It is in fair weather that you prepare for foul.

As a last event of the day I headed over to the Fl State Fair for a little but to get in some night shots. Even though there was no admission for this evening, the crowds were extremely light, presumably due to the cold weather. I wanted to get in some light trail shots and also see if any of my photos won anything in the photo competition.

I submitted five or six shots of various categories and received two awards. One ribbon was an 'honorable mention' for a mosaic I created of Yellowstone's Morning Glory hot pool (all the tiles were unique photos taken in national parks). I also did get a '2nd place' ribbon for a photo I took in Venice, Italy in May of 2009. Although I took the photo myself (actually waited in the spot for over an hour to get just the right framing) and did my own editing, I was merely emulating a photo I had seen of a one-time favorite photographer of mine.














Update: Added a few day pics from a revisit to the fair a couple of days later (2/14/09)

If the US is a Melting Pot, Canada is a Mosaic.

For the past couple of years I kept meaning to put in an entry for the photography exhibit/competition at the Florida State Fair. This year I finally remembered about the competition and entry deadlines in time and decided to put in one of my favorite shots taken at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. In itself I really liked the shot, but I decided to make it different by turning it into a Mosaic.

Originally, I took 5 vertically captured, side-by-side, photos of the terrace-like layers of the springs. I then used a photo stitching program call Panorama Factory to put them together to make one panoramic photo.

Then using only photos I had taken while in a National Park/Monument, I used a free program called AndreaMosaic to generate a mosaic. I tried to get it to only use a photo once or at least as few times as possible with the resulting in the use of about 8000+ of the 15000 photos selected and putting them into a 4960 x 2822 picture.


Kristen was instrumental, with her vast graphic design and photography experience, in selecting the right printing type and backing for the photo. In retrospect, I should have allowed the pictures to be bigger since even up close it was difficult to make out the individual tiles that composed the shot, thus losing a bit of the appeal. I may try the same technique next year or maybe look into applying some HDR techniques to some shots for a different effect. We went to the Florida State Fair and found that my submission had won an 'Honorable Mention' award. I would have like to have conveyed that information concerning the individual tiles and where they were taken, but all that was allowed as a short title and name on the title card.

Never waste a fair fight on your inferior.

Tis' the season for Elephant Ears, fo' teeth carnies, and bright flashy things. That's right; it is time for the annual Florida State Fair. Kristen took off a half day, so we decide to take advantage of the time by hitting the state fair. Last year I got to see Reel Big fish, but there was nothing on the bill this year in which I was interested. I had wanted to submit one of my photographs for the exhibit and even registered in December, but I had so much going on that I forgot to take in my work until after the submission deadline had already passed.

We walked around Cracker Country for a while and the various exhibits, including the animal feeding area. Apparently animals are known to nibble on the fingers that may feed it, so fortunately I figured a way to avoid that issue. After putzing around until it got dark, we headed for the mid-way. Part of getting old is not be able to enjoy, or maybe tolerate, the rides as much any more. :( Also, the prices for the 'armband day' keeps getting higher and higher with it costing at least $25 this year. Since we're both into photography, we decided to play around with the cameras for a while. I've been wanting to get some light trail shots for a while and brought the tripod just to try to get a few decent shots with slow shutter speeds.

Ever since attending the Coastal Carolina Fair in Charleston when I was young, only the big yellow slide has always remained a constant, so I'm determined that each year I attend I take a ride one an old burlap sack. It cost me $6 for the tickets for the two of us to go down the slide (I gave the left over tickets to some random mom with kids in tow); however one just cannot put a price on good nostalgia.

Life is fair - it's people who aren't.

Last night I headed over to the Florida State Fair for opening day. I guess stability is a good thing at times, but I don't think the county/state fair has really changed much in the past 20 years of memory. I think the same rides are there and I'm quite sure the same fun houses are there. I left work around 3PM, did a quick bit of shopping for the weekend, and then headed to the fair. I was supposed to go with a friend, however they got stuck in Atlanta on a job, so I ended up wandering around for most of the afternoon checking out the same exhibits that seem to be there year after year; Cracker country (the 'sample of Florida living in the early 1900s'), steam exhibit (where I had a educational conversation with one of the volunteers there for a while about Faraday, Tesla, and Edison), and the art exhibits.

After a while one of my roommates showed up just before the 'Reel Big Fish' concert. I was excited about seeing the RBF guys play and had been listening to them for a while. Though they played a little over an hour it was non-stop fast tunes and debauchery (well fast tunes stuff really). They played a bunch of different covers, most appreciatively a-ha's 'Take On Me' and even a portion Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' for a few minutes. Live bands like this are what makes the music scene fun when the band seems to have a good time and just feeds off the crowd.

After the show we decided to hit the Midway section for a while and take in some rides and high calorie ladened food. Of any fair I attend I have one single tradition, I have to do the yellow slide since this is the first fair memories that I have. Fortunately the roommate humored me enough to let me have my indulgences. After a couple of rides of that, I think I reverted back to being the age of 7 for a while as we hit some of the other rides, slides, and fun houses. When I say things seem to stay the same, I meant it. Not only were almost all of the rides the same as they have been for 20 years with few things added, but there were more of the same! I think we went through at least 4 of the same 'house of mirrors' that were designed and laid out in nearly the exact same way. There were probably 3 examples of the 'Gravitron' (the spinning flying saucer thing that would slide you up the wall through centrifugal force), 2 bumper cars (which were a lot faster and more fun that the cheesy Busch Gardens toned-down junk), 2 zippers, and 4 Ferris Wheels. Why is it though that one still has as much fun as we did in the old days?

I suppose one really cannot mess with old memories.