This was the third year in a row that I attended this fair and although it takes place on the same streets and the vendors that sell their goods, are more or less the same every year, it looked different. At least to my eyes. I am trying to figure out if it was me, having lost the enthusiasm of the first years or if it was different indeed.
I know that it is very tiring for the street vendors, sleeping in their cars for three nights and working very long hours, it has always been like that. But as I remember them from last years, most of them were cheerful and humorous, teasing one another, as well as their clients. That's the way fairs are. Loud, outgoing, joyful.
But not this year.
This years I saw tired faces, stressed, moody people, performing their duties in a soulless, forced way. And it's not that I passed by for a few minutes and it was a vague impression. I went three times and each time I had the same sentiment. As everyone was obliged to be there, without really wanting to. Including the hundreds of people that were walking up and down, checking out the merchandise and shopping some stuff.
I don't want to be unfair to anyone. Maybe I was in a mood and I didn't manage to catch the vide of the fair but this is my blog so I guess that you are expecting to read my thoughts, don't you?
So when I finally decided to take a few pictures, just a few hours before they start packing everything and get on their way to the next selling place, I had a shooting plan in my head. I took with me only a fixed 50mm lens and I knew that I'll edit the pictures in a nostalgic b&w style. I had in mind the images I shared in this post, which are taken with b&w film, many years ago.
So apart from the aesthetic part, I also made a technical bet with myself, if I can recreate the feeling, as well as the imperfections, of the film photography of my youth!
I used my dslr very casually, almost like a point-and-shoot one. I wandered around with one hand in my pocket, raising the camera with the other, when something was catching my attention, taking the shot almost without looking. I can't say that they are my best pictures ever but I think that they transmit the feeling I was aiming for and there are two or three of them that I like a lot.
Not bad for a hasty shooting that I wasn't very fond of!
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.
I am also putting the links of the posts that I wrote in 2023 and 2024 if you like to make a comparison.
The camera that I used is a Canon EOS 6D mark II with an EF 50mm f1.8/L STM lens attached. I edited the photographs in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
