There’s a range of subjects to photograph at a county fair, but the lights and motion of the carnival rides at night are hard to beat for some striking images.

I did not have a a tripod, so I handheld the camera for shutter speeds as low as one-quarter second—too long for the 50mm lens I was using. So, often, I just went with it and exaggerated the motion. This is a big Ferris wheel shot with a slow shutter speed plus intentional camera movement (ICM).

For some shots, I was able to hold the camera reasonably still for a quarter of a second so that the non-moving parts of the image are fairly sharp, while the moving ones blur.

Lots of the rides spin or drop or bounce, so there’s plenty of movement to capture.

I had only a 50mm lens, so I zoomed with my feet to get different looks and include more or less of the environment in my shots.

I won’t include others here, but I took a lot of photos of typical fair scenes … like this corn dog stand.

The fair at night is not such a good subject for my usual black and white photography, but it’s obviously ideal for color.