This is one of the first iPhone photos I took, at the North Carolina State Fair.  I thought the people looked so lonely up there, just whirling around in space, so far from each other, from the ground … nobody was even screaming, which made is seem that much worse, as though they were resigned to their lonely, twirling lives.

I’ve always loved this picture, with the dramatic sky in the background, but after I applied an “Astro” effect using Paint FX, I almost fell over, it made it look so much more interesting, and enhanced the “spaciness” of the whole thing, making it surreal. What an odd thing we humans do:  paying money to be taken up a pole and spun around in midair until we are sick; it’s really a moment that needs to be exaggerated photographically.