Renaissance Fair

I have been struggling with whether or not to take on the responsibility of doing a weekly blog during the year I was 52 years of age. The daily blog I kept while driving across the country was a motivation for my sister, Becky, to do a 52 week blog and thus I feel the urge to follow suit.  The old "tag you're it" kind of motivation.  My sister is a far more social person than I and she has grand-children that provide her with an endless supply of material to blog about.  I fear if my blog postings were strictly about what I did each week they would quickly bore the hell out of what few readers I may attract.  I needed something else to focus my blogging on and photography was the logical choice for me.
There are many ways to blog about photography ranging from the 365 project style to simpler, less involved approaches.  I figured I would use this weekly blog to help motivate me to go out and take more pictures and try to improve as a photographer.   I love photography but still only shoot on special occasions or while on vacation at some national park.  Hopefully, this blog will help to get me out shooting and I'll share the results here, good or bad.   For those weeks when I am unable to motivate myself to get up and out, I will share a photo from my past that has special meaning or that I am particularly proud of along with the story about it.   I will endeavor to keep those to a minimum.  With that out of the way onto my first post.

This past Friday was my 52nd birthday and on Saturday Amy and I decided to venture off to Sterling NY for the Renaissance Fair that is held each weekend during the summer months.  We had visited the fair once many years ago and decided going again would be fun and may provide some photo ops to kick start my blog.

I'd thought I would try and get some artistic shots of artisan wares like hair ribbons and or metal sculptures but I think my best shots were taken during a one man stage show called the DaVinci Brothers comedic opera.


This man clearly enjoyed his craft and was skilled at drawing in the crowd before his show, which involved some "volunteers" from the audience to help act out some convoluted story that was really irrelevant to the entertainment value of the show.  The jovial nature of this performer is pretty well captured in the shots I took of him but my favorite is the one of him strumming his stringed instrument and singing.  Although watching him try to blow his horn while giggling hysterically was also fun.

Once again, I did not shoot as many pictures as I should have while on this trip.  I need to become more comfortable doing street photography as the place was teaming with interesting people in interesting costumes (one of the attractions for many that attend such fairs is to dress up in thematic costumes and go out in public and still fit in).   Shortly after we arrived, while waiting for Amy to return from the privy, I saw a woman in long white hair carrying a dragon's egg.  She wouldn't be the only visitor from Westeros that we would see during the day and I did not bother to take a candid or posed shot of any.