All About Downtown Street Fair in Jersey City Part 2

If missed Part 1 of this story, click on the link here (PART 1) to catch up 

It was 3 PM now at the Downtown Jersey City Street Fair as I was beginning to get fatigue as I walked back and forth multiple times down Newark Ave. seeing every vendor I passed by. If anything, I was starting to get a bit bored. I pushed on, though, because with more people coming, I was expecting something new and interesting. I kept my camera around my neck despite my aches with the temperature starting to get warm. I thought about putting my camera away to rest my neck, but I didn’t want to do that and rush my camera out of my bag if I saw a potential shot.

Spectators checking out another band perform on the stage located between Erie and Bay Street
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

I went back to the intersection of Erie and Bay Street where I saw the family band play. The stage was set for multiple performances by different bands as a large crowd was surrounding it to see another performance (Photo Above). I went with a wide shot to capture everyone in the crowd watching another band.

You can see the band in the far back in the middle, but I decided to concentrate more on the crowd. I also wanted to capture the “Beer Garden” banner just above the crowd to show how festive this fair was. What I enjoyed most about this shot is the father and daughter on the left side of the frame holding hands as they too were moving around the fair.

Moving along once more, I kept walking down Newark Ave. to see if I could find anything interesting. Fortunately, I did see something interesting on the corner of Erie Street as someone was walking a small pet pig on a leash! Now, this isn’t this first time I have seen a pig out in public in Jersey City.

Over a year ago, I was covering two Jersey City events (Project: Eats in front of City Hall and the Peach Pie Contest at Riverview Fisk Park) in which a guy had a fully grown pig on a leash. This time around, it was a piglet. I’m not sure if it was the same owner of the older pig I saw last year or that pet pigs are a new thing in Jersey City.

Piglet roaming the street fair as he was the most popular pet there
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

The little piggy was getting all the attention as everyone was on the ground trying to pet it and take pictures; I joined in of course (Photo Above). It was tough to get a photo of the little fella as it kept moving around with all the attention it was getting. I quickly zoomed in for a close-up as I was kneeling to get a nice frame of the piglet. I was happy that I was able to get the piglet to look at my camera for a spilt second to get the shot. The pig feet on the concrete ground is my favorite part of this photo!

It was now 4 PM and I was so exhausted. Seeing everything at the fair already, I was already thinking about preparing to go home already. I put my camera away as my neck was killing me. I needed to rest and sit somewhere away from the fair for a bit to refuel. I was about to head to Van Vorst Park as I was already on Jersey Ave. when I suddenly received a phone call.

It was from my childhood friend, Stephanie! I had texted her earlier in the day when she responded to my Facebook photo of the fair and she asked about how long the fair was going to be around. I sent her a text later to see if she was coming down to the fair. She replied that she was on her way.

That text was sent an hour and a half ago as 4 PM rolled around and I was afraid that she wasn’t coming. Also, I thought about how there was probably traffic to downtown thanks to the fair. I was hoping to see Stephanie since I hadn’t seen her since Christmas Eve. last year when we were able to hang out and watch a movie. It was the last time I saw her before moving out of Jersey City. I also wanted to spend time and enjoy this fair with someone as I was getting bored with just being alone at this event.

I picked up my phone as Stephanie said she was on the corner of Jersey Ave. I spotted her right away as she threw her perfect smile and waved me over. We greeted each other with a hug as we were happy to see each other again. Stephanie and I have known each other since out middle school days at P.S #37 Cordero located near Hamilton Park. We also lived a few blocks from each other when we both lived in the downtown area back then. We were inseparable best friends in school as we kept in touch over the years.

We started walking down Newark Ave. as I was excited again for this fair since I had someone with me again. It was like exploring the fair all over again as it was Stephanie’s first time at this street fair. She was excited to check out all the vendors and was looking forward to eating some of the food at the vendor tents. We ended up eating at Two Boots Pizza as the fair was too overcrowded.

Stephanie with the world’s thickest cotton candy as she poses at the front entrance of the street fair on Grove Street and Newark Ave.
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

After catching up with what has been going on in each other’s lives, Stephanie and I continued to explore the fair as I told her about the fair and which vendors had what. She ended up going to the Downtown Yogurt table where they had cotton candy in which she bought. In front of Grove Street, Stephanie decided she wanted to take a photo with her cotton candy and I gladly accepted (Photo Above).

I decided to go with a vertical shot since I wanted the main focus on Stephanie and I wasn’t getting that when I had it set to a horizontal shot since so many people were walking in the shot. Shooting vertically helped frame Stephanie perfectly as her pose certainty helped do that. The cotton candy and her smile added a cute touch in this shot. I also wanted to include the Grove Street sign on the top right corner just to add that downtown Jersey City atmosphere in the photo.

We decided to stand by the Grove PATH station for a bit and tasted perhaps the thickest cotton candy we ever tasted. We were goofing off, taking dumb selfies with the cotton candy before getting rid of it. Afterword, Stephanie was on her phone as I decided to go over to the Uncle Bud a.k.a The Sauce Man booth.

Uncle Bud is run by a man name Tony Alexander who calls himself Uncle Bud and creates these amazing homemade sauces ranging from mild to spicy flavors. He sells his sauces at almost every Jersey City event and I have bought these amazing sauces in the past. I first met Tony a year ago to cover the Peach Pie contest at Riverview Fisk Park for my old photography freelance job and did a story on him.

Uncle Bud approves this photo as he gives it a thumb up
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

I stopped by Uncle Bud’s booth earlier in the day, but Tony wasn’t there. His assistant was overlooking the booth, however, as I purchased Uncle Bud’s new sauce “Kiss Me Ginger”. I was glad to see Tony this time around as I gave him a friendly handshake. Tony saw my camera and he wanted to pose right away for a shot (Photo Above).

Tony had his arm around his assistant as he gave one thumb up. I zoomed in for a simple medium shot. I had to increase the exposition composition to get some brightness since there was some shade in the area thanks to the sun setting and I needed to get Tony’s face visible for the shot. Also, just like ChicpeaJC’s booth, I wanted to get the awesome Uncle Bud banner with Tony’s animated logo holding his own sauces. I bid Tony farewell as his tent was getting busy with plenty of customers.

With the fair being overcrowded, Stephanie and I left it for a few minutes as we walked a few blocks to the old La Conguita location, the once stapled downtown Jersey City restaurant that closed its doors forever this past summer. Stephanie wanted to see if the mural of the old Cuban man was still there as she wanted to take a few photos in front of it. I told her that the former owners said that the mural will stay up. Sure enough, we arrived on the corner of Erie and Bay Streets and the mural was still there.

Stephanie poses in front of the mural of the Old Cuban Man on the wall of the defunct La Conguita restaurant
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

We took a few pictures in front of the mural, but this one here is my absolute favorite (Photo Above). I had Stephanie placed right in the middle of the mural as she fixed her hair to the side since the wind kept blowing it. I went with a medium shot so I could fill both sides of the frame with the mural while leaving the artist name on it. Stephanie posed as a natural again as she just placed her arms and legs in a proper position while she shot a million dollar smile.

Stephanie in front of one of the vintage Cuban posters on the wall of the defunct La Conguita restaurant
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

The old La Conguita also had framed vintage Cuban movie posters on the side of their restaurant next to the mural which was still there to my surprise. Stephanie picked the poster at the far right end that had a couple dancing to band music and stood in front of it for a shot (Photo Above). Since the poster is vertically long, I decided to go with a vertical shot too.

Now, I framed the poster and Stephanie to the left so that way I could avoid getting another movie poster in the shot. Thankfully, Stephanie picked the last poster to make this shot a lot easier as I filled the right frame with the rest of the old restaurant’s wall. If I didn’t say this photo was taken in Jersey City, you would think this was shot in Cuba. This isn’t the first time I took Stephanie’s photos as we had a model session just almost a year ago.

The Hispanic music continues the rhythm in the air as everyone begins to dance in the circle
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

Once out mini-model session was done, we headed back to the fair and walked down Newark Ave. again, but this time stopped to check out the group playing Hispanic music from earlier as they were still at it. Stephanie was enjoying it a lot as she said “Now this is real Spanish music right here.” People were still surrounding them, taking photos and recording. Of course, I had to partake in the photo taking activity (Photo Above).

I went with a wide shot as I was standing on the sidewalk this time right behind the musicians. I captured the entire crowd of spectating and it had grown tremendously from the last time I stopped and watched this group. I focused more of the woman on the left side of the frame, capturing her movements as she danced to the music. I also focused on the guy blowing the trumpet as it was the first time I saw him. It was like the group kept adding more musicians and spectators.

The golden feather guy gets into the grove of one of the bands performing between Newark and Jersey Ave.
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

After watching the local Hispanic band for a few minutes, we continued to walk down Jersey Ave. where there was another musical performance at another stage with some random guy dancing and getting into some genre of music I was not sure of (Photo Above). The sun was directly in my eyes as I try taking this shot. I couldn’t even see the shot I wanted so I had to use the viewfinder.

I zoomed in for a medium shot and caught the guy dancing at the right moment on the left side of the frame as I waited for him to get in front of the camera while getting the full band in the background. What’s cool about this shot is the combination of smoke and sunlight by the singer and the guy on the keyboard that the camera was able to capture. I have never been able to get that type of natural effect in a photo before until now.

The three Hispanic men on their bombas as they rest before playing again
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

For one last time, Stephanie and I went back to the fun group playing Hispanic music. You had people from the crowd jumping in the circle and dancing their asses off as everyone around them clapped along. During a small break, people on their instruments took a breather (Photo Above).

I went with a medium shot as my main focus was getting all the three men on their bombas and each of their different actions. You have the man on the left checking out his phone, the man in the middle looking like he’s ready to play again and my favorite is the elderly man on the right showing the young boy how the bomba is played as the kid has one of his own.

Stephanie receiving her henna tattoo as she engages with the artist
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

One of the vendors that Stephanie was really interested in was the henna tattoo booth as she wanted to get a design on her arm. We were there earlier, but the woman doing the tattoos was on break so we left for 10 minutes. For some reason, we kept missing the booth as it was next to a bunch of other tents and was easy to miss. We came back 10 minutes later after checking out the fun Hispanic musical performance as the henna tattoo artist returned. Stephanie was ready to get her tattoo (Photo Above).

I took a lot of photos of Stephanie getting her henna tattoo, but this one is my favorite just for the interaction between her and the henna tattoo artist. I saw them discuss the design of the tattoo and as they looked at each other, I quickly took the zoomed in close up shot while capturing the candles in the backdrop. What I love about this shot is what sums up the diverse community in Jersey City. You have Stephanie, a Puerto Rican woman, engaging with an Indian woman giving her a henna tattoo, a well-known practice in Indian culture.

I took a few more pictures before calling it a day photography wise as I wanted to focus hanging out with Stephanie for what little time I had left. We checked out more vendor booths, went to the Halloween costume store where Stephanie bought a Black Widow costume and shared a drink at a bar restaurant called Raval Tapas which had just opened up a few months ago and was my first visit there.

I had planned on staying a little longer and getting one more drink with Stephanie, but she was worried about me getting home late since I had to travel. She tells me to check the train schedule as it was already 7 PM and it was getting dark. I checked my phone and my next NJ Transit train was arriving in 40 minutes. I decided the best option was to leave as Stephanie walked me back to the PATH. We gave each other a tight farewell hug and we talked about meeting up next time.

On the train ride back home, a reminisce on this wonderful day being at the fair and being back in Jersey City while getting great photos, seeing awesome people like The Big Hair Girls, Lynn of ChicpeaJC and Tony Alexander of Uncle Bud. It was great to hang out with Stephanie who helped made the fair even more of a blast. It was the day I truly needed to energize me back as I was out of gas back in Lawrenceville. It was the perfect way to officially end the summer season.

Special thanks to Stephanie for taking these photos of us and the world’s thickest cotton candy. Photo in the top left corner was taken by me.

All About Downtown Street Fair In Jersey City Part I

There is a fair in Jersey City that occurs in the downtown area every September known as the “All About Downtown Street Fair” where all the businesses in the downtown area along with other New Jersey businesses set up their vendor tents and booths from the beginning of Newark Ave. to all the way down the intersection of Jersey Ave. as the entire street is closed down so that everyone could walk down the street to purchase local goods and food!

I remembered the first time I went to the Downtown Street Fair back in 2013 and was amazed that I was able to walk down the street on Newark Ave. for the first time. Of course now the Grove Street Pedestrian Plaza closes down Newark Ave. to Erie Street full time except for the fair where Newark Ave. is closed off to Jersey Ave. It was great to see vendors of local businesses I’ve known growing up and others I never knew of before.

I went again in 2014 and this time I around had my DSLR camera for the first time to take photos of the event. I only spent a few hours there before heading home not knowing I may never have the chance to be at this event again since I moved out of Jersey City to Lawrenceville, NJ a few months later. With this September, the 2015 (5^th Annual) Downtown Street Fair was quickly approaching and I was sad that I was going to miss another Jersey City weekend event due to a new location and working on Saturdays.

Luckily, on September 19^th, I finally had a Saturday off and it was the same day as the Street Fair. Needing to get out of the neighborhood of Lawrenceville for the day, this was the perfect day to do it and spent the entire afternoon in my old neighborhood for the downtown fair! I took the nearest NJ Transit train to Newark Penn Station and hopped on the PATH on my way back home to Jersey City, taking my younger brother along with me. For this photography outing, I shot in program, set my ISO levels to 200 and set the white balance to daylight (it was a very sunny day).

It felt great coming out of the Grove Street PATH station and out on the Grove Plaza to immediately see all the vendor tents already set and already a large crowd was present at the fair. For a large gathering like this, I always like to take shots of people in crowds just looking around at the vendors.

Thanks to the Pedestrian Plaza, I can take easy shots of the crowd. The only difficult part was the crowd constantly moving, so I had to get my shots off quickly before someone gets in the way or I had to get out of the way myself. The vendor tents made the main road narrow and when the crowd grew later on, I had to use the side walk to get around quicker.

The entrance to the fair between Grove St. and Newark Avenue already appears to be crowded
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

For the first shot (Photo Above), I went with a simple wide shot capturing everyone walking in a straight line, wondering at every vendor tent. I took this between Newark Ave. and Grove Street just a few steps from the PATH station. I also wanted to capture the gorgeous blue sky on this beautiful summer like day with fall quickly approaching.

As much as I was photographer first in this outing, I was still a shopper as I browsed the tents slowly with my brother. When we reached Barrow Street, Barcade had two arcade machines in front of their place. Barcade did this a year ago with a Ms. Pacman and Galaga machine. This year they had a game called Cosmic Alien which is a Galaga clone and Spy Hunter. My brother, who’s underage, couldn’t go into Barcade to play the rest of the arcade machines, but I gave him a quarter to play Cosmic Alien as we were puzzled as to why it looked and played like Galaga.

Arcade Machines just outside Barcade on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

We played Spy Hunter right afterword and we enjoyed the cool controls of stepping on the pedal while using the steering wheel that had a button on it to shoot. After we were done playing that, I decided to take a photo of these awesome arcade games (Photo Above).

I framed the games on the right side us I enjoy the idea of these machines being outdoors just like how it is on a boardwalk down the shore. I did this so I could have the rest of the fair to the left to show it as the main focus of the outing. I also want to show the background of the apartment homes of Jersey City on Newark Ave. as well as the two high rise condos looking over downtown.

After wondering the rest of the fair, my brother decided to leave and hang out with his friends from his old high school before transferring out. I let him go since I know how it is to miss friends you haven’t seen for a while. It was the last I would see him for the day as he ended up staying at our grandfather’s house to spend the night. So, I was all alone for the time being as I was solo once more on this photography adventure as I killed time taking some more photos.

The crowd begins to grow even larger as the afternoon nears on the corner of Newark Ave. and Barrow Street
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

Since I took a shot of the street fair from the entrance of Newark Ave. near the PATH station, I figured I would do the same near Barrow Street. It was nearing 12 PM and the crowd was beginning to grow even more. More people filled the street, looking at all the vendor tents (Photo Above).

I went with another wide shot as I had use the viewfinder since the sun was starting to blind me to the point where I couldn’t even look at the LCD screen. I shot this in the middle of the street as well so I could capture all the different actions like the woman in green on the left just looking at her phone or the young boy on the right pondering while holding his mother’s hand.

The clear blue sky and the structures of downtown Jersey City overlooks the wonderful crowd of the street fair
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

Just like the previous shot, this one is no different except I walked up a little further from the intersection of Barrow Street and Newark Ave for another shot of the wonderful crowd of the fair to showcase this large population of people (Photo Above). This shot, though, has more of the clear blue sky with the amazing downtown structures overseeing the fair.

Around 12 PM, my stomach began to growl as it was time to eat and rest. I had been walking up and down Newark Ave. for the past hour and a half and needed to refuel. I decided to get something to eat at the Talde JC booth where they were selling Lemon Grass Chicken with Noodles! It tasted delicious as I ate it walking towards the nearest bodega to get a cheaper priced soft drink. Since I was at a bodega, I just had to get Champagne Cola. I took my meal and enjoyed it while I sat on a sidewalk watching everyone walk by.

Once I satisfied my stomach, I decided to hit up ChicpeaJC’s booth on the corner of Erie Street and Newark Ave. ChicpeaJC is a Jersey City blog website run by a woman name Lynn where she writes about unique stories of local people and businesses in and around Jersey City. I have met Lynn several times in passing, telling her how much I enjoy her blog and just to say hello.

She had tweeted the day before the fair that she was going to have a booth and was selling her new t-shirts for the first time, so I figured I go check it out. When I arrived, Lynn had several girls in her crew helping her booth out as Lynn was in and out of the booth to cover the fair herself and to simply talk to others.

In the booth too were the Big Hair Girls, two other well-known Jersey City locals best known for their dog walking business, their music videos and, well, their big colorful hair! I walked in the booth to immediately check out the shirt with the slogan “This is Jersey City!” with the words dripping down like white paint. All of ChicpeaJC’s shirts were helped made with collaboration with Mushart.

As I looked over the shirts, Lynn approached me with a smile and excitement as she threw a high five at me. I told Lynn I was very interested in the shirt as she was able to get the shirt in my size. Since I had to pay in cash, I had to make a quick run at the ATM as Lynn kindly held the shirt for me. Before I left, I took a cool photo with the wonderful Big Hair Girls thanks to the ChicpeaJC crew using my phone to take the photo for me (Photo below).

Special thanks to the ChicpeaJC crew of taking this photo of me and The Big Hair Girls with my phone

After a quick trip to the bank and to FJB Comics to pick up the latest Ms. Marvel trade, I returned to ChicpeaJC’s booth to happily purchase another cool Jersey City shirt to represent my hometown. The Big Hair Girls were holding it for me which I thought was sweet. I waited until Lynn came back to the booth so I could personally show I was supporting her new merchandise business.

Vertical shot of The Big Hair Girls (Lizzy and Venus) inside ChicpeaJC’s booth sporting their unique outfits and rocking their big hair
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

Lynn’s booth had a few other cool free stuff as I grabbed such items as a ChicpeaJC pin, postcard and stickers. Before leaving, I approached the Big Hair Girls and asked if I could take their photo and they kindly agreed (Photo Above). Since these girls are very tall, I had to go with a vertical shot to capture their entire bodies to capture their cool unique outfits and big hair, of course. I had to back up almost outside the booth so I could get this shot. I wanted to also get the cool ChicpeaJC backdrop which was provided for photo booth sessions for visitors.

After taking the photo, I thank the Big Hair Girls and told them how I always saw them in Jersey City passing by, but never had the chance to say hello because they were either on the go or talking to someone else. They laughed and said “Well, we are here in one spot, so you finally had the perfect opportunity to meet us.” I shook their hands as they introduced themselves as Venus and Lizzy. To know more about The Big Hair Girls, out their website: www.bighairgirls.com

Street performers in front of the Golokal Booth near the PATH station
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

I walked back near the Grove Street PATH station to see if anything new was happening since I ignored the area for a while. Nothing had been going on except for a few street performers at the Golokal booth, who were promoting their app which helps find local business in an area. They had these street performers juggling and making some balloon animals (Photo Above).

It was definitely something different so I simply went with a medium shot of the performers’ back as the bold headed guy with the brick pants balanced some blocks while the other guy tied up some balloon animals. The interesting part of this shot is that while these performers put on this act, everyone also on the left frame especially are just walking and paying no mind at all to the act. It wasn’t really the case as they did get attention later on, but just not in this particular shot.

Besides using my main DLSR camera, I was using my smartphone to take photos as well while uploading them to my social media sites. With that activity going on, I was already beginning to lose battery life on my phone. Luckily, the ChicpeaJC booth had a charge station (the only one for some odd reason), so I went back there to recharge my phone. While charging my phone, Lynn was next to me charging her phone as well. She had chuckled when she had just received my tweet to her about the booth.

ChicpeaJC’s booth with her amazing banner and one of her stylish new t-shirts
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

While charging my phone, I decided to take a photo of the ChicpeaJC booth. I really like the ChicpeaJC banner with Lynn’s animated logo and the exact shirt design I purchased hanging on the tent (Photo Above). With the sun blinding me, I quickly try taking this shot with the viewfinder as people kept walking pass by. I zoomed in close to concentrate on the two main subjects I wanted to frame on the left (ChicpeaJC Banner) and the right (The JC Shirt).

In the middle of the frame, I wanted to include the fair itself with the tents and people walking by to show some action. I didn’t realize until later when I was home that some guy just came into the frame on the right, but I left him in instead of cutting him out since I didn’t want to ruin the photo.

Lynn, the creator of the Jersey City Blog ChicpeaJC, poses in front of her own photo booth with her camera
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

I left the ChicpeaJC booth for a moment then came back to take a few more photo there. Lynn was in front of her booth as she was dancing to the music in her booth. I approached her and asked if I could take a few pictures of her. She kindly agreed as I took her photo in front of the photo booth’s backdrop (Photo Above). I figured why not take a photo of the woman behind the awesome Jersey City blog and booth I kept visiting all afternoon.

In this particular photo, I simply went with a zoom in for a mid-frame shot so I could fill out the left and right sides of the frame with the photo booth backdrop all while keeping Lynn the middle focus of the photo. She gave me a wonderful smile while she held her camera. It’s great when you can rarely take a photo of another photographer and blogger.

Lynn poses right underneath the ChicpeaJC banner with her animated self.
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

For one final shot of Lynn, this time I placed her right underneath the ChicpeaJC banner. I wanted to put Lynn right underneath her animated logo for a cute shot as I zoomed in for the close-up (Photo Above). Again, Lynn is the main focus along with the banner as they are the centered on the photo. As for the rest of the photo, there wasn’t much thought to it except for mailbox with all the graffiti to show the nature of Jersey City while showcasing a Jersey City blogger.

After our mini photo session, I thanked Lynn for taking her photos as I walked back to the street fair. If you want to know more about Lynn and her amazing Jersey City stories check out her website as www.chicpeajc.com

The St. Peter’s Mascot ready to embrace a hug from a sweet child
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

I continued along walking back and forth the street fair. I ended up buying two more Jersey City related shirts for myself and my brother at another vendor. Afterword, I walked down near the Palace Drugs store to see other vendor tents I didn’t notice before. There wasn’t much going on there, but the St. Peter’s University had their own booth with their Peacock mascot greeting everyone, including this little girl (Photo Above).

I captured this moment with a zoom in for medium shot as the little girl went in for the hug as the Peacock mascot was ready to embrace it. I love the reactions of the women in the booth as they smile about this affection. Oddly, this was one of the few costume mascots in this fair. I had expected more for some reason.

You can’t have a fair or any kind of festival without music being performed live in almost every corner. The one performance that intrigued me the most was the one played on the corner of Erie and Bay Streets behind Morlees. They had plenty of performers during the day at this spot as many local bands were performing their music. The one that caught my attention was a family rock band.

A family band rocking it and taking in the praise on the corner of Erie and Bay St.
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

You had a mom and dad at guitar and bass, the daughter as the lead singer and another kid on the drums. This is something you would see on a family sitcom or movie. I didn’t catch the name of their band, but they were actually doing a kick-ass job performing. Once they stopped playing one of their songs, dad had called out a cheering fan (Photo Above).

There were a lot of people surrounding the stage, so I had to zoom in to quickly get the medium shot I wanted. Since there was shade in this spot, I had to increase the exposition composition in order to get a much better, clearer and brighter shot to avoid the shadows. I framed the laughing mom, the singing daughter and the dad pointing at a loyal fan perfectly on the left, middle and right. I didn’t even notice the drummer until later when I looked back at the picture.

Hispanic music fills the air at the Downtown Street fair as spectators surround a circle to observe
© 2015 Angel Ortiz Jr. Photography

Not all music performances were done on stage as many were being done on the street itself. Right near the corner of Newark Ave. and Erie Street, a group of people began performing authentic, classic Hispanic music using instruments as people circled around them and watched (Photo Above).

I went with a simple wide shot as I wanted to capture not just the musicians, but the crowd watching on as they clap, observe and recorded footage off their phones. This image above shows the way a local event like this along with music can bring a community together.

It was now 3 PM, but I was far from being done with the fair and being in my hometown. To see more about what I did the rest of my time at the fair, check out part two of this Street Fair Story as this time I meet up with a childhood friend as we explore the fair together (Coming Soon).