Saturday, July 13, 2013

Alameda County Fair 2013 (Part 1)

Every year, Alameda County here in California hosts a fair from mid-June to mid-July on the fair grounds in Pleasanton, CA. While I am not a big fan of fair/amusement part rides, I thought it would be a great place for some photography, plus a few of my friends kind of dragged me along (a few of them requested I don't post photos of them online, therefore I took care not to include them in any of my shots). So, here I will be sharing with you the photos I took at the fair. The photos will include the rides and games in the fair, the Freestyle Motorcross, All Alaskan Pig Racing, Model Railroad, and some other stuff. I took a little over 200 photos, and will be splitting them into several parts. I hope you enjoy viewing the photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To view my best Alameda County Fair photos, use this link. To view all of my Alameda County Fair photos, use this link.

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This post will be on the photos of the rides, games, and some random "street photography" type shots I did at the fair. Also, scroll down if you want to read about my age discrimination encounter with Kitchen Craft.

A shot I took walking in. The photo is of some random people at the fair. It was a nice and sunny day and I managed to achieve this with no polarizing filter. I didn't bring one with me as I didn't want to carry a big bulky tripod with me to the fair. 

More photos of random people at the fair. Photo of one of the snack booths setup in the fair. 

The Ferris wheel setup in the fair. 


A photo of a kid ride in the fair. 

A booth setup detailing the times of concerts at the fair. 


Inside the building they had these demo booth setup demoing stuff. Funny thing. You see that lady on the right side on the 2nd image? She's apparently the "gate-keeper" for this booth. Seeing how my friends and I are "young adults" that probably won't buy anything from them, decided to shoo us off and told us to leave! We weren't even in their booth "fenced off" area either and wasn't even planning on sitting down there. We were on the outside. How rude. Well guess what, 2 pictures, story shared with the world. Do not recommend the "Kitchen Craft" brand of product. The company obviously practices in age discrimination. I bet the "gate-keeper" had no clue I have over 11K+ followers (at the time of writing) on Google+ did she. Well, you just did the company you work for a huge dishonor. 


The carnival people really wanted you to play. Many even offered me a few free tries. Even after saying no, they still ask. Anyways, with this shot of the basketball game, guess what the catch is? One of the signs (far right) says "Sharp Shooter Rims, Not regulation size or shape". I didn't play any carnival games because I know all of the are rigged in some way, plus all of them were way overpriced. For a basketball game like this, usually, the hoops are oval shaped, the grid to mess with your perspective, and over-inflated extra bouncy balls. 

The whole fair was setup on a giant parking lot I guess. 


A photo of the swing ride thingy. 


Another photo of the swing ride thingy. I got the idea for this perspective from commercials I saw on TV. I forgot what commercial it is though. 

These are all the photos for today. I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will be posting more ride photos, and general "street photography" inside the fair. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

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