background, but when I went to process them this weekend, I thought the background ride was very distracting.

I'm glad I was able to get this shot from a different direction. This was an 11 second exposure, set at f22 and ISO 100. I do have another picture with a shorter exposure time that shows off the ride in more detail.

I'm just so happy that Rene didn't mind me wandering around to photograph the rides and put up with change of directions and standing around for several seconds. Sweetie, it's just too bad we weren't hungry. I can still smell the corn dogs. Oh well, we still have the state fair coming up this weekend.