Blue Hour Cotton Candy

Today's images are all about color.  These were taken at a local Labor Day Fair with at least some of the atmosphere of a traditional carnival.  Nothing subtle going on here, it's all about lights, color and movement. 

When you live in a medium sized city it's easy to be bored.  You get into a mindset where you think you've shot every worthwhile subject.  It gets to be a drag finding a different way to shoot the same locations.  A parade or a street festival like this is just what the doctor ordered.  It's so different from the "normal" environment there seems to be a million shots you've never seen before. 

For this trip I was a little lucky with the sunset.  There were angles to get an interesting sky behind some of the rides.  Also there had been a brief rainstorm which was clearing out just as the light faded.  That provided an interesting backdrop for some shots and a very nice overall quality to the light.  
When you get a setup like that, it's time to be clicking that shutter.  

I think the extreme lighting is a good way to hone your street photography skills.  Everybody is moving constantly, they move in and out of different light setups, so you have to be watchful.  It's helps to be aware of things outside the frame, otherwise you will miss shots as people walk in front of the camera.  It's a different way of thinking about your shots since you have to be quick and patient at the same time.   Even if you miss a shot here and there, no worries, there will another along in a few minutes. 

I used aperture preferred and started with ISO at 400 early in the evening.  As the sun went down I upped it to 800 and later 1600.  That kept shutter speeds between 400 and 800.  For some darker shots it got down below 100 a few times.  Have to be very careful about movement in that range.  Remember that with a Nex-6 and manual lens there is no image stabilization.  You have to set up your shots old school, like a real photographer.
I didn't use a polarizing filter, but I did use my little camcorder lens shade.  That helps somewhat with flare, not completely, but still a help.  It also provides some protection since you will get bumped in crowds like this.  White balance was set to auto. 

Another thing to be aware of is that with bright lights and dark backgrounds there is a tendency for the raw files to over saturate the bright colors.  If you shoot jpg, color will just be over saturated even more.  Processing for most of these required reducing the luminosity of the bright colors to some extent.  Once the luminosity is right, fine tune the saturation up or down just a bit to get the effect you want. 

I think little events like this are great photographic opportunities, so I'm marking my calendar for next year.