MMMBoppin' at the fair
After a few years covering the Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo from the night shift, I had a chance to see more of the fair's variety last week, starting with a fun feature on Polly West, whose 105th birthday I had covered back in April. She was joining other Richland Rehabilitation Center members on a trip to the fair, where she was loving the animals:
I tagged along with the group until lunch time, when reporter Loretto J. Hulse and I did the annual fair food story. I had fun playing around with the color and textures before wandering around on Little Buckaroos' Day:
I missed out on Thursday while working on other stories, but had a fun Friday with the Rascal Rodeo:
I also put together a little video from the event:
Saturday brought the tattoo and mustache competition, which was a refreshing change of pace from usual fair events. And while I was disappointed in the lack of actual mustaches in the competition (only three), it provided some nice contrast to the annual sights at the fair:
And then came my one night of rodeo. That was the unfortunate trade-off of not working nights during the fair. I tried to make the most of it, but didn't shoot anything remarkable. The atmosphere was fun as always, and I wish our deadlines allowed for shooting the bulls. I had brought a laptop along, but after struggling with the old workhorse for almost an hour to just send a couple photos back from the tattoo and mustache competition, I didn't want to chance missing deadline just to stay for a couple more events.
One bonus was the Davis family of Finley, who gave me two great mutton bustin' rides to shoot. Gunner, 4, ended up underneath his sheep,
while his sister Ramsay, 6, capped off her mutton bustin' career with a 90-point ride, thrilling the packed house:
Here are my favorites from the rest of my take:
It wasn't the strongest set of rodeo pictures I've made, but it was refreshing to spend more of my time doing something different this year. It's an ever-present challenge in this job to see things with fresh eyes. Sometimes scheduling makes it a little easier on you.
And it didn’t hurt to have some Hipstamatic fun while I was bopping around either:
If you can't get enough of our fair and rodeo photos, be sure to check out the special section on our website devoted to all things 4-H or deep-fried on a stick.
Note to self: open a butcher/fryer at next year's fair for all the market sales...
Speaking of fair...
New York police Officer Michael Ackermann is facing charges of falsifying business records and tampering with public records stemming from an incident last August in which he arrested New York Times photographer Robert Stolarik. Stolarik was making pictures of an arrest and Ackermann claims Stolarik flashed him several times in the face after he asked Stolarik to stop photographing. He could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Dilish Parekh of Mumbai has broken his own record with his collection of 4,425 cameras, including the Leica 250, as funky looking as it is rare. Only 1,000 were made and it was designed to hold bulk rolls of film with 250 exposures.
And Reuters has decided to stop hiring freelancers to shoot their big-time sports, instead partnering with USA Today Sports for its coverage.
~~~~~
kyau@tricityherald.com
(509) 585-7205
Click here to subscribe to the RSS Feed.
Become a fan of Behind the Fold on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
This story was originally published August 30, 2013 at 12:00 AM with the headline "MMMBoppin' at the fair."