Hi there friendorinos and amigas!- So this weekend was the great annual Maine's reserve finest Common Ground Fair, which is a veggie hippy-fest from way back and like none other, and the organic Maine grown sausage sandwiches will set you back $9.00 American dollars and they won't take american express, so like almost every year I got some pretty good people photography practice in. Previous years I had done all panoramas or shot with a whole kit that I wore in my backpack but this year I just slapped on a 50 and shot at 2.0 in Av or in Tv mode at 1/10 sec. I like to make people pictures but I live in a national park so I focus on landscapes- so in an opportunity like this I feel much less bashful than I did 5+ years ago when approaching people for a picture. And you know what- (of course this wasn't just street photography and people already kind of presumed a public face and accepted me making their picture) but more times then not for some reason the people I shot were seemingly flattered and almost proud to have their picture made. I mean I was approaching people I thought were interesting looking and I would usually ask them before making their picture and if they looked at all put off I would say that the reason I wanted to photo them was because they looked interesting or cool or something like that, and I wasn't lying- you know what I mean. Poeple are interesting to shoot because their symmetry is always different but usually really interesting maybe just for the individuality (except if it's me- you can not take a good picture of me, just too weird on ground glass). Let's get to the images- like I said I shot them all on my 50mm 1.8 which is Canon's "plastic fantastic" and is light as a feather and you don't mind wearing a full frame camera around your neck all day with it on- I was looking for portraits so I wanted to shoot wide open, so I stopped down to 2.0 to get a slightly better image quality then 1.8 and help with my focus (which was something of a mistake as my technique of autofocusing and recomposing often created enough of a discrepancy to lose critical focus at 2.0 where if I had shot at 2.8 or 3.5 then I probably would have had better focussing success- not a major problem, just a consideration), anyways- right, to the images:

"Betsy", actual a neighbor of sorts as she lives in the town I live in and I found her here 150 miles away at the fair! 

then there's this guy who I could tell was waiting for someone who was in the in the johnny- the only thing I don't really like about this picture is the reflection of me in his right sunglass lens which would be a Photoshop clone brush exercise that wouldn't be that fun- 

people on benches are easy to photograph-

hello fellow!

then there were the "petit muerte" people (which means something else in french, pardon me'), as if it was a sleep fair- it was Sunday after all and that's what I had originally planned for today-

more not really dead people

he's not really dead either-

more of what I said already-

apples

the apple protectorate- if you want one, take one now!- no one's looking!

veggie parade-

more veggie parade-

square dancing-

indian corn $5.00

this guy plays the irish bag pipes, which is weird cause bagpipes are Scottish, and I'm Scottish, so that's weird-

more people on benches-

Oh Snap! I love this one! more people on benches II- lens flare for free.

Right then, so there you have it, this years pics from the fair- who knows how I'll shoot it next year, but here's hoping I get to nap the day away instead then! So my point is is that it was a great fun time, and the sausage was wicked expensive, but I made it a camera photography exercise that was really rewarding and hopefully I learned some more things that I'll be able to remember and put to use the next time I want to make a good person picture, because the rock will always pose the same way but the people do all kinds of unpredictable and erratic things like move and change their expressions etc- you know what I mean. Keep your batteries charged, have a nice day, and make some good pictures out there you's guys- Nate from Maine, Usa.