The State Fair is a Minnesota institution. Meaning that it's quite popular. Well north of 1.5 million people attend every year. In fact, 2009 set a record with over 1.7 million people walking through the gates. Many of these folks go more than once. Vacations are planned around the twelve day run of the Fair. There's so much to do. Most of those things to do include eating food stuck onto a stick. One can find everything from cheese curds to Minnesota wine. There are FFA kids showing their poultry and livestock. They bunk at the Fair, too. There are 4H projects and an art show. Machinery Hill used to feature the latest agricultural equipment for farmers to examine and kids to climb on. That's largely gone, now. There are booths for every cause and purpose you can think of. People hawk gadgets that run from amazing to useless. Then there's the Midway with its lights, noise, games, rides, Barkers and Carni's. I could go on and on. The Fair used to be the high point of my summer when I was a kid. It was always exciting and always sad to leave at the end of a long day. But then I stopped going for better than twenty-five years. That changed this year, and here's the result of two afternoons and evenings at the Fair. It was so much fun that I'll go again next year! But I'll avoid the hot dish on a stick...

Nearly all my work has been of stationary, and often inanimate, things. Meaning photographing people was/is a bit of a challenge. But the State Fair is the closest I can get to real street life so it's a great place to practice. Every photo was shot handheld. The night shots were at high ISO's, making for some noise. Everything was processed with PhotoShop CS3 and assorted Nik Software products.