Monday, August 14, 2006

A night at the county fair

On Sunday evening, the Sasquatch and I took a brief ramble down the midway at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We went to snap some nighttime photos and enjoy the people watching... and corn dogs... and funnel cakes...

Handy hint: if you're around 40 and don't need the empty calories and sugar rush, share a funnel cake with a friend. No one needs a whole damn funnel cake....

My photos aren't particularly good, especially as this was my first nighttime effort with the Canon A620 (bought right before my eye went all funky) and my depth perception is now total crap. But, if you haven't been to the county fair in a long time (or have never been to an American county fair), this'll give you a good taste of the midway action. The Sasquatch got some good shots in front of the sideshow with the freaky animals. Somehow, I missed those snaps. (The Sasquatch has one of me in front of the "Devil baby" sign.)

Enjoy.





























































It was a lot of fun. If you ask nicely, I might even post a bonus photo of the Sasquatch with a corndog...

10 comments:

Cyn said...

Aw man...now I really want a neon sign that reads "Fried Dough" to hang by my front door.

I love that it's just Fried Dough -- no healthy euphemism required.

Not like those so-called Corn Pops in my cabinet...C'mon folks, they're SUGAR Pops!

Oh sorry, going off on a tangent. Cool photos! Looks like fun.

Heather Meadows said...

haha, I'm with Cyn! "Fried Dough"! That's fabulous!

I love the pictures. They really translate the bustle and excitement of the fair.

Now I want to go to one :)

Merujo said...

There was a hell of a lot of "fried dough" on the midway - every other food vendor had it. It is brutally honest, isn't it?

And Cyn, you are so right - they're SUGAR POPS!!!

Heather, it's fun when bad photography becomes "artsy" photography! I got such a kick out of taking the "action" shots of the rides. I even took video footage, but it was a wee bit boring.

author said...

Looks like fun, and I think the photos were excellent! They really capture the "crazy fairground feeling"

(Word Verification: blwewmy = pretty much the same as 'blimy!' - as it is shouted from the twirling seats of the fastest ride at the fair...)

radiocynic said...

Yep, I thought your pictures were great! (Although now I really don't need to go; your pictures are as plenty-close as I need to get to a carnival or county fair...) Gotta say that the predominance and multitudinousness of the FRIED DOUGH signs is my favorite part, too.

As someone who's always had an unexplained obsession with packaging, my favorite part of the Sugar Pops thing was the transition, when the boxes read "SUGAR POPS", then "SUGAR Corn POPS", then "Sugar CORN POPS", then "CORN POPS". The cereal conglomerates felt the same necessity to do that with Honey Smacks (nee Sugar Smacks), Super Golden Crisps (nee Sugar Crisps, then Super Sugar Crisps), and Frosted Flakes of Corn (nee Sugar Frosted Flakes.) Nice that they allowed the "Frosted" part to remain, though we're not allowed to know anymore what they're frosted with.

suze said...

nice shots. I love the duckies with eyepatches.

And the Fried Dough sign? Priceless.

Janet Kincaid said...

These are all great! The truly great artists in life have had to overcome some limitation that resulted in art unlike their contemporaries. The rest of us would have just taken pictures. You captured the texture and action of life. Your "lack" of depth perception has resulted in something that has left all of us feeling the rush and thrill of a fair. At the very least, these pictures reminded me of the awe and fun I use to feel as a kid when we'd go to the fair.

As for fried dough... BRING IT ON! As a kid, my mother used to make a thing called Dough Gobs (in the West, they were also called scones) that were basically big blobs of yeast dough fried up and served with honey butter and/or apple butter. YUMMY! And so incredibly unhealthy. But then, aren't the best things in life?

Thanks for sharing these. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back for a vicarious ride on the tilt-o-whirl...

Washington Cube said...

Where's the deep fried Snickers bars? I did want to get to some county fairs this year. Wonder if I'll make it. And loving the duckies.

Claire said...

Cool shots!

Spencer said...

Mmmm - corn dogs and fried dough. Fried dough? Hmmm - where's the marketing spin in that?

I really want to go to a state fair. Of course the last time I went to one the highlight was the mud wrestling. Good, clean family entertainment.

Great pics - what kind of camera?