Orono Fair 2011

This was my first trip to the Orono Fair. I have frequented the Markham fair many times and I noticed right away a different "Homey" feel that this fair had vs. Markham.

What was really great was just parking the car in the farmers field at Taunton and Main St. and hopping on the shuttle bus to the fair.

Once inside the gates I had a nice surprise. This is John Bradley who for the longest time lived 5 doors down from me. Stuck around to hear about 5 tunes. Excellent

Any fair is usually geared to the kids and this one is no exception

Of course what would an Orono Fair be without trackers?

I wanted to be at the fair for dusk into the night to take advantage of the great colours that act as the "Pied Piper" to all around.

Nice view from the top of the Ferris Wheel 

Hats seemed to be the best seller of the night. Every young person was wearing them..

Nothing better to bring you back to your childhood like a merry-go-round

How about your funnier side?

Lots of games of chance and no end to the amount of stuffed animals you could win

My wife and daughter were brave enough to go on this ride. As she stated, "it felt like our skin was falling off when we were upside down" Yikes!

Lots of spectators for the Tracker contests

I hope this gives you some flavour of the Orono fair. We had a great time. As always, I would love your feed back. Just email me at voiceguy@rogers.com

In The Field

As I am not the best nature photographer in the world I thought I would try my hand at the insect world. Out my backyard, we are fortunate enought to back onto a hydro belt. The golden rod was in full bloom and the activity was intense. There were several fights for necter and pollen between the many bees, wasps and other stinging flyers.

Probably my favorite shot of the hour or so that I was fiddling with my 70-200 2.8 lens.

This one is quite nice as well. You can see with the 16 mg. of the camera, you can crop in quite close. The second picture was the original. Which one is better?

Queens Anne Lace is getting ready to close up for another year

One of the scarier members of the pollenating community. Would anyone know if this is a paper wasp?

How about this one?

Just a couple more shots. I must have taken over 300 shots and with the poor light, I could not shoot past 1/500th of a second. So many flying bees were just slightly too soft. Hats off to the awesome nature photographers in the Oshawa Camera. This is hard !

Last question, in close or show more of the environment?

Oh, lots of Mountain Ash inthe area. These berries will attrach Blue Jays, Cardinals and Robins in the spring.



Love to hear your comments. Please feel free to leave me an email at voiceguy@rogers.com

Buskerfest 2011

So it was a street photograpgers Shangri la with Buskerfest in town. A comment on this and many of the other street festivals is that they are getting just too busy. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get shots without the distractions. Saying that, thank god for 2.8 lens.

 

This performer, from Australia, was one of my favorites. I was lucky enough to find space up on the ledge of the park and the green tree in the background was great for isolating him.

I just missed the speed on the falling cucumber piece. Still loved the spray

One of the things I really like to focus on is the little details. Street chalk artists are perfect subjects for me. The gritty nature of the picture they are drawing, the dirty hands...Perfect

Get closer.....

And closer still.......

When you are in close, you start to see the work involved in creating the character the actor is presenting.

And as I have learned, look behind you for some of your best subjects.

Peter Frampton lives in Toronto?

Embarrassed...

This performer was just waiting for the time to go on stage. I just like the simplicity of the photo.

Pierre St. Pierre..... The creepy mime

The kids are the best subjects for their intensity and facial expressions.

Back to getting some more detail. Show the story and then focus on one aspect

Some people are just sooooo cool. I would love to see what kind of photo she takes.

The end of the night was the best part. I really wanted to try night photography with the 2.8 to just see if the lens would perform. Here our subjects are the "Chairmen"

Not bad. ISO 640, a little grainy but not bad.

 

Well, I would really love to hear how you feel about these shots. Shoot me an email any time at voiceguy@rogers.com