Fair Time Again

Here in rural Illinois, August is Fair time.  The start of school is just a weekend away and this time of month signals the end of summer although the humid, sunny, days give no clue that fall is coming.  Growing up in the midwest, the county fair is a local celebration for those who live in the rural areas and nearby towns alike.  Fair time brings together the the urbans and rurals and the young and the old alike in a ritual that's been passed down through the generations.

My photos this week were taken at our county fair which I had the priviledge to attend with two of my younger grandkids, who are definitely city kids.  We walked through the cattle barns trying to identify those special cows that provided the chocolate milk.  The kids enjoyed the excitement of being around the farm animals, touching them and feeding some of them.  They talked how fun it would be to own a calf, lamb or rabbit instead of their boring cat while not realizing the daily tasks that come with caring for livestock.  

It is photography's shortcoming that I couldn't capture the smell of frying funnel cakes and the aroma of sizzling sausages and onions on the grill. That would be a feature that would skyrocket sales of any new camera. My photos mostly sample the county fair experience and the excitement found in the livestock and project judging and the blur of neon and motion found in the midway rides. County fair time is special because it unites us by exposing the common roots we all share through agriculture and our yearning for a sense of community and simpler times.

 Looking at My Options

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The two photos this week hold significance to me not because they are great quality or have a special meaning to something in my life other than my participation in an online discussion about whether opportunities make life easier or harder today.  I have always been in favor of having many options because more options tends to relieve stress whereas, not seeing or having too few options  increases stress and makes life harder.   While I am  suppporting the "more oppportunities" viewpoint in the discussion,  I am struggling with "too many opportunities" in the task of setting up a new  camera.  Both photos for this week are similar to many I have taken previously.  What makes them special for me is that they are the first wildlife photos that I have taken with my new z8. 

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I have spent more time lately trying to figure out setup menus for the shooting banks and studying about the camera focus options than I'd like to say.  I enjoy shooting;  not setting up the camera menus.  The fact that I was able to set the camera to get the photos I wanted ended my week on a high note.  Even as I was taking the photo of the blue heron in flight, I was rehearsing an alternate focus tracking option that would have been better for this shot.  To me, that means that I am now at the place where I can see my opportunities (options) for using the camera less as a source of bewilderment and more as a source of motivation to keep learning and experimenting.

 Imagine

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This week I stumbled on this old Ford truck while deep in farm country searching for freshly picked sweet corn.  I always carry my old d5100 with me for such occasions as I find it less awkward than using the Subaru's built in back up camera.  This old Ford had character, and I am not speaking of the kind of character who was photo bombing me in the original photo.  What I saw in that old truck was decades of honest hard work during steamy July days and a trustworthy winter ride across unplowed country roads during the cold, dark days of December.

Photographs are taken with the camera but they are born in the mind of the photographer.  In 1968,  Bobby Kennedy became best known for a social comment that I think reflects my feeling as I took this photo and others like it. "Some men see things as the are and ask why?  I dream things that never were and say why not!" The original photo above is the view most people see as they drive by that old Ford -- just another junker within a retirement home for rusting clunkers that no longer have utility.  It's unworthy of a second look.

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The photo that I saw in my mind that day is the one on the left side of the page.  It shows an everyday blue collar worker still wearing those faded denims and sporting blotches of tanned (rust) wrinkled skin inflicted by storms and long dusty days. If this was a portrait of the farmer who drove this truck I would want to show the blemishes and calluses from an unwavering commitment to daily chores. I added a vintage film look to the photo as a nod to the period when this truck was a working vehicle.  The sky was blurred to emphasize the passage of time and the slow changing pace of life in farming communities where work, heritage and personal identity are wound tightly together.  For me, this image strengthens my belief that where a photo takes you is much more important than where you took the photo.  Which photo takes you to that welcoming place you long to be?