County Fair

[Maureen Allen]

The county fair isn't a good place for tripods, so I went in armed with my camera, a monopod and a high ISO. I love a challenge, but this was almost silly. Really bright lights, really dark shadows and lots of movement. It was great fun though trying to figure out how to make this work!

Cropped slightly, Nik color efex, dfine, viveza

[Dennis Bishop]

Very nicely composed and exposed. I have essentially no practical experience with monopods. If you can retrieve them easily, what were the focal length and shutter speed? It looks like you were able to hold the camera rock steady.

[Maureen Allen]

I don't have a lot of experience with monopods either, Dennis. Mine mostly collects dust in the closet

Settings: Nikon D3s, 24-70mm @52mm, ISO 1600, f/8, 1/15 sec

[Paul Lagasi]

Wow that's decently sharp for 1/15th, love a good carnival, many colors and lights. Well Done

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hey, Maureen, it looks like you and the monopod did a good job with the conditions. Just for grins I gave the ferris wheel a little radial blur

[Nancy Bell]

Great job, Maureen! My eye started at "scorpion", went up and over with the ferris wheel, and down over the red & blue tent tops. I really like the feeling of fun & movement from those blue, sparkly lights on the ferris wheel. The well-placed fence grounds all that light nicely, as well as guiding your eye upward.

Cheryl,, the added motion of the ferris wheel is another way to show fun & motion in the image.

[Anita Bower]

Seems you did a great job at the fair. Lots of detail in this colorful image. I like the composition--well grounded, as Nancy writes above. Cheryl's blur works also.

[Mark Fuge]

Nice image and application, Maureen. Your monopod must be as dusty and mine is! I figure mine is there for what you used your's for. I prefer the tripod or the car window with a piece of pipe wrap (cheap bean bad alternative). I also have trouble trying to use it with my trigger grip head and will soon replace that with a ball head.

We didn't make it to the fair. But looks like you enjoyed it. Like the feel of the midway and the lights and colors not being mushed as in some I've seen.

Don't know if you saw the anouncement, but Google dropped the price of the NIK suite to $130, from +/- $500 this week. I have the trial and will be buying it in the next week or so. Never could justify that cost when I also have photoshop at $$$$. But the new price is very reasonable for the program. If you have an older version, you can also get an upgrade free. That's even more reasonable! ;

[Maureen Allen]

Don't know if you saw the anouncement, but Google dropped the price of the NIK suite to $130, from +/- $500 this week. I have the trial and will be buying it in the next week or so. Never could justify that cost when I also have photoshop at $$$$. But the new price is very reasonable for the program. If you have an older version, you can also get an upgrade free. That's even more reasonable! ;

Mark, I had registered versions of a couple of their plugins and had an email from them with a link for the free upgrade to the full suite. Very nice!

[Judy Howle]

I love it Maureen! You did a great job with only a monopod. Excellent composition and nice exposure. Cheryl's version with motion blur is a cool idea too.

[Mitch Carucci]

Captures the excitement of the fair. Bright lights and pure colors.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Maureen - A fun shot that works well and I like Cheryl's version too. I might have been tempted to go with an even longer exposure and try to get some light trails/blur. Did you try any with longer exposures?

TFS,
Rachel

[Maureen Allen]

I did, Rachel. But I didn't have a tripod with me and don't really have a steady enough hand to do a decent long exposure with the monopod.