Posted April 20, 2024
It's been a while since I added anything new to this blog, but I've been through a rainy-Seattle-winter photography slump. Finally, however, the sun has started to shine again, and last weekend I pulled myself up by my camera strap and did a street photography outing to the Washington State Spring Fair down at Puyallup.
I was encouraged and abetted by some new gear. I bought the Olympus 25mm f1.2 Pro lens -- about time eh, after having rented it from Glazers something like four times -- and because it's a whompin' big lens I got a bigger camera than my Pen Ten to host it: I picked up a used E-M1 original. (Nerd note: I have the E-M1 Mark II, but for street photography I really require a tilt screen, which the earlier model provides, not a flippy screen.) Many of the photos below were shot with this combo, though as usual I swapped in various other lenses as needed for telephoto and wide shots. The 25 f1.2 quite simply rocks, and I'm in love with it.
As for the fair, one might well wonder at the choice to shoot it in black and white. What can I say: I was in that kind of mood, half inclined to scowl at runaway Americana even as I goggled and giggled at the booths and livestock pens, the dog diving competitions and the monster truck rides, the skyscraping intricacy of the amusement park machinery whose panoramic screams echoed in the sky as I ate my tasty smoked sausage lunch and bought my $5.00 coffee. In other words, I spent a happy day wandering the vast fairgrounds, trying to be artistic. And in the end I couldn't resist one color photo.
Camelback
Housing Bubble
Heavy Chevy
Woodn't You
Says It on the Tin
Prisoners of Fun
Difficult World
Never Let Go
Flying Dogs
Protest
Interspecies Communication
Juicy Sausage
Too Corny
Chance of Rain
Old Time Religion
Modern Meadow
Sax Solo
Unhappy Fan
