Tuesday, August 10, 2010

bunny and hortense went to the fair

they did indeed - they went to the midway and the country music concert, the demolition derby, the animal barns, and they even got the corn dog and lemon shake-up! people here just might think we've lost it! but i had a great time and some good stories came of it too....in short, a good time was had by all, and bunny lost nary a bean in the process!
first, i took them out to the big concert monday night....i got up front and started making some features for the daily - this guy jumped in front of the camera and he's all "hey do you remember who i am?" i recognized him, but couldn't recall his name...i was like, "high school sports?" turns out he was a big sports guy - all region in a couple sports from one of our schools - so he says, "hey, if you need an assistant, i'll help" and i was like, well, hey, i just might need an assistant with bunny and hortense...so i said, "okay, but are you sure, cos you really don't know what you might be signing up for" and he says - no, whatever, i'll do anything.....all rightey then!
so, i shoot what i need for the daily of the event, then i turn around and say, okay, ready to help out? here, you take this and have your sister hold this and just, ya know, forget me and enjoy the show - so here's this big athlete guy and his (very cool i might add) sister, totally getting into it...at one point, his friend offers hortense a drink out of his cup (which i suspect was probably about 10% pepsi, and 90% something a little less soft), while he pretends to make hortense drink and they all started cracking up......very very cool

after that we went to the midway, cos i wanted to put them in the scene of the fair rides now with all the colors and evening lights on - waited for a crowd of people to walk by - i think they may have thought i was a bit of a screwball

bryan and i had talked about meeting to team up on some shots - like them in the animal barns, eating, etc, cos it would help to have 2 people on that - otherwise every foto would look the same - them on the ground or sitting somewhere...so i held off on those the next day
but i did take them to the demolition derby - again, i shot a few heats worth of action for the daily, then i started thinking about how to get them into the event - i could take them behind the pit area, where all the cars are sitting there inbetween heats, but i kind of wanted them more in the scene, without getting into that visual rut of them looking at something - so, before the next heat, as the cars lined up to go into the arena, i asked the guy in the first car lined up if i could take a kind of weird picture on his car - he was like, sure why not, so i whip out bunny & hortense, position them on his car, try to keep them from falling over and make some frames...til i hear the flag guy saying - hey, we gotta start! - so, off they come and i thank him, and he says - maybe they'll be his good luck charms - and off he goes, and i shoot the heat, and holy crap - he WINS! (okay, just that heat, not the whole event of the night - i was kinda hoping he would at that point, but still!) so i caught up with him later as he and his crew were sledge hammering his even more beat up car into shape for the final heat, and he clapped me on the back and said how they really were good lucky after all!
how frickin funny is THAT?!!!!?!

next day, i met up with bryan....we went to the small animal barn and had bunny & hortense meet up with a rabbit FAR bigger than bunny - a flemish giant

we were sitting outside the barn, contemplating our next move when i noticed that there was an older man and his wife inside a vendor's tent that was filled with.....wait for it, wait for it......PUPPETS!
no way! we HAVE to go there!
so we did, and this guy got REALLY into making hortense talk!

after that, it was time for fair food - bryan had the great idea that we could just impale a corn dog into the ground for them to be appearing to eat......we did get a couple stares while shooting this one...i felt like i just wanted to carry around a sign - it'll all make sense after you see sunday's paper....really, we're not completely insane! but, ya know, who cares...it was fun...i think this may be my favorite shot- i just love the color - bryan says the derby is his favorite

so, that is that...wish i had the pdf to post up of the page - maybe i can add that in later, but all in all, it worked out, and i wrote a little story to go along as text.....and we did get a nice note from one woman saying how much she enjoyed it and suggesting that we do a children's book of the pair in famous monroe sites.....ha ha, funny she should mention that, i say, because..........

3 comments:

Nancy said...

Hilarious...you are hilarious. I love these pictures.

Keith King said...

I was laughing while reading this ! These puppets truly do look like they're having the time of their lives !

kim said...

thanx nancy and keith - we were a little worried that nobody would get it...so glad you do!