Tag Archives: Photo Venture

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.

St. Paul’s Episcopal church

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Indoor shooting today.  One of the members of our Photo Venture Camera Club invited us all to come shoot at his church this morning.  It was well worth the time.


A lot of stained glass and beautiful appointments here.  The cross is a central theme in any Christian church and this one is particularly beautiful.  It gives me pause, though, when I think of what the minister in my church once pointed out about the cross.  If Jesus were put to death today by authorities, they might use an electric chair or lethal injection.  Can you imagine either of those being beautified?

A lot of people were shooting in the sanctuary.  I wandered around and was attracted by bright and shiny objects in a cabinet in a common room.



The stained glass is beautiful.

St. Paul’s is well worth the visit but I still prefer the cathedral of the outdoors.


‘I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.’ ~George Washington Carver

Off to shoot buffalo (or bison, whichever you prefer)

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Sally had learned of English’s Buffalo Farm west of Bainbridge IN and we went there this morning.  Arriving in the area before our appointment, we wandered around.  Here was a prototypic Indiana farm with a well kept barn and a basketball hoop.


We arrived at the buffalo farm right on time and went out to the pasture where the adults are kept.  We rode out with the owner on a Ranger vehicle.  This is an open vehicle that will seat about six or seven people.  It has neither sides nor roof and is excellent as a platform for photography.  We were warned to stay in the Ranger; buffalo are unpredictable and not our friends.  This is not a petting zoo.


This is the number one bull who weighs in at nearly a ton.  He can run at a speed up to 30 miles an hour and turn on a dime.  Very impressive.  We spent about half an hour in the pasture and then were on our way back to Bainbridge and lunch at the Bonton Cafe.  After lunch we stopped at a derelict house we have admired on other occasions.


I don’t know what it is about buildings in this kind of shape but they draw photographers more than buildings that might appear in House Beautiful.


Windows seem especially interesting.


Perhaps it is time to organize a field trip for our photography club designed around visiting abandoned buildings.

A day in the snow

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It hadn’t snowed all that much, but there were about four inches of fresh snow on the ground and it was pulling several people – runners, sledders and a photographer – to Fort Harrison State Park on December 23, last Thursday.


Also some Canada geese.

I hadn’t been out shooting in a week and the feeling of being out in the open on a photogenic day can only be hinted at; I felt as if my soul were being fed.  I hadn’t gotten as far as feeling at one with what I saw but it was moving in that direction.


I tend to see my creative life as being BDP and IDP – Before Digital Photography and Into Digital Photography.  Being able to go out, shoot and get immediate feedback is doing a lot for me.  I would not claim that my experience is universal, but I do believe it is a good bet that total immersion in an avocation such as digital photography stimulates creativity and even nurtures mental health.


Through digital photography I’ve made new friends in the Photo Venture Camera Club, friends who share a passion for pointing a camera and doing something interesting with the result.  That also is a real plus.


Enough with the words.  I plan to go out again tomorrow morning.  I hope to see you there.

Fountain Square

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Our camera club went down to Fountain Square last night for a shoot.  Fountain Square is one of the eight cultural districts in Indianapolis which, after a period of decline, is picking itself up and thriving.

I don’t know what it is, but while it is good to visit an area that is coming up in the world, there is something more alluring about the alleys and out of the way places.


A lot of our people had the same idea and while some were on the streets, more seemed to be in the alleys.


Perhaps these areas, roughened up by life have stories to tell.


People live here.  They have lives, they have dignity.


And they have stories.

Spring is here

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I don’t want to come across as a curmudgeon but I wasn’t ready for spring.  I had gotten so deeply into winter photography that when the snow disappeared I was at a bit of a loss.  I’ve always enjoyed spring and I’ve done a lot of spring photography.  That’s part of the problem.   I have a lot of what might be called ‘portrait’ flower images, flowers in profile, three quarter turned, full face, etc.

Chionodoxa is small but very attractive.  So is pink dogwood.

But I have shot enough of that kind of image.   I don’t have a replacement yet so I am just out taking pictures.

This one is called ‘Photography, 2010.’

I got a little closer to spring shooting this morning with this image of a door.  At least it’s green.

I just went out again this afternoon and I guess I may be headed in the right direction.

I’ll keep trying.  Too bad I can’t photograph bird song.  That would be nice.

Go to Plan B

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The plan yesterday morning was to go out and shoot, come back in and write about it.  I did go out and shoot and I did come back in but that’s when the disappointment started.  raspberry_leaves_8724

The images were ‘nice’ but not something I would want to hang on the wall or even show anyone.  (So why am I showing them to you?  Stay tuned.)  It wasn’t as if there were no subjects.  Black raspberry leaves in the fall are gorgeous and backlit golden leaves can be treasures.leaves_8747

But that just didn’t seem enough.  These were standard, garden variety fall pictures.  Big deal.

I went to the camera club meeting last night and didn’t have great hopes for that either.  We were going to shoot indoors.  There would be models and good lighting, as well as a set up for macro photography.   These were some fine opportunities but I thought instead I would take my camera and tripod outside.  It was dark and lights were showing up some interesting opportunities.   night_8933

This was a lot better.  I was not able to previsualize what I would get before I opened the shutter, I was just hoping for something interesting (and undefined).night_8957

And that made it a lot more fun.

Field trip to Madison, Indiana

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The Photo Venture Camera Club, the club I belong to in Indianapolis, goes on field trips nine or ten times a year.  Yesterday ten of us went to Madison, IN, a picturesque town on the Ohio River, about two hours from Indianapolis.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather on this crisp fall day.madison_6545_3_4_tonemapped

The weather had been rainy all week but Saturday morning was clear with some fleecy clouds.

I haven’t been much for photographing buildings but this trip was to an area known for its architecture.  I’ m not sure that a number of images I got of buildings and details of buildings were what the Chamber of Commerce had in mind but I would go back for more shots like this:madison_6682

I have images of beautiful homes from this trip but none of them come close to competing with this window and clapboard wall that have seen better days.

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That black space at the top of the garage was perhaps once a window.  Its gothic shape, coupled with the cross-like appearance of the structure on top (an old antenna?) lend it the appearance of a church.

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There are a lot of alleys in Madison too.

And then there was the Tea Room:madison_6810_12_photolift

What is it about these old buildings, details and alleys that makes them so interesting?  One answer won’t hold for all of them but a couple of ideas pop to the surface for me as I look at them.  One is they all have texture, they have a definite tactile sense to them.  They seem to want to be touched.   Their histories seem to be told in their roughness in ways that an image doesn’t quite convey.

This leads into another part of the attraction of these subjects.  They all have stories that we can only guess at.  I have a friend who spends a lot of time photographing an abandoned farm, the location of which she protects about as well as some people protect the location of a good fishing hole.  She is thinking of doing a photo book about it in which she shows the images and tells her own version of what life on that farm might have been like.

I don’t know the stories here but I do know that I plan to look more closely for old abandoned buildings.  They speak to us in ways new buildings, living buildings if you will, don’t.