Another year, another Oktoberfest celebration under my belt. I believe that this was my 18th trip out to the river west park for beer and brats. This year would be a little bit different. I decided against alcohol this year as it would mean either not taking one of my medications for the day or having an upset stomach for the remainder of the night. It would also be the first year in probably half a decade that I have attended the festival alone, but I intended to make the most of it and hopefully my wallet would make it out alive 🙂
I figured since I was going by myself and there would be plenty of interesting subjects to photograph it would be a good day to take the cameras out. I also picked up a new 1/4 black pro-mist filter from K&F Concept and wanted to see the effect all of the light bulbs would have. I was impressed with the results. I’ve purchased quite a few filters and accessories from this brand and from what I can tell they are an upstart Chinese brand.
Initially I was skeptical but every item I have purchased from this brand has been well made. I’m sure that there are better and more sharp filters on the market but for the price I paid these will probably get the job done. I don’t think it matters too much since most of my edits involve adding noise or grain to the images so paying 4x as much for a potentially sharper filter does not make much sense to me at the moment. I do however want to get a tiffin black pro-mist just to do a side by side. All of the reviews I’ve seen online seem to indicate almost identical results.
This is probably one of my favorite color shots from Oktoberfest this year and it was a very quick snapshot. I was looking down at my camera trying to dial in the lights and the carnival rides in the background when I heard a woman mention something about a photo-bomb as she quickly posed and walked in front of the camera. I had a split second to press the shutter and was pretty lucky that the focus was so perfect.
This is perhaps my favorite overall photo and for sure my favorite of the black and white edits. This vendor was just admiring the crowd and the sunset, and I thought that there was something very interesting about all the German bier steins and the cowboy hat.
Here you can see the original color image. My only regret with this one is not taking a few more seconds to get the shelves level. I was a little worried that If I waited any longer a customer would walk up and the moment would be missed.
When I am out and about taking photographs at events like this, I try to think about the photos from history that are still around today and what made them stand out so many years later. The way this little girl had the flowers in her hair and was dressed up matching her mother caught my eye. Only a few moments prior the little girl was skipping along the path.
I was walking along the path when I overheard a small child tell her mother that she was tired and as I turned to look, she picked the little girl up and held her in her arms.
There was so much good food, in addition to all the traditional German food the carnival side was filled with traditional fair food.
The one good thing about the recent changes to the layout at Tulsa Oktoberfest is that they have added a section of amusement rides for the entire family. I was surprised to see that the lines were not very long, and each ride had plenty of room on them. I did hear a couple of complaints about the prices of the wristbands and perhaps that explained the lack of riders.
One of the most interesting things of the day had to be drunk Santa, I shouldn’t say drunk he was only slightly buzzed but he took the time to stop and talk to this little boy and I couldn’t help but take a couple of snapshots. Besides without photographic proof who would believe me if I told them that Santa was at Oktoberfest? Here are some more shots from Tulsa Oktoberfest 2023, Enjoy.
