Roger Vail

While we're on the subject of circusses and county fairs at night, if your local newspaper includes the LIFE: America's Weekend Magazine insert, take a look at the cover article "Go Ahead, Take a Spin", written by Garrison Keillor and photographed by Roger Vail.

(photo: Roger Vail)

I'm not usually a big fan of long exposures of ferris wheels, but Roger Vail has made an art of capturing the regular and irregular patterns of these rides at night. The small images in his website don't do justice to the full-page color images printed in the LIFE mini-magazine, but this webpage gives you a good taste of what his work looks like. The most amazing image, on page 7 of the LIFE mini-mag, isn't even represented in his website. But the cover image was taken near my home town at the San Mateo County Fair.

Looking at his work almost makes me want to go shoot some of these things, myself.

CORRECTION: Roger contacted me and pointed out that my favorite shot from the LIFE spread is actually available on his website right here. Thanks, Roger!