[Kombisaurus]

I had a chance to go exploring around the Claremont showgrounds today. These huge grounds host the Perth Royal Show every year and occassional other events throughout the year. But there's nothing on at the moment.
I just saw a couple of maintenance vehicles parked inside the grounds and most importantly, the gates were open.

So I headed on in and went for a drive around the grounds. It is begging to be photographed, and I've never had a good look aroud before.
I love the deserted carnival atmosphere. It's eerie and creepy, but in a good way.

I just happened to have my 5D MkII with me along with a 17-40L lens and cokin ND8 Grad filter with me. I may have overcooked the processing a bit, but I think it kind of suits the subject.


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I stayed there for about an hour, and didn't speak to a single person. I saw a couple of maintenance staff off in the distance in vehicles, but they left me alone.

[matthew]

These are absolutely awesome. I'll have more comments later, but I couldn't let these go without adding a solid "wow!" right away.

[Kombisaurus]

Thanks Matt.
You're a sucker for geometry and text so I figured these would be right up your alley.

Note: I just slightly reworked the processing on the last 2 pics and updated them.

[Pavel]

Looking at these photos you have an intense sense of a bygone era and I love that. The photos are generally of a very good quality technically. The feel very "clean". My one issue is with the GND filter which seems to give the photo a brown cast on the top. I have the same issue with my filter and I use it sparingly for that reason.

[matthew]

Adrian, I also have a thing for closed carnivals, so you're right on target with these.

While I really like all of these photos, I also appreciate the way you've put them together. The red and white of the concession stand leads to the reds and whites in the roller coaster; the horizontal form, reds and green of the coaster ties to the Maze of Horror; the red in the sign and the green corrugations tie to the fence and the sausage stand; the yellows and horizontal bands of the awning links to the slide, with an echo of red in the Danger sign for good measure. (The final photo doesn't really fit for me, but even still the shape of the building is similar to the slide and trees beside it.) Putting together a coherent series is a completely different skill from the ability to take the photos in the first place, so it's great to see them both exercised so well.

[Toad]

These shots evoke a feeling somewhere between "Route 66" and "The Terror of Tiny Town" Carnivals bereft of their people always feel like they are concealing sinister secrets that pick and and move with the tents. The atmosphere is further enhanced by the graduated filter that both vignettes the scenes and adds a dirty 30s dust-bowl feel to the images (particularly 1 and 4). Like the "Fool Killer" has come to town - the weirdness and transience of the carny a perfect cover for his deadly quest.

Photos as story - wonderful.

One tiny criticism. I don't feel that the final photo in the series invokes the same foreboding in me - but that may be because I am reading too much into the story. The other photos show absence of life and facades that may conceal dark secrets - but the last one - not so much.

A stellar contribution. I love it.

[Kombisaurus]

Thanks for the comments.

Pavel, I think most of the warm dirty look you see in the grad filter is processing. I ran a colour cast layer over each of these images.
I can't say I've noticed the grad filter introduce a colour cast to my images, but admittedly I hardly ever use it. I do seem to notice that shooting with Sigma lenses produces warmer tones than Canon lenses on the same camera. I hope I'm not just imagining that.

Matt, as usual I think you guys put much more thought into my photos than I do. I chose the order intuitively rather than putting much conscious thought into it. The first two shots just seemed to "belong" together, and the two yellow corrugated images obviously belong together. I am a bit disappointed that the danger sign on the yellow sausage sizzle stall isn't more prominent - it would have tied in even better with the yellow slide, and the fact it is a warning sign for asbestos is another reminder of the era these buildings belong to. I'm tempted to enlarge that danger sign in photoshop.

Toad, I was a huge fan of the "Carnivàle" TV series and the dark, twisted atmosphere it created. I didn't specifically have that in mind when shooting these images, but there's definately a parallel. And I agree that there's something really sinister and creepy about carnivals, particularly deserted ones. I must admit that while shooting these images (at 6:30pm on a Sat evening) I was beginning to worry about getting locked in for the night, as I hadn't spoken to anybody since I arrived there and had no idea when they were locking the gates. It really added to the tension of shooting.
And I can see what you are saying about the last image. Even though the era of the building fits, it doesn't add to the creepy atmosphere. It just looks like a building.

Here are a few more from the day. I don't think these work as well as images though, which is a shame because ferris wheels and chairlifts are iconic rides.


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[Don Schaeffer]

Great show!

[Toad]

I was beginning to worry about getting locked in for the night...

Shudder