Sunday night, the lights over the midway at the Manatee County Fairgrounds in Palmetto blinked off. The fair was over, the food trucks shut down, the tents packed up. Until next year.
After a decade or so of munching on fried dough and wandering mindlessly through all the displays, Iíve cultivated my own list of personal favorites.
Way up at the top are the goats.
Those crazy kids are always fun to watch, and their curiosity and seeming affection has made for some great photos.
Ladies and gentleman, may I present my annual favorite fair outtake, presented in a haiku. Oh, and Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so it's high time to dust off those writing chops for that special someone -- even if they have more than just two legs....
My heart bleats for you
as two heads are far better than one.
Mere fences cannot keep us apart!
Grant Jefferies, a native of Palmetto and chief photographer at the Bradenton Herald, has been capturing moments in the lives of Manatee County residents for over 25 years. Images from the streets of Cuba and Haiti to the clay fields of the Little League World Series and beyond have been captured through the lenses of Jefferies' cameras. Jefferies can be found on his sailboat when his feet are not on land.
Tiffany Tompkins-Condie is in her 13th year as a photojournalist at the Bradenton Herald. Through the years she has covered crimes and carnivals; feasts and floods. Her postings will vary from events in Manatee County's back yard to the work of photojournalists covering the stories of our times from around the world. 
Paul Videla has been a staff photographer with the Bradenton Herald since 2002, when he made the move from Detroit, Mich. When he's not working,
he enjoys hunting for unique LPs at the area's plethora of thrift stores and continually works to improve his baking chops(as the records spin and his dog waits for handouts).