Chicken Horse
After a recent bout with the Omicron variant and a pretty nasty case of food poisoning, I can now continue to reveal the competing images from the 2021 Sandwich Fair Competition.
These images continue the series from the Sandwich Fair, the biggest and the last county fair in the state of Illinois. Known simply as "The Fair" by locals, it was started in 1888 and is the oldest continually-operated county fair in Illinois as well.
Held the week after Labor Day, the Sandwich Fair can draw tens of thousands of visitors per day and is a photographer's delight.
It is the reason why my photography club, the Sandwich Photographic Society exists. Formed in 1986 to document every aspect of the 100th Sandwich Fair in 1987, SPS is now a Chicago Area Camera Club Association certified club.
SPS sponsors a "Sandwich Fair Challenge" every year a themed photographic competition open to all that consists of 10-15 categories with the only criteria being that all images need to be taken at the current year's Fair. Many of the images featured in this series were taken to fit these categories.
This image is of Horse Barn 1. Built in 1914, it no longer houses horses, as horses are no longer shown for competition during the Fair. All horses for horse-based competitions and shows now come in the day of the event and stay around the horse show arena. I believe this ceased to be a horse barn sometime in the 1990s. It now houses chickens. The former chicken barn is now the maintenance barn.
On a side note, the amount of chickens on display in 2021 is less than half what is normally is in previous years, no doubt a side effect of the ongoing pandemic.
2021 Category: Buildings
For more information on the Sandwich Fair, visit their website at www.sandwichfair.com/.
Chicken Horse
After a recent bout with the Omicron variant and a pretty nasty case of food poisoning, I can now continue to reveal the competing images from the 2021 Sandwich Fair Competition.
These images continue the series from the Sandwich Fair, the biggest and the last county fair in the state of Illinois. Known simply as "The Fair" by locals, it was started in 1888 and is the oldest continually-operated county fair in Illinois as well.
Held the week after Labor Day, the Sandwich Fair can draw tens of thousands of visitors per day and is a photographer's delight.
It is the reason why my photography club, the Sandwich Photographic Society exists. Formed in 1986 to document every aspect of the 100th Sandwich Fair in 1987, SPS is now a Chicago Area Camera Club Association certified club.
SPS sponsors a "Sandwich Fair Challenge" every year a themed photographic competition open to all that consists of 10-15 categories with the only criteria being that all images need to be taken at the current year's Fair. Many of the images featured in this series were taken to fit these categories.
This image is of Horse Barn 1. Built in 1914, it no longer houses horses, as horses are no longer shown for competition during the Fair. All horses for horse-based competitions and shows now come in the day of the event and stay around the horse show arena. I believe this ceased to be a horse barn sometime in the 1990s. It now houses chickens. The former chicken barn is now the maintenance barn.
On a side note, the amount of chickens on display in 2021 is less than half what is normally is in previous years, no doubt a side effect of the ongoing pandemic.
2021 Category: Buildings
For more information on the Sandwich Fair, visit their website at www.sandwichfair.com/.