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Do people really have fun at fun fairs these days?
Maybe they're a great night out for rural folks deprived of outings most of the year round but living in an over-stimulated metropolis, I can tell you our famous Luna Park, despite it's utterly spectacular setting right by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is decidedly bedraggled these days and there are no queues for any of the rides. It is only open a couple of nights a week and that is because of two things -- noise complaints from the yuppies who moved in to expensive high-rises nearby built since its heyday, and the fact that the amusements can't advertise something new each week the way cinemas can, or provide the illusion of freshness the way, say, shops can by cunningly rearranging their wares.
The promise of something new is rather crucial to a night out these days, and you've been on all these rides before.
Mum and Dad took you when you were a kid, and that WAS fun (ie, a new experience). You visit again with friends when you're a teenager just for a daft night out; and you do it again on a date . . . but you don't go back again till you've got kids old enough to go on a few rides, do you.
And then you might take your nieces, nephews or grandchildren as a favour to the family.
That's a total of five times over about 80 years -- and Luna Park can't run a business on that.
But there's one kind of adult who is still a big kid at a fair at any age, and that's the photographer.
Photography nuts alone probably sustain fairs now, with their pictures of magically-lit whirls and wheels always a hit in shows and websites. They become magicians and illusionists themselves playing with light and long exposures, creating haloes, trails and shadows and selling us back that idea of fun.
While you couldn't drag me on to a rollercoaster these days, you can certainly dazzle me with pictures of the fun it's meant to be.
Fairs are an ideal subject for HDR processing too, because there's no such thing as too over the top where fantasies and nostalgia are concerned.
A specialist in the magic of the night and things that whirl and swirl is Notley Hawkins of Columbia, Missouri, who has posted nearly 800 photos of fairs on his Flickr site.
I have used his images here so click on any to explore more.
Curmudgeon's corner
Back to the subject of not having fun at fairs, because eg one is not a photographer or an American, also see David Hughes -- aka Strobelit Goldfish here.
New to Posterous but not to blogging, he has featured as one of his first items a muttering about "worst theme parks" -- and recommended driving on by when feeling tempted to go to even a good one.
That's David though. He's a friend. He's also a fun guy in his own way but just not inclined to get over-excited about anything ;=)
(Seriously, I love him and am one of his biggest fans. I also happen to agree -- but I can't resist the bright lights when it comes to colour photography.)



