A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

19 August 2017 — 0220 mdt

High flying at the Flathead County (NW MT) Fair

I visited the fair Thursday, walking from my home 1.5 miles to the west and arriving at 1710. That’s a good time of day for photography, with the hard shadows and haze reddened sunlight (although twilight is best for shooting the brightly lit carnival), but a bad time for moving quickly as the crowds are building and long queues formed at the gut bomb booths for overpriced soda pop and greaseburgers.

yoyo

This is a crop of the next image.

yoyo_wide

The mountains near Lone Pine State Park are visible to the south.

ferris_wheel

Every carnival has a Ferris wheel.

security

Where there are crowds, there are constables.

dumpsters

Infrastructure. I thought the fair staff was doing a good job of keeping the fairgrounds clean.

flathead_dems

The Republican booth on the other side of the building was adorned with Trump-Pence signs, although this year those two are on the hot seat instead of the ballot.

psychic

I peeked in the tent, but didn’t see a crystal ball. I didn’t see a customer, either, which improved my spirits.

grandstand_queue

A queue to the grandstand.

redtrain

The red train. There was also a blue train, but my image of it was blown out because I forgot to reset my camera’s ISO to 80 and thus took the shot at 1600. I could call that a stupid mistake, but that would not be accurate. It was worse than stupid.