Last Saturday I was doing a little volunteering with my camera for CASA, doing senior portraits of foster kids at the demonstration garden in Monument Valley Park. The circus comes every year to Colorado Springs, and every year they park their train on the stretch of tracks that runs parallel to the park. Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the circus. I am, however, a fan of that nice graphic red and white lettering against the steely grey of their train cars, so I used the circus train as a background prop for some of the portraits I did. I have to admit, reluctant as I am to incorporate Barnum and Bailey into my work, it looked pretty cool.
6 comments:
Wow, I would never have guessed that circuses still travel around the US on their own trains, but I guess it still makes as much sense as it ever has. I first read about circus trains in Robert Hough's "The Final Confession of Mabel Stark", a fictionalisation of the real life of a female tiger tamer who actually worked for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey until they stopped using animal acts way back in 1925. It's a fascinating book and part of the fascination I felt was to do with the idea of a circus, with all its characters, animals and paraphernalia, being packed onto a train and moving around the country.
It does seem like such a romantic lifestyle! I really enjoyed "Water for Elephants", you should give it a read if you like stories about the circus life.
It does look quite striking that way. Like you, I'm not a fan of the circus.
You can't go wrong with a red sign!
Nice shot but I am with you, I am not a fan.
I've never been to a circus so I can't judge. But I'd still love to experience it even once.
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