I walked up to Baildon Carnival last week. Set across three fields, it was a collection of children’s fairground rides and stalls, charity cake, tombola, and other assorted stalls, a music stage, refreshment tent, and obstacle course. The celebrations started in the town centre with a parade of a few raggedy floats up to the fields on Jenny Lane. There was a good atmosphere throughout and the weather remained sunny and warm. The boy enjoyed dancing in his ten-month-old, move-your-whole-body-up-and-down way to the shouty teenage bands on the stage. I enjoyed the concept of the human fruit machine which comprised three blokes in little tent things who, at the payment of 50p and the ringing of a bell, would pick a fruit out of a bucket. If they all matched, you won big. I didn’t win big. I think it was a fix. It was for a good cause, of course.
It should have been a haven for photography, but my heart didn’t seem in it. I got a few decent pictures, but most of them were of the boy. I’ve chosen this one for my blog as it sums up the tacky fairground aspect of the day. This was a stall that gave away ridiculous large stuffed dogs as prizes, probably made in Chinese sweatshops by kids younger than those trying to win them, with the candy floss stall in the background. It shows well how busy the carnival was.
The image is more or less straight out of camera. I gave it the slightest of S-curves to bring out a little contrast.