Sometimes as photographers, I think we all forget to have fun with our photos.  This is especially true for working photographers, who must always be running that ragged edge, getting the shots that really count, pleasing the client, on time and on budget.  But it’s true for the hobbyist photographer as well – he who is learning the craft, or honing his style, and is therefore constantly worrying about f-stops and shutter speeds and compositional rules.  We get so wrapped up in all of that stuff that we forget to stop and enjoy the process of making photos.

Now is a good time to slow it all down and get back to the roots of why we got into photography in the first place – for a love of making photos.

Friday night was rodeo night at the 152nd Harford Fair.  I was there, camera in hand, and a goal in mind.  The goal was not to make amazing photos, to capture scenes that nobody had ever captured before, or to get the next hottest selling batch of stock images.  The goal was to have fun.  Yep, that simple.  Just enjoy the fair, and as I went along, to capture some photos that show it as I see it.

That’s the real thing – when nobody else is paying you to make photos, when nobody else has a say in the creative process, that’s when it’s time for your own vision to show.  I love the Harford Fair.  It’s my favorite fair, and rodeo night is my favorite night to go.  I love it because it is still a small county fair, with a small midway tucked back in one corner, easily avoided.  I love it for the animals on display, all of them obviously well cared for and attended to.  I love it for the exhibits, the prize winning cakes and cookies and vegetables and paintings and photographs.  I love the Honey Hut and bee display, the Montrose Band funnel cakes, the antique tractor tent, and the locally-run dunking booth.

There is no shortage of things to love about the Harford Fair, at least not through my eyes.  So it’s not a difficult task to make photos that show that.  I made photos that were fun, that showed the elements of the fair that I want to celebrate.  I took them all with the little G10, so I wasn’t messing with lenses and filters and a big DSLR all night.  And when I got them home on the computer, I didn’t bother trying to edit them for best marketability, or strick editorial presentation.  I ran my “Lomography” action on all of them and tweaked them so that they looked fun.  Remember, I’m not trying to report on what the fair looks like, I’m trying to show you what it looks like to me.  So rich colors and hard vignettes and a ’60s film look is all okay.

I had fun.  I hope my photos show that.