I have always loved carousel horses. They used to be hand carved by craftsmen, each individual and unique, full of life and detail and care. At some point, they started molding them out of plastic and there was no joy in them. When I was a kid, half the fun of the carousel, maybe even three-quarters of it, was that feeling that your horse was a mighty steed, you FELT something from that wooden horse as it surged around. You picked one that spoke to you, you almost felt that its flaring nostrils were breathing hot breath; its carved wind-tossed mane was snapping in the wind.

At Smiley’s Flea Market, the one thing that I thought was truly beautiful was the old carousel. It’s not well maintained, but these old-style horses were really nice. And of course, the iPhone, which was the only camera I had with me, did a superb job of capturing the horses, even though they were moving past me at speed, and it was dark behind them, but the phone STILL picked up enough light, with a fast enough shutter speed, to take these gorgeous pictures.