waterstone photography

What a great day it was for this annual festival, and for my first visit.

A lady and her friend were happily browsing the market when I asked for their photo. I noticed they were trying on hats and seemed to be enjoying the still-quiet, early morning out at the market. The lady in pink agreed, and took a few moments to pick out the best hat for the photo.

(almost as soon as I’d taken her photo, I wish I’d composed it a lot better)


When I first arrived at the park, there were two people lined up to take a ride. I wanted to wait until there were more spectators before I went up. It just gives a photo more juice than if no one and no cars were around.


While I was up in the hot air balloon, the operator told me he’d been flying hot air balloons for over twenty years, but did not own his own.
I stated the obvious, that it was going to be a hot, busy day, and he chuckled in agreement.

Standing in the basket, taking in the view, he then pointed out a tiny car in the lineup of antique cars. When it was time to disembark, that’s where I went.

…this is not the Mini

After checking out the mini Mini Cooper (it’s 26″ shorter than a Mini), Bill captured my photo, and then made the connection of how we knew each other.
I first “met” Bill at the 2009 New Hamburg fall demolition derby & fair. I had anonymously (or so I thought) snapped his photo while waiting for the next derby heat to begin, and he found me while browsing photos from the event on Flickr. It’s always neat to put a face to a Flickr name ;)

Wandering through the vendor zone, I met Randy, owner of a kiosk selling various home decor items. I purchased a small bench picture frame with shells and oceanside flare. He agreed to let me take his picture while he was still setting up a few items for sale. Randy has been to a variety of markets in Southern Ontario, and is almost always at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. (Maybe I’ll track him down next year and give him a copy of this photo :)

An hour or so after I visited a few neighbourhood garage sales, I stopped in at a kiosk full of ethnic charm. Drums, necklaces, crosses, rings, tribal decorations. I’m always drawn to these kiosks to get a dose of distant culture, without actually leaving town. Handcrafted items have not just their unique, sometimes imperfect looks and feels, but they also carry the love that flowed through the artist’s hands. Victor introduced himself to me and we chatted about the variety of items he was selling. El Salvador crosses, Indonesian necklaces, Mexican drums, Peruvian bean-bead necklaces. I purchased the Peruvian bean necklace and asked Victor if I could take his photo. Such a nice man!

One of the garage sales happened to be a fund-raising effort put on by the youth of St James Lutheran church. I purchased custom-made reusable bags to support their cause, and then asked to take a group photo of the youth helping out. I hope they had a successful day!

Sights, smells, sounds… colours, shiny cars, dusty books, greasy foods, condesation covered cans of pop, sweaty kids, diesel, jet fuel, fried foods, cooling off in the shade

Met Donna, owner of a 1947 Dodge businessman’s coupe and a 1956 Dodge Coronet. Donna and her husband have owned these cars for about five years, and travel around every weekend during the summer to show them off.
Her husband keeps the business man’s coupe in shiny shape.

I told her I was a student photographer at Conestoga, and Donna offered to let me in one of the cars to get a few interior shots. I gladly accepted.