Tag Archives: Indianapolis

And it’s for free!

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Ever since I started in photography many years ago, I’ve wanted to create a “painterly” effect.  That is, an effect that is more a poetic expression of a scene than a literal recording of it.  I’ve talked about this before.  The Corel Painter products I have now are very good but rather complicated and expensive unless you are really dedicated.  I haven’t achieved the skill level I need to show you much with those programs but I recently found free photo sketching software that I find exciting.  I want to show it to you, and if you are also interested in a painterly effect, you might want to try it too.  It is simple to use.  This software works on Windows computers but not Macs.


This was a shot at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana year ago November.  I liked it without the painterly treatment but I like it even more after running it through FotoSketcher.  I don’t know why David Thoiron, the developer of the software, hasn’t charged even a nominal amount for it.

If you try it you will find there are many choices in painting styles and variations within those styles.  I find it liberating.

Try it, you’ll like it.

Macro photography: Come closer

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Yesterday I talked about a recent program on macro photography at our camera club.  I prepared for that meeting by putting my macro lens on the camera and going out over a couple of days to get back in practice with it.  The lens I use does not permit focusing any closer than about a foot away.  We won’t be doing insect retinography with this lens because it can’t get that close but it does offer other possibilities at this kind of middle distance that I prefer.

What struck me  was relationships between flowers.  At an objective level there is nothing more there than the juxtaposition of two flowers.  But images tell stories.  We, as observers, become co-authors with the photographer in developing those stories.  What stories do these images tell you?

Flowering tree

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Do scenes or images of scenes communicate with you?

Our camera club was meeting last night at the Indianapolis Art Center and the topic was macro or close-up photography.  This was as much workshop as lecture and a lot of people were inside taking close-ups of small objects.  This is a great technique for seeing what is very small and not at all obvious to the eye busy with other sights.  They were using flash and other artificial lights because it was rather dark in there.   Because I don’t usually like to shoot with anything but natural light, I got out of their way and went outside.  They were having a good time and doing fine work.  I would find my good time outside.

I can’t tell you what kind of flowering tree this is, there are many species at the Art Center.  But I did find it hugely attractive.  At the time, it said “Japanese garden” to me.  Getting it home and seeing it on the screen brought out  a larger story.

I had started reading Jonah Lehrer’s “Imagine” the other day and this image contributed one understanding of what Mr. Lehrer was talking about.  His book is about creativity.  It brings in neuropsychology, personality, “mental illness” and many other areas of research in trying to better understand this most precious and human capacity that, truly, is so dimly understood.  One of his points is that it’s not  just the case that creativity can take any number of paths but that there are many kinds of creativity.  Let’s leave it at that for the present so we can get on with this post.  Read the book.

When I first saw the tree I thought I would eliminate the building and just show the tree with perhaps some flowers at the bottom.  But the more I looked at it, the more I thought the building was contributing to the image.  The horizontal lines in the wall and the vertical drain pipe form a frame for the tree.  But while most of the tree fits within the boundaries of the frame, some of it doesn’t.  And that is one part of what a lot of creativity is about.  It fits to some extent in the conventional frame of reference but at the same time is moving out of the frame.  If it catches on with the populace, the frame might expand.

This was not macro photography but it was made with a 100 mm f/2.8 Canon macro lens.  This translates into “good lens”.  More on macro work tomorrow.

Each look, the first

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In his poem ‘A Guide to the Field’, David Wagoner writes

‘Our first strange steps
On a path that leads us down on a path to its end in water.
Each look, the first.’

‘Each look, the first.’  That’s the way it felt this morning as I went out to shoot.  Aside from the trip to Gary last Sunday, I haven’t been out with a camera in some time.  So in a way it was ‘Each look, the first.’


I didn’t go far, just to the azalea bush out front, to start.


And then along the driveway.


Winter is supposed to be drab.  That’s not what I saw.


There’s a lot of color if we just look.


‘Each look, the first.’  But I won’t wait so long for the next outing.

Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis

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Members of the camera club participated in a world wide photo walk a few weeks ago.  It was brisk when we got started at 9:30 but it warmed up after a bit.

We worked in the Massachusetts Avenue area of Indianapolis, a historic area with many artists.  A lot of the images I have here were created by combining images shot at different exposures (High Dynamic Range or HDR).  High saturation, which is often a part of HDR images,  just seemed the right thing to include with many of them.

It was a go-go kind of morning.

I liked seeing these three kinds of architecture together.

Indianapolis Fire Department Station 7.

At the Indianapolis Fire Museum up the street from the fire station.

Many years ago, when I first started working at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories in Holmdel NJ, I worked on automating Directory Assistance.  I learned that the DA offices often served areas far removed from their physical location.  A few years after we moved to Indianapolis, my wife and I started going to the Agio Restaurant.  It moved around some in those early years and when we stopped by at the last known location, it was dark on a Friday night.  Moved again, but where?  I called Directory Assistance and asked for the number for Agio and the operator replied “I was by there the other night and it was dark.  I guess they moved.”  Not the answer I expected.  I’m glad to know where it is now, it’s a good restaurant.


Mass Ave.  An excellent place to go with a camera.

Letting go

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I was out in the front yard yesterday morning shooting some small yellow iris that have been blooming lately.


I was fairly pleased with what I was getting.


The light was diffuse and that saturated the colors.


Then the light changed and that was the end of it at least until later.

I didn’t get back out until this morning and I really wanted to do better with those iris.  I knew I had missed something but didn’t know what it was.


The light was different and even though I didn’t know what it was, I was farther from what I wanted than I was yesterday.


I headed back to the house and near the back door was this cleome (I think that is what it is).


The iris yesterday were nice.  The iris this morning were OK but the real gem was this flower.

I think I have part of the lesson now – going out with a tight agenda (I need better iris shots than I got yesterday) isn’t going to work if the conditions aren’t there.  Sometimes it’s better to let go and just look without any agenda at all.  The lesson yet to be learned is when is it time to give up one and go to the other?

A morning at the zoo

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Becky and I went to the zoo this morning.  It wasn’t unpleasantly hot and I didn’t need the headband I’ve been carrying around.  It was overcast which helped saturate the outdoor images.

How many parent have ever resisted this expression when feeding their kids?


I guess blowing bubbles is one of the chief occupations of a sea lion in the zoo.


What is it about penguins?


At the shark petting tank (these are young dogfish) one of them kept sticking its head out of the water.  I guess this is how it sees what’s on the other side of the surface of the water.  This one appears curious about the rest of the world.


In contrast to the curious dogfish, this gibbon seems more intent on an inward meditative journey.


Stealing a kiss while feeding the giraffe.  Lucky giraffe.


There were two giraffes especially interested in the vegetables.  The one on the left is only a year and a half old.


A lot of the kids enjoyed feeding the giraffes.  Even if Dad was a little firm in helping make the decision.


We have a new addition among the elephants.  Mom is very patient.  She has her own stick and so does the baby.


That’s pretty fancy footwork, getting a front and back leg up a bit at the same time.

I look at the animals in the zoo and wince that they are all captive.  Is that Right?  But I still had a good time and will be going back again.

Glow night at the Indiana State Fair!

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My friend Becky and I went to the state fair last night for lots of reasons, among them to see the images some of our friends had entered in the photography contests but mainly to see the balloons.  There was a balloon race this morning and last night the balloons were all lined up to glow.  It was dusk and the fun was about to begin.


At 8:45 they were firing them up.


As you can see, one young fellow riding on his father’s shoulders had a balloon of his own.

The darker it got the more impressive it was.


The notion of putting fire inside a bag made of what seems to be a delicate fabric eludes me as a real possibility.   But then again, there was an engineer who proved that a bumblebee can’t fly.


Are we at the state fair?  Yes, we’re at the state fair, complete with Ferris wheels.  And lots of people.


I was very glad that we could get up close to these flying machines.


This magic couldn’t last forever and the balloons were eventually brought down.


And then it was off to the midway.

The pattern of lights on this Ferris wheel kept changing.  It was beautiful.


The idea of paying money to hang upside down in space is a little uncomfortable.  Although I suppose I would if asked.   Then again, maybe not.


The memory of those balloons will be with me for a long time.  At least until next year at this time.

Good day to be out

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My friend Eileen and I went to the EcoLab at Marian University yesterday morning.  It was in the low 70’s and I didn’t need to use the sweatband I had brought along.  The sweatband was an essential part of spending much time outside the last month or so.


The waterlilies are getting ready to bloom.


And there were plenty of other flowers.



There were plenty of birds but we could only hear them, they were in the woods.  But there was a muskrat.


And plenty of dragonflies.


I wanted this one to face the camera but he would have none of it.  Reminds me of when I was a kid.  Some of the waterlilies were looking the other way too.


Good day to be out.  We’ll hope for more.