Photowalking.org

Well, because of an unscheduled trip to the west coast, I’m late writing up this recap of the December photowalk by the IndyFlickr group, on December 9.

The weather forecast was for rain and freezing temperatures, but that didn’t keep a small group of us from showing up on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis about 6 p.m. I showed up just in time to catch pjern taking shots for an HDR image of the Christmas tree on the Monument. I’m glad one of us thought of the possibilities of taking HDR shots, the fog made for some very dramatic shots.

After a few more minutes, the rest of us showed up, many with kids in tow. After all, this time of year Monument Circle downtown is a Christmas fairyland for little children, with the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument decked out as a Christmas tree with almost 5000 lights, as well as 7 foot tall toy soldiers, candy canes and horse drawn carriages.

Many of us started out in the South Bend Chocolate Factory. After all, it was cold, foggy and drizzly, and they have probably the best hot chocolate in town. After warming up with hot chocolate, we headed back outside to start taking pictures. Paul was experimenting with creating custom bokeh patterns, the kids were running amuck playing tag with each other, and everyone had a pretty laid back time.

Despite the weather, a good time was had by everyone. If you’re interested in coming out for next month’s photowalk, we’d love to have you. As always, check out the IndyFlickr group for details, updates, and all the rest of the photos taken by this great bunch of people. Happy Holidays!

The IndyFlickr group is getting together this coming Sunday, Dec 9 at 6:00 pm on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. This is a good opportunity to dust off your tripod and get some good shots of the Christmas lights and shopping around the downtown area.

The plan is to meet in front of the South Bend Chocolate Factory at 20 N Meridian St. It’s just to the right of this photo I took a couple of months ago looking south from the Monument.

So come on out, get some hot chocolate or coffee at the Chocolate Factory, drop your spouse off for some Christmas shopping (a hint: Roberts Camera is just a few blocks away) and spend some time photowalking with us.

As always, check out the IndyFlickr group discussion for any last minute changes.

Last Saturday morning, Nov 3 about 10 of us from the IndyFlickr group got together at Holliday Park. I was worried that I’d be late because I stopped on the way to the park to take some photos of the sunrise. It was breathtaking.

As it turned out, I was the first to get to the park, just before 9 a.m. As people slowly started showing up, we hung out in the parking lot chatting, introducing ourselves to a couple of new people who braved the morning cold, and taking pictures of each other. Once we started walking around, we also had an impromptu crime scene re-enactment. Finally, I’m not the only one who crawls around on my belly to get a shot. I think this is a new rule with this group… if you assume a potentially embarrassing posture taking a photo, you’ll get multiple people taking your photo.

Once the sun came out, the weather was gorgeous. Again, it was really interesting to see the different perspectives that everyone brought to their photos.

Finally, thanks to Mike (Big Whiskey) for organizing these things. They’re great fun. If you’re interested in seeing more shots from our walk, or if you’re interested in coming out to our next one, check out the IndyFlickr group.

Following up on our photowalk through Crown Hill Cemetery, we’re going for some more nature on Saturday, Nov. 3 at Holliday Park in Indianapolis.

Holliday Park is one of the the oldest Parks in Indianapolis, and is located along the banks of the White River on the north side of town. With 95 acres, Holliday Park includes a nature center, rock garden, several miles of wooded trails, and a wide variety of trees, shrubs, wildflowers, birds and other assorted small furry wildlife.

The current plan is to meet about 9 a.m. in the south parking lot and we’ll go from there. The park is located at 6363 Spring Mill Road, you can find a map to the park here, and a map of the park here [PDF].

I’ve been to the park once, a couple of years ago, and unfortunately didn’t take any pictures that I can find. The paths can be a bit hilly (quite surprising for Indianapolis), so if you come, make sure you wear comfortable shoes for walking on the trails.

As always, check out the IndyFlickr group for any updates on the meeting. Hope to see a good turnout.

Last Saturday the IndyFlickr group went photowalking in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. We had a great turnout, with about 9 people showing up, including a good number of new people. Again we had a good mixture of cameras, from high end digital SLRs, to an antique Leica shooting B&W.

Unfortunately a couple more people showed up late and didn’t hook up with us (Crown Hill does cover over 500 acres after all), but from the looks of it that didn’t deter them from taking some great shots.

We even had a couple show up who found us through photowalking.org. Good to meet both of you Joe and Sarah.

We started off from the east gate of the cemetery just after 9 a.m., and the early morning light made for some very good shooting conditions.

After deciding that everyone who was going to show up was there, we headed into the cemetery. That sounds much more ominous than it was, considering it was a bright and sunny day.

Our general destination was the top of Crown Hill, which is the highest spot in Indianapolis with the best view in town of the downtown area. We took a lot of side trips on the way shooting everything in sight. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy, so we didn’t get many good shots of downtown from the hill.

Looking over the photos from this month’s walk, I’m really struck by the different shooting styles of everyone who showed up. Some of us seemed to pay attention to the fall colors that were coming out, some more to the historical significance of the headstones, some to things underfoot, some to the light and shadows from the early morning light. We all seem to be camera shy though. Other than pictures of us taken from a distance by someone else on the walk, nobody thought to pose for a group photo. Go figure, a bunch of camera shy photographers. I spent my time alternating between shooting infrared with my Minolta DiMAGE7 and conventional photos with my Canon 300D.

There are a lot more great photos to look over in the IndyFlickr group, so go check ‘em out. Better yet, come out an join us for our next walk.

Hey, I know this is short notice, my fault entirely. This upcoming Saturday, October 13 at 9 a.m. the IndyFlickr Meetup Club is having their October photowalk in Crown Hill Cemetery.

Crown Hill Cemetery is the third largest cemetery in the United States covering 555 acres. It’s a favorite area to go shooting for a lot of people in Indianapolis, including me. Fall weather is finally arriving towards the end of this week, the trees are starting to really come out in their fall colors, and Saturday is forecast to be sunny and in the mid 60’s. And Halloween is coming up. In short, perfect excuses to go photowalking in a cemetery.

We’re planning on meeting in front of the church just inside the entrance off W 34 St at 9 a.m.

View Map
So dig out your gear and come on out for a fun morning of wandering around one of the largest cemeteries in the country. I plan on spending the morning shooting some infrared.

Check out the IndyFlickr Meetup Club for any updates, or e-mail me at dave [at] thegistofit [dot] org.

Hope to see a good turnout.

September 22, a small group of us from the IndyFlickr group got together for a photowalk through downtown Indianapolis. Five of us showed up, some with indulgent families in tow. We started out in the Mass Ave. district, an area with a lot of funky shops, art boutiques, restaurants and old architecture. In short, lots of fodder for the interested photowalker. We had a good assortment of DSLR’s, a point and shoot and a Nikon 35 mm film camera shooting away. The original plan was to get some good sunset shots looking west across downtown. For now I’ll just be posting links to photos that I took, when I get permission from my fellow photowalkers I’ll be posting some of theirs as well. Until then, check out the IndyFlickr group to see them.

We started out with feeding our collective craving for Cajun food with dinner at Yats, a small hole in the wall place with some of the best Cajun food available in Indianapolis. After that, we set out in the early evening. It took us about an hour to walk the first block. Get a group of photowalkers together and we’ll find lots of things to shoot. The weather was perfect, company was good, and we all had a good time, catching a few stares from passers-by, assuring them that no, we weren’t tourists.

After about 3 hours of slowly wandering through downtown, we ended up at Monument Circle right around sunset. Time to pull out the tripods and take some extended exposures. We haven’t decided where we’re going next month, but I’ll post information here when we do decide. Have any ideas, let us know.

So, the other day, Deanna has this great idea. “Let’s go for a hike,” she says. Sure, no problem. I’ll take my fatness on a hike. That’s just great.

Well, we did it anyway. And I had a great time, just like everyone else. I couldn’t believe it, The Padawan and The Wookie were pretending to be soldiers, marching strong. The Princess was great. She had an awesome attitude the whole time. And Deanna carried The Baby in a Baby Bjorn. In the words of Posh Beckham, “It was Major!”

So, the photo set is up at Zooomr, here.