Vankleek Hill held its 169th Annual Agricultural Fair in August… which is a pretty big deal. It makes our Fair one of the oldest in Canada. So we’ve been showcasing tractors and horses pulling stuff, seed competitions, dancing horses, good looking cattle, midway, music, beer and cars smashing into each other longer than almost anyone.

One of the original events is the ‘Light Horse’ competition. I was asked to take photos of this years event by our local paper. Unfortunately, it was an early morning event, with a lot of the action taking place with the crappiest part of the sunrise as a backdrop… the glare part. The part where, when you’re shooting into it, everything is either washed out or has ‘flares’.

I think the reason I forgot to post these at the time is because most of them are just wrong. This was the event that pretty much made up my mind that I needed higher quality equipment… or, at least, different equipment.

The camera I used to take these shots, a Canon SX240HS, is a fantastic little machine. It’s a freaking marvel… a miracle of engineering that comes with nearly 140 settings, and a remarkable 28mm-500mm optical / digital zoom. But the lens itself is a remarkably tiny 1″ in diameter.

The result: glare, a washed out sky, and focusing problems.

…plus, there was a semi-professional taking shots of the same event, at the same time, using a very professional camera with a massive lens normally seen only at Olympic track & field events. So I went out and bought myself a Nikon D5100 with an 18mm-55mm lens. I’ve used it four times in the past month. Totally worth it though, because now my penis feels bigger.

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…we have a Vankleek Hill Amateur Photo Club now, this is our Facebook Page: [Link]. We think it’s pretty cool…