Enlightened Confusion » Downtown

Evening Photo Walk: Downtown Indy’s Westside

mas — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:58:32 +0000

It has been a while since I shot downtown. I recently purchased an excellent wide angle zoom lens, and I wanted to give it a workout. Downtown seemed like the perfect subject, so off I went. Given the evening light, I decided on the west side, shooting mostly east. Turns out, there were three major events going on the west side. Despite this, my super secret street parking location was still available, and, no, I’m not going to share.

The 10-22mm was a lot of fun, and I’m pretty happy with the results. The light was kind of harsh, so many shots would have benefited from a UV or other polarizing filter. Here’s one of my favorites; the rest are on the photos page.

Morning Photo Walk: Lockerbie

mas — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:50:18 +0000

I got up early and a did did another morning photography walk this today. I wasn’t as inspired as I was with the last one. Then I had a purpose, I knew exactly what I wanted to do: capture the new stadium. This time, I didn’t really have a purpose. I just want to capture some more downtown architecture. I ended up in Lockerbie and wandered over to Mass. Ave. It is one of the older areas of the city that has still retained its original feel. Here’s one of my favorites; the rest, as always are on the photos page.

Morning Photography Walk: Lucas Oil Stadium

mas — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:49:45 +0000

I got up early this fine Saturday morning for the sole purpose of getting out to take some pictures. I decided my destination was the recently finished Lucas Oil Stadium. I’m not particularly a football fan, but, hey, I’ll be paying a half a point every time I eat out for the next thirty years to pay for the thing. So, I might as well get some enjoyment out of it.

It’s a beautiful building…kind of a modernized twist on a turn of the century manufacturing center. The choice to skew it on the log was brilliant. It keeps it from looking too much like a factory and puts the city skyline in all of its site lines. That is difficult to capture, however, because of the nature of the surrounding area. The near south side has all of its utilities above ground, making it hard to find a vantage point to capture the scale of the thing, its relationship to the skyline, or even the roof line, that isn’t obstruct by a utility line.

Fortunately, the land between the RCA Dome and the new stadium is being developed and has been cleared. This allowed for some nice shots juxtaposing the new against the old.

I made eighty-eight shots is just under an hour. The wonders of digital. Fortunately, Aperture makes narrowing that down to my twenty or so favorites a fairly quick process. See the photos page for all the rest.

Using shutter speed to change the look of moving water

mas — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:54:30 +0000

I visited the Indianapolis downtown canal district a couple of weeks ago to take some pictures. There is a waterfall at one end of the canal where an old set of locks used to be. I used the opportunity to experiment with the looks you can create with flowing water using shutter speed.

If your shutter speed is really fast, say 1/250 of a second or less, you will see every stray drop of water caught in a moment of time. I like to call this beaded water. Here is an example:

On the other end of the spectrum, using a slower shutter speed, say 1/30 of a second or more, will result is a smooth image where the flowing water blurs together. I like to call this curtain water. The example:

For the rest of the canal pictures, visit the photos page.

Cycling Route for 6/8

mas — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:03:17 +0000

I made a few of mistakes on my ride yesterday. First, I decided to leave at around noon on a very windy, ninety degree day. Next, I left on an empty stomach. Third, I only brought one bottle of water with me. Finally, I got 20+ miles from my house before I realized this all was a mistake. The net result was that I was too exhausted when I finished to post this yesterday.

Anyway, it’s an awesome route. It’s one I rode a lot last year. There are a lot of variants of this route, and optional extensions that can be applied to various place from downtown. So, without further adieu, here’s the route:

Greenways and Downtown