At the fair, there are thousands people in leather and chains, with tattoos, who are showing plenty of skin, so you think you’re going to easily get lots of keepers. Doesn’t work out that way—at least not for me.

I arrived around 11, when the fair opens, found a decent background, and stayed there for 20 minutes or so, asking a few passersby if I could take their photo. That was the extent of my shooting at the fair. It got so crowded by one p.m. or so that I just got overwhelmed and stopped trying to photograph people. I left not long after.

I took very few photos—only a couple dozen or so all told—but that’s partly because I was after only a specific kind of photo: portraits of interesting people, in the shade, with an uncluttered background. I didn’t want to take crowd shots in harsh sunlight on the street; I’ve done that before and the results are almost always disappointing.

So here are five from today, without more comment.

Will I go again next year? I doubt it, because I didn’t find it a fun shooting experience. Too many people, and I was too hurried to do a good job.