The State Fair... in Kentucky - 8/18/06

Almost every year I’ve gone to either L.A. County Fair or the Orange County Fair with family or friends. Yet I’d never been to a state fair, of which California’s is located in Sacramento. Since I’m currently living in Kentucky, yesterday afternoon I decided to go to the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville.

As I was walking around yesterday it occurred to me how big the L.A. County Fair really is. Here I am walking around the Kentucky State Fairgrounds thinking this must be really big since it’s a state fair but I realized that there was only two buildings worth of exhibits. There was some interesting things no doubt such as the state history area with all the Lewis and Clark information, photo competition, etc... Outside in the parking lot, there was a lumberjacking “timber sports” competition. And the real reason why I think many people were at the fair last night, the American Idol Live concert tour played at Freedom Hall. Taylor Hicks was doing his sound check while I was walking around the arena so many people were waiting around with the hopes of meeting some Idols. Tonight’s performers? Carrie Underwood. Mmm mmm. Oh I must mention that tickets were starting at $41 for tonight’s concert.



I probably shot about 100 pictures yesterday, mostly livestock photos. I’m an animal lover and can’t help myself whenever there are animals around even when they are 2,000 pounds worth of smelly tissue and fat. I spent about four hours at the fair and hoped to get some interesting shots of the midway section but there wasn’t really anyone playing games around 7 p.m. Like I said, I think most of the younger people were attending the American Idol concert last night. At the L.A. County Fair, the stadium would have sold out and you’d still have a million people wandering around the fair. To be fair, back home there’s over 15 million people living within an hour or two of the fair so naturally it it’d figure to be a more elaborate event.

Overall, The Kentucky State Fair was worthwhile to check out. It might be my only opportunity to, so why not? Life is too short to not experience different things. Fairs are always a good way to get a glimpse of different cultures and see the different types of people who live in the area.

Photo Tips:

1. Use a digital SLR camera. This is probably the only time I’ll ever recommend a specific format, but the ability to auto white balance and use a higher ISO effectively is invaluable when shooting the livestock indoors since the lighting can be dim.



2. Use fill flash. I manually underexposed the ambient light by 1 stop or 1.5 stops on most of my indoor shots and let my Canon 430EX flash take care of the rest. I used a white Omnibounce diffuser to soften the light since a bare bulb flash has an undesirable harsh blue look. Knowing how to effectively mix ambient lighting with fill flash is often what separates professional quality pictures from bad snapshots when it comes to shooting indoors.

3. Wait til dusk to shoot the midway. I didn’t stick around because the humidity was getting to me but from previous experience, the best time to shoot carnival games is when the lights first come on mixed in with a sky that has just set. That is the same concept as shooting a city skyline. Notice any postcard rack, most of the skyline photos are taken at this time of day as well. Same concept.