2022 – GSP Carnival (daytime version)

                                 (ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on June 15, 2022)

 

 

First off, let’s properly identify this event. This carnival was the L.E.A.D. Fest Carnival, an event hosted by Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence (L.E.A.D.) and I shot it on June 5.

As noble as that name sounds, no one calls it that. It’s held annually on the grounds of the Garden State Plaza (GSP) in Paramus, NJ. BTW – that mall is officially the Westfield Garden State Plaza, but nobody calls it that either. So all you locals know what GSP is (but it could also be the Garden State Parkway, which is by the western border of GSP).

And just so you know………..YES – “daytime version” implies that there will later be a “nighttime version” post.

 

CLICK MOST IMAGES ONCE OR TWICE TO FULLY ENLARGE

So why am I shooting a carnival? In my never-ending search to stretch out different types of moving objects, carnival rides HAVE to be a more eye-pleasing subject than cars on highways.

For instance, if you didn’t notice anything unusual in the above carousel photo, here’s a closeup:

 

And to make things REALLY ridiculous:

I like this one because besides going around and around, the horses go up and down and this demonstrates both motions.

 

Of course, not EVERYTHING in a carnival is stretch-worthy (though it might be a stretch to think big crowds would come here for fried cauliflower and fried broccoli):

 

I HAD to take a picture of this squashed camper (no – I didn’t do this with reversed PANO panning). I’m not familiar with Granpa Cratchet, but from what I can gather online, he does puppet shows for kids via that side window:

More info: https://tinyurl.com/GranpaCratchet

 

Ever ride inside a pink-outfitted bear?

 

How about a pink-attired bear that’s spinning?

 

This ride looks innocent enough………….

…………until you give it the PANO treatment, which appears to twist the metal structure, severing most of the connecting wires and sending the riders to their doom:

 

A little calm before the next calamity:

 

I hope these are both going in the same direction………….

 

Some more Wild Mouse shots:

 

I was hoping to get a shot of the Ring of Fire riders upside-down at the top, but they didn’t have enough customers to run it (a reason to go back at night?):

 

This is the reverse side of those unhealthy fried veggies tents I showed earlier. Here, you can get healthy fried candy bars!

 

In this PANO shot, you can see the same Rocket Man on the left, center and right. He appears to have a total of 6 ½ heads:

 

These are two shots of a ride called Pharaoh’s Fury. The seating area goes way up on one side and then swings back to go way up on the other, pendulum-style. Since I couldn’t get both apogees in one shot, stitching these two together was a semi-acceptable option:

 

What I DID get were the normal and PANO versions of the left-side apogee of the Khufu ship:

Interesting that on the PANO side, all the connective metal structure and the Pharaoh’s Fury banner have vanished.

 

I’m going to finish up with something that was totally unexpected. The results are so weird and so cool that I wish I knew who the people in the images are so I could send them the most unusual father-daughter pictures they’ve ever had.

The ride is the Fun Slide: essentially, people sitting on a burlap bag and sliding down a long ramp. I’m at the bottom of the very long and straight downhill ride.

As soon as I see them start at the top, I begin a slow pan from top to bottom, trying to match their speed. For some reason, long gaps exist where no one is shown. Obviously, I’m not matching their speed and angle at certain points, but I do a better job as they get close to me. That’s where the fun(ny) starts.

These are 2 tall images that are 1,200 pixels high. Because of their size, they won’t enlarge any further when you click on them. If you can, try to zoom in as much as possible to see all the detail of the multiple smiles and arms/hands (check out what PANO did to the security guy on the right):

 

In this shot (and just above mid-pic), there are about a half-dozen images of just the man’s floating head and Yankees cap, unconnected to anything:

 

Aside from all you 3rd-base coaches who enjoy photographing a runner sliding into 3rd, has anybody ever seen shots like these before?

I sure haven’t.

 

This was supposed to be a one-and-done deal, but now I think I want to see what’s photographically-doable at this carnival at night.

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

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