I've been going to the Oregon Country Fair 🍑 for 20 years now, and this year I consciously tried to capture the magic through my lens. I also made a deliberate choice to focus more on portraits rather than candids or wide shots. I love how portraits hack into our brain's natural response to seeing faces and bringing out emotion.
Too scared to get my R5 C super dusty, I brought a DSLR hand-me-down Nikon that I got from my sister instead. This camera was my first interchangeable lens camera, and it opened this whole world to me. I also brought my trusty FM2 35mm film camera. The DSLR did not disappoint—I forgot how much battery life you got with those early models. I set it to aperture priority and wandered off into the Eight.
To add a twist to shooting on film, I bought a bag of expired film from a local antique store. I was especially excited to shoot a roll of 1000 ISO Kodak color 35mm film I found, which is no longer made.
Bubbles at dawn is one of my favorite parts of the fair. I shot a whole roll of film at the sunrise congregation of diehards, lofty sparkle ponies, cat girls, and psychonauts. 🌞 A huge shoutout to my homies for making it so much fun, and also to the crew that brought out fresh oysters 🦪 and champagne to pop bottles during sunrise! 🍾 💫