Kodak at the 1982 World's Fair

World's fairs are great opportunities for photographers. There are unusual buildings, colorful parades, entertaining shows, international costumes and more. Some photographers will take their time to search for the perfect shot, while others will race across the fair site as quickly as they can. Luckily those in a hurry could get help from Kodak at some fairs, including the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair.



An official sponsor of the fair, Kodak had a number of signs like this one scattered around the grounds. The sign provided some suggestions on how to compose the best shots in that area, even listing the time of the daily parade, as well as a sample photo to help get things started. While the signs were undoubtedly helpful, they may explain why so many of the same views show up in collections.

Expo 70's Tower of the Sun

Some fairs come and go, barely leaving a trace that they once existed. Go to New Orleans, for example, and try to find remnants of the 1984 World's Fair. Good luck. Some fairs leave famous structures, such as the Space Needle or Unisphere. The site of Osaka's Expo 70 is marked with the Tower of Sun, the fair's theme symbol.

Here's how the giant statue looked during Expo. It was surrounded by a massive plaza that was topped by a large roof.



After the fair ended most of the complex was removed, leaving the Tower of the Sun standing by itself in a grassy park.



The poor guy looks lonely, so make sure to visit him if you're in the area. You can see some other legacies of Expo 70 as well.

Making things vanish

A few days ago I mentioned how hard it can be to get a picture of some pavilions without people getting in the way. Sometimes you come across a vintage picture which is fine except the original photographer was intent on capturing a family member in the shot, or perhaps someone was walking through the scene just as the camera clicked. Happily many of these pictures can be cleaned up a bit in Photoshop or other editing packages.

Here's a shot of the IBM Pavilion at the 1964 NYWF, for example. Not a bad picture, but the eye can still be drawn to the woman near the bushes, or the partial woman on the bottom left.



Well, with some work these and other distractions can be removed. I always keep the unedited versions as well, but sometimes it's just better to have less in the shot.

Don't EVER throw away your pictures!

About a year ago I was looking for some pictures for use in one of my world's fair books, but didn't have everything I needed in my own collection. I saw some very nice shots on a photo sharing site and wrote to the person who had posted them to see if I could use any in the book. He was thrilled to be asked, but it turned out the only copies he had were those small low resolution versions on the web site. After he had them scanned a few years ago he had tossed the original slides and negatives to save space. As a result the images were of too poor a quality to use and I had to continue my search.

If you have scanned any of your own pictures I'll strongly suggest that you resist the temptation to get rid of the originals. Anything could happen to the scanned image, and you might have a need to rescan the original. Another thing to consider is that as technology improves you can often get better scans.

I started scanning pictures on a flatbed scanner, and I think that was at around 300 DPI. That was suitable for web use but not much more. I was then thrilled to get a HP Photosmart S20 scanner, stepping up to 2400 DPI. That seemed fine until I saw the Nikon Coolscan IV with 2900 DPI and Digital ICE. Time to rescan the pictures I had already done!

Then along came the Nikon Coolscan V with 4000 DPI, as well as improved software for color correction... The re-scan saga continues.

It's worth it, though. Here's an older scan done in 2002 with the first Nikon scanner. The subject is the Christus statue at the Mormon Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. I picked this one as the lighting was especially bad and it was a tough slide to work with.

Here's the 2900 DPI version:



and here's the new 4000 DPI version:



See why I say never throw your originals away?

A quiet night at the Fair

It's often hard to get good photographs of pavilions at the fairs due to people getting in the way. The best time is usually early in the morning or late at night when the crowds are thinner. That's the case in this view of the Festival of Gas Pavilion taken at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. The date was May 5, 1965. The slow film speeds of the time made it hard to get good night shots, but the bright lighting of the overhead canopy worked well here.

The Great Hall at Expo 86

Expo 86 was a world's fair in two parts. Most of the pavilions were located on the main site along the shores of False Creek, but the host nation had its pavilion quite a distance away. The Canada Pavilion was designed to serve as a convention center and cruise ship terminal after the fair ended, making it necessary to split if from the rest of Expo in order to secure funding. The two sites were linked by the new SkyTrain system, making it relatively easy for visitors to travel between the two.

Here's a view inside the Great Hall, the main exhibit area at the Canada Pavilion. In the center was a Haida Indian war canoe on loan from the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.

Take me out to Freedomland

"Mommy, daddy, take my hand
take me out to Freedomland"

Growing up in the New York City area in the early 1960s you couldn't help but hear that slogan on radio and television advertisements. Freedomland was a short-lived theme park in the Bronx. It was a lot of fun to visit, but competition from the 1964-1965 NYF proved to be too much for it, combined with higher than expected operating costs. Freedomland is completely gone now, covered the by the hulking monstrosity called Co-op City.

Here's a view of Freedomland's resident undertaker, Digger O'Toole, surveying the results of a shootout in front of the Western Saloon and Opera House.