Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Summer, summer, so long (part 1)

Last year I told you about an end of summer carnival. I guess by "you" I mean the four people who were reading me, most of whom I knew personally. I don't blame you for not being here yet, Blogreader. There are a lot of blogs.

I inadvertently jumped the gun a little, posting about the event a day or two before the equinox, or on what I am now calling the "prequinox," because it makes it sound like maybe I did it on purpose.

This year the same carnival came through, and I made sure to nip down there to make up for the cell phone images from last year's post. I have to say, though, that some of the images from the phone came out beautiful in ways I have not been able to replicate with the nicer camera.

I went alone, milling through the people first in the morning and then again at night. In the morning, they were still setting up, and although many of the games and rides were going already, they had not captured that air of breathless fun that a good carnival should possess. My best guess is that this is because there weren't enough packs of children running around yet. That and the barkers at the games were less eager to verbally pull folks off of their path to try and bilk them a dollar at a time of money in exchange for stuffed animals and such.






It was a lazy affair in the morning. The bearded man in the final shot above kept letting that guy and gal throw darts at his balloons more or less for free, possibly out of boredom. It was while standing there taking shots of this trio that a woman came along to upbraid me, claiming that I was simply not allowed to just wander in and take pictures of the games. I could easily have argued with her, as I was standing on a public street at a public event, but I decided to simply leave and return after an interval.

When I told him I had been chased away, my friend Craig suggested it might have something to do with the fact that carnival games are notorious for being rigged, and that they didn't want evidence of this recorded. And the games are rigged, of course, just not, I don't think, in ways that can be easily documented with a camera. They are more subtle than that. The prizes, for instance, generally cost less than the fee for the game.

My return trip to the carnival after the sun had set will be the subject of Part 2, which I should have up in a few hours.

7 comments:

basest said...

really beautiful photos. well done.

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

This post was so fun...

a laissez-faire morning when you were unjustifiably evicted from the public premises...

and as I am scrolling down, reading and enjoying the pictures... I IMMEDIATELY began to sing in my head...
'rubber ducky, you're the one...'

Yah.

I really love the goldfish too, but I've been banned from ever owning them... as I uh... can't manage to keep them alive for longer than a day. Really nice shot though.

Thanks for the tour de carnivalle...

Scarlett & Viaggiatore

Taffiny said...

Love the photo of the ducks, makes me smile.

And the goldfish in bags bring back memories.

I am a bit jaded now, as you said, it costs more to play than anything you could possibly win would be worth. As a parent, I can be lacking in fun (well in other ways too, truth be told), I say to my son, I'd rather just give you the money and we could go to a store and buy something. I just can't seem to enjoy being ripped off.

Thanks for sharing this experi.

Unknown said...

Scarlett, those poor fish are trained to die within a day so that you have to return to the fair/carnival to replace them - you did well. Poor fishies.

Like the red spinny thing, Maht, can't wait til dark.....

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Yes Minx... it's a nasty trick, but I can't take the guilt. It's like Jewish-Catholic guilt all rolled up in one. Religion sushi. Can't be handled.
So... no fish.
But I always ride the carousel, the roller coaster and always, always the ferris wheel.

Unknown said...

Hey Minx, I don't know, my brother must have had a rebel fish cos his outlived two of my petshop fish. Then my third one ate my brother's! But anyway Maht, I love the duck picture and the blurred colours in the fish picture.

The Moon Topples said...

Basest: Thanks muchly. I know you have an eye for good photography, so that means something.

Scarlett: Sorry to hear about your tendencies toward fish murder. Tragic, that.

Minx: As you know by now, the red spinny featured prominently in the evening. How do you train something to die? I can't imagine any reinforcement technique that would do it.

Scarlett: I have to admit I used to shun the ferris wheel as a waste of time. These days, though, I am always keen to find a new vantage point or angle from which to look at things, even if it's just literally.

Ver: Glad you like the photos. I only wish I had gotten more. I was starting to really feel inspired when the woman shooed me out. Your fish stories seem strangely sad to me. Must be feeling melancholy today.