Admittedly, this post is a little late…okay, a lot late! But I had to share my experience at the Oklahoma State Fair last month because it was so awesome.

The original plan was to meet with other members of the Oklahoma City Photography Club on Tuesday night, but on the way there rain started coming down in sheets! I figured (correctly!) that the event was canceled and sulked all they way home since I was really looking forward to the opportunity to make new friends.

Fast forward to Wednesday night. I am giddy with excitement as I load my tripod and bulky camera bag into the car and head to the fair. Then I realize I am quite the spectacle to behold: I am five months pregnant (is she just fat?) and venturing out to the fairgrounds for the first time (it really is a wonder that I found my way back to the car!),  I am flying solo since the rain foiled last night’s plan , and I will be attempting to set up a tripod in a high traffic area at a public event. I take a deep breath and assure myself that even if everyone there thinks I am a weirdo, it is likely I will never see them again! Finally, I muster up the courage to leave my car and join the throng approaching the ticketing area. As the amusement rides come into view I am captivated by the colorful lights and I am reminded of the reason I came here: this scene is just too darn beautiful not to capture on camera! My state of child-like wonder continues as I realize I am not the only person here with a tripod! Several people were setting up tripods and some were even smart enough to bring a chair to sit on.

Fun fact: if you take a close look at the static lights in the first photo you will notice they look like starbursts. I didn’t use a filter to achieve this effect, it commonly occurs with bright lights during long exposures taken at small apertures and is caused by the wave nature of light. It is called Fraunhofer diffraction, and you can read the full explanation here. The first answer in the forum is spot on; I was using a 7-blade lens and there are 14 streaks in each starburst!

All in all the Oklahoma State Fair was awesome and I am so glad I went. The 2014 Oklahoma State Fair could look very different for me; imagine juggling a camera, a tripod, and an 8 month old! Now that would be a sight to see 🙂