|
The Southern California Renaissance Faire has been a destination location for me since the late seventies. First presented in the city of Gorman, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles, and then in the Glen Helen Regional Park area of San Bernadino, about 40 miles east, the Faire moved closer to home about three years ago, to the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area in Irwindale, only about 20 miles away. The SoCal Faire was the first and is the oldest of numerous Ren Faires around the country. I haven't attended for about three years, and I have been planning to go since this season's Faire began back in early April. May 18th was the last day. I have been working on three Photo Presentations for my Webshots Gallery. 1. Culver City Kustoms. I put 234 photos in the Culver City Kustoms folder in the Webshots Gallery on May 10th. I still have a selection or two of some of these photos to feature on a PhotoPost here on WhenWordsCollide. 2. Purple Pulchritude. I went a bit hog wild taking photos of jacaranda trees this year. I last showed some photos of these lavender flowering trees which burst into bloom around the first of May in 2005. This last Friday, I took my camera to work with me, and during lunch and after work, I photographed some of the jacarandas around Long Beach. I wanted to get some photos up in Pasadena over the weekend. 3. Renaissance Faire. I have been dying to get out to the Faire with my new camera. I have posted Faire photos in other PhotoPosts, and have 97 photos on Webshots from 2004, the last time I went to Ren Faire exclusively to take pictures. I figured I would do both the Jacaranda and the Ren Faire expeditions at one time. I knew it would be nice and "sunny". I wasn't figuring on the heat.  On Saturday, the 17th, at about 8:30 in the morning, I checked the weather, and it was hot. Already. We've been having an early summer, with 90 and in some places 100 degree heat, so I figured I would take off to the Faire on Sunday. I stayed in my rooms on Saturday, trying to keep cool. On Sunday morning there was no change. I wasn't going to let a little heat get in my way, however, and I set out to Pasadena before 9a.m. on Sunday. The plan was to get up to Del Mar Avenue in Pasadena, right off the end of the Pasadena Freeway, wander around taking photos for a couple of hours, then head east to Irwindale on the 210 Freeway, arriving at Ren Faire at about 10a.m, when they opened.
I got my shots in Pasadena. In fact, the photo expedtions in both Long Beach on Friday and Pasadena on Sunday generated over 200 photos of jacaranda trees. I've got some stunning shots, and will be presenting some of them probably next on the blog, right after I put up a new Poetry Post. (Click on the photo above to see a full size "preview" shot.) When I got to Ren Faire, I figured on first taking video of a couple of the music and comedy shows, and then concentrate on the photos later in the day, after I had already scoped out the landscape. I usually don't work this way, but I used to use just the one camera, switching from video to still when I wanted to take a photo. Now I have two cameras, and have to physically switch from one to the other. Video first, and then photos, and I got too hot to get the photos! I did get video footage of The Poxy Boggards, a bawdy men's singing group, and Broon, a comedian and magician, and some other musical groups performing around the Faire. I was there right at the opening at 10a.m, so there weren't a lot of revellers as of yet. I walked around as the heat soared up over 100 degrees. There are a lot of costumed characters at Ren Faire, decked out as lords, ladies, pirates, buccaneers, wenches and fools, and the costumes are pretty elaborate. I had been joking with my roommate on Saturday about how funny it is that in England the weather is pretty much damp and drizzly but we have an English festival in Spring out in the desert. At least the Santa Fe Dam area wasn't as far away as Devore, where the Faire had been situated for a great many years, but it is still hot, and this past weekend it was VERY hot. The bottom line as far as photos. I only took 17 of them. I tried to make a couple of "rounds" walking around the Faire looking for photo ops, but frankly, I just couldn't get comfortable. I wasn't wearing a costume, either, just my Robin Hood cap. I drank lots of water. I had a couple of "black and tans", made with thick English ale, but I wasn't enjoying myself at all. Normally, I eat my way from one end of these Faires to the other, but I wasn't hungry at all. As bad as I began to feel, I began to wonder about the "players" underneath all their heavy armor or costumes.  I must say that the costumed folk "in character" were doing very well in the heat. I didn't witness anyone fall down because of heat prostration, but I had to leave early. Health trumped photography, and I decided to leave rather than risk passing out in the heat. At times like this I feel my age a bit. I was out of breath and sweating profusely. Good thing I got 10 dollars off the admission price (which is a good deal at $25.00 a head) because I certainly didn't spend a lot of time there. I almost "lost" my car in the parking area, which is a big dirt lot, because I didn't pay that much attention where I parked, and I wandered around the parking lot for a while. I did find the car, and when I got inside, I put on the a/c and drove home quickly. I tell you, I was almost physically hurting from the heat.
I got home okay, and spent most of the rest of Sunday resting in my room with the fan blasting me head on. I'm very disappointed that I didn't get many photos, but hopefully I will be able to make a video from the performance footage I took. I just posted nine of the 17 photos I took on my "PhotoBlog." Sometimes you just have to bend or break your plans in order to placate your health. I decided to go home before I got sick. I also didn't feel like going on the computer or using Xanga. I am planning another redesign of the blog, using jacarandas as the theme, and I hope to be able to "get around" and visit other blogs this week. I admit I haven't "been around" lately. If you have never seen the MikeVideo Internet Movie "Renaissance Day", filmed in 2001 and 2004 and assembled in 2005, here are links to Part One and Part Two. on YouTube. Both videos total 23 minutes of footage, including the Queen's entrance and the jousting tournament. I didn't even get to see the Queen yesterday! I hope she was able to beat the heat somewhat. I really tip my hat to these guys and gals who are there to entertain in any kind of weather. Well, there's always next year! |
