My visual diary 2020: Ballarat Swap Meet

[melanie.ylang]

Every year my partner and I look forward to spending a few days at the Ballarat Swap Meet, where we enjoy the atmosphere with like-minded friends. I love walking around, looking for interesting things to snap, and take in the congenial ambience of the mainly-male crowd of motor vehicle enthusiasts.

I took my OMD EM10.2 and GX8, planning to shoot with two lenses, but so far have only had the GX8 with P20mm f1.7 out. One thing I'm really struggling with is shooting with a fully-articulated screen, instead of with my preferred tilt-only screen.

These are mild edits from an in-camera custom monochrome setting.

I'll post in batches to break things up!

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

Yesterday I bought a cute little vintage Hanimex tripod, so the Hanimex gear on this table drew my attention.

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[melanie.ylang]

Barney surfs the bonnet (hood) of a handsome, short, yellow Dodge school bus.

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

Volunteers keep the event running smoothly - these ladies kept driving before realising I was trying (slowly) to take their photo!

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[Avondale87]

Awesome.
Don't have such events here that I'm aware of.
Be fascinating strolling around those displays but probably need to keep my hands in pockets and avoid bank problems ?

That little Hotrod is a beauty

 

[melanie.ylang]

This swap meet is advertised - somewhat oddly - as 'Australia's Largest Swap Meet in the Southern Hemisphere', and it really is enormous. There's a limit on what kind of conveyance you can use to get around, but bikes and gophers are popular choices. This year the ground is especially bumpy, presumably from cattle having been run on the land in previous months, making it hard going, but at least there's barely any slope!

I'll post more photos when I have them.

 

[melanie.ylang]

This is a screenshot of a post by the organisers, showing the size of this event. HUGE!

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[melanie.ylang]

There is always lots of old pedal cars to be seen.

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

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This used tools site was one of many, but it was one of the best with wonderful collection of beautiful hand tools - all those precision instruments, with their aged timber handles, knurled adjusters and weathered metal, were things of great beauty to me, and I know many of you will appreciate them, also.

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The site-owner was quite shy, and I didn't like to make him uncomfortable by asking to take his photo, but I surreptitiously snapped a wonky shot of him without looking at my camera.

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My buddy, a builder by trade, bought a lovely tin with an exquisite hacksaw kit:

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[melanie.ylang]

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Fresh out the factory!

 

[melanie.ylang]

I didn't buy this!

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[melanie.ylang]

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[melanie.ylang]

These stickers were on an old Plymouth, last registered in:

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[melanie.ylang]

This jet plane pedal car was the most interesting thing I saw, and had an equally interesting price tag of $2,500.

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[melanie.ylang]

As the swap meet site is a paddock the rest of the year, and it's held at the end of summer, dust is a very real problem. Water trucks help keep things under control.

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