Zombies, brains and food for the poor

Well, it was zombie walk time again in Indianapolis, err, Broad Ripple on Saturday.  This was the annual Zombie Walk through Broad Ripple.  The zombies not only stroll through the streets looking for some tasty brains to eat, but they also help the local food bank, Gleaners, by donating food items.  Judging by the large number of people who turned out for this event, I think Gleaners took away a very hefty haul of food donations.

I was at this same event last year and walked away from it somewhat disappointed at the costumes, makeup and small number of participants.  I wasn't sure if I was going to photograph the event again this year due to my feelings about the zombie walk last year.  Boy, am I glad I went to the walk this year.   I met up with several other Indy area photographers, including a friend from Danville, Illinois.  I enjoyed seeing everybody this year and eating at Qdoba after the walk was finished.

This year's walk also included a zombie wedding (yes, an actual wedding), the walk itself, a zombie feast held at several restaurants along the Broad Ripple strip and the evening ended with a zombie prom at Tru nightclub. Unfortunately I didn't make it to the prom, but I did enjoy everything else that happened during the evening.

The event started out in the Kroger parking lot where people were getting makeup applied, a DJ was spinning and donations were accepted by Gleaners.  Starting around 6:30pm, the wedding took place between two people who met at last year's zombie walk.  I made a few shots at the wedding, not the best as we were crowded into a small area in the parking lot and I didn't have much room to work with due to the crowd.  After the wedding, the zombies lined up for the walk through Broad Ripple.

I moved down to the corner across from the fire station (less crowded..yay!) and while shooting the march, I talked with a few firefighters about the zombies, how tough it is to work in Broad Ripple as a firefighter..haha and anyone else that we saw walking around the area.  Needless to say, the firefighters were a hit with the female zombies and the attention was reciprocated in a few cases.  Although one poor firefighter nearly had has brains eaten by one of the female zombies later on the strip.  See below for a photograph of the unlucky guy.

So, I did end up with some good shots before, during and after the event.  Let's take a look?...

The couple that eats brains together, stays together...even after death.

She had some very good contacts.  Good makeup on both of them.

Zombie Jesus?  Wow...haha

Getting ready for the walk. The makeup artists did a tremendous job on a lot of people. 

Even Indy's finest firefighters are safe from zombies.

So that about sums up the 2011 Broad Ripple zombie walk.  I had a very good time shooting this event.

As for next year, yeah, I think I will definitely put this on the calendar for next year.  That being said, I need to get a lot better at shooting with a flash.  I had some good pictures, but too many so-so pictures where I either used too much flash and over exposed or didn't use enough flash and everyone is underexposed. 

Hey, practice makes perfect, right?

Indianapolis Bloggers

Good news! I applied and was accepted into the Indianapolis Bloggers community here on blogspot.  They have many good blogs about Indy and by Indy based bloggers. Check them out Indianapolis Bloggers

Steel wool, a water hose and the burning bush, er branch

So, in addition to having a really good lunch last week, I decided to get off my rear end and finally spin steel wool.This was something I have wanted to do for a long time after seeing pictures in the Flickr group "Light Junkies".  It's a great group to learn about burning steel wool, light orbs, spirographs etc.  Overall, it is a great place to learn about light painting techniques.  I know I have certainly enjoyed looking at all of the pictures in the group pool. 

I learned how to spin steel wool after reading a post on .photoextremist.com website.  His video and blog entry were very helpful and showed me what I would need to spin the wool.  His site also has some great ideas on other types of trick photography and some good tips on processing photos.  Take a look..

I originally planned to burn the steel wool over Labor Day weekend at Dale Hollow Lake.  However, the tropical storm that blew in from the gulf pounded us with a never ending storm and killed my plans for late night photography. Which is a shame as I was also ready to experiment with star trails. Grrr...

Forward to last week.  I set up my camera on the sidewalk, set up the steel wool, lit it and started spinning. I could not be happier with my results.

Did I mention that steel wool can set dry grass or tree branches on fire?  No, I suppose I forgot that part..then and now.  After spinning the wool and feeling quite pleased with myself and setting up for the next shot, I was curious about a glowing light several feet off the ground and to my left.  Yikes, I set a branch on fire.  I grabbed a hose and put the fire out before it did any more damage.  Thankfully the burn patter was small (but oh so bright) and the tree seems to be none the worse for wear.  Just to be safe, I hosed the rest of the yard down, waited for any more sparks and then set up for this picture in the street:

A different technique and thankfully I didn't set the street on fire.  Again, I'm very happy with the results. Another safety tip, wear long sleeves, trousers, gloves and something to cover your head.  The bits of wool don't stay lit for long, but they can give a little sting when they hit bare flesh.  As far as clothes go, wear something black unless you want to stand out in the picture.  Both of these pictures were shot at f13, ISO 200 and were 30 second exposures.  I added a little warmth to the colors in PSE as I think it helps them stand out more.  After subsequent attempts, I kept the colors closer to what they actually look like.  They are below:

In both of the new shots, I was trying to spin the wool into an orb shape.  I like the two attempts, but I need to refine my spinning technique some more.  I think I might need some extra weights to keep the whisk from spinning around too much.  These two were done at f11, ISO 200 and 30 second exposures. 

Well, that's all for now.  I have been scouting locations in Indy that would look good in the background when I burn the steel wool again..and soon.  I think along the canal is a good place to start. 

Of hamburgers, bleu cheese and that wonderful smell of cooked meat

I finally had a chance to return to the Red Lion in Fountain Square. I was there with a couple of coworkers for the return of our "nutrition group discussion" meetings, that being an excuse to go out and try new (to us at least) restaurants in the downtown Indy area.  We used to go out more frequently, but increased workloads and telecommuting have hurt our gatherings.

My girlfriend introduced me to the Red Lion and I am so glad she took me to the restaurant a few months ago.  The first thing I always notice is the wonderful smell of meat being cooked over a fire as soon as I walk in the door.  This being a lunch crowd, surprisingly it wasn't too crowded, which made me happy.  I don't like having to waste my lunch hour on a long wait to get a table, do you?

Lately, I have had a craving for bleu cheese on my cheeseburger and today wasn't an exception.  I ordered their blue cheese burger and had tater tots on the side.  Yep, no fries, just tots (was in a Napoleon Dynamite mood, I suppose).  The burger was tasty and came with some very good bleu cheese.  I prefer the crumbled bleu cheese, but the Red Lion had some type of spread.  It was still good and had that nice tart bite which I really enjoy on hamburgers.  The tater tots were as good as I expected.

My coworkers ordered the grilled cheese and a chicken wrap and both of them were happy with their lunch.  They had enough food to take home. All of us were craving something sweet for dessert and we all ended up getting an elephant ear to take back to work. Yep, an elephant ear and it wasn't from a fair.  I couldn't wait to tear into my dessert and started on it after I returned to work.  Fortunately it was still warm and was very sweet and yummy.

All in all, the Red Lion is a great place to eat.  The only downside?  I didn't get any beer due to it being a work day.  When you go, try some of the different brews like Upland or Sun King, you won't be disappointed.

Next up, how about lighting steel wool and spinning it? 

Ugh...try sleeping with a headache.  It just isn't working tonight. So, since I can't sleep and the headache isn't going away anytime soon, how about a few pictures from Oranje 2011?

The Indy Oranje festival   is a one night festival/party/art and music festival on the near north side of Indianapolis.  This year was the 10th anniversary and I was fortunate to be able to photograph all of the fun.  I was also fortunate enough to work this event with my girlfriend, Rene, who was in charge of the VIP room. This was her second time working at Oranje and my first time, and I'm already looking forward to next year.  One thing is for certain, I plan on bringing much more extra cash next year and buy some of the art on sale.  So much fantastic art and so little money.  Oh well, I have a year to plot and plan.

One of the first photographs I took was of two models from a local studio called Bombshell Photography.  This picture was made outside and did I mention I was using a hotshoe flash that had only arrived the day before the event?   Talk about having a steep learning curve. I had used a hotshoe flash with my SLR, however it died a few years ago and I spent Friday night chasing the cats around the house trying to get used to the flash and hopefully to avoid bad photos at Oranje.  After burning through a battery pack (speaking of batteries, it's time to get some Sanyo Eneloops for the flash)

 These ladies were a lot of fun to shoot and thankfully they posed for several pictures.  The settings for this picture are:  f5.6, 1/50th and the ISO was 400.  I thought about setting my ISO to 100 or 200, but I wasn't sure of how the picture would turn out. It was very dark outside and like I said earlier, I was still basically experimenting with the flash settings.

This next picture is from Joy Carter's booth.  She had several very nice pieces of art hanging on her walls, but the main attraction were the two models that she body painted before and during the show.  The 'day of the dead' must have been painted during the day as she was on display from the minute the show opened   She also had a infinite amount of patience to put up with all of the requests to photograph her and to be photographed with her. My girlfriend, Rene was working as the hostess for the VIP room and I texted her to come upstairs and we both had our pictures taken with the "day of the dead" model. They make for great facebook avatars.  The little devil next to her was painted during the evening by Joy Carter.  She was also quite the center of attention during and after she was painted.  I think the two of them make a great picture.  This was made at f5.6, 1/60th and ISO 800.  I'm still not sure why I was shooting at ISO 800 in this area, plenty of light...could have been I was tired, this was done well after midnight.  Still, I like it a lot.

No article about Oranje would be complete without a picture of Tatu Billy the Witch Doctor.  He had some wonderful art in his booth and also had a fortune teller who was getting a lot of attention.  I hope she was able to give people some good news.  Yes, the snake around Billy's neck is real and was quite content to just hang out with Billy.  I love the clothes and the staff and I'm still surprised that Billy graduated several years after me from Manual H.S.  It just goes to show that you never can tell what will come out of your high school or neighborhood.  This shot was made at f9, 1/50th and ISO 400.  I'm not sure if I was experimenting with flash too much that night or what, but the camera settings were all over the place that night.  Still, they came out very well and I'm happy with the results. 

New Christy Minstrels at Spades Park

After the Innocent Boys finished playing, there was a rather long intermission as the next band, The New Christy Minstrels got ready to play. As they explained during the opening of their show, getting the sound correct for their band isn't an easy thing due to the number of people in their group.

It was a good show and I enjoyed the music, much more than I thought I would.  I recognized several songs and found myself humming along to them as I photographed the band.  I was able to get several good photographs of each member of the band and finally got some of them processed and posted online today. Here are three of them:

This is Dave Henderson, upright bass player for the group.  He also sang a song and played the keyboard while singing.  My setting for this picture were f5.6, ISO 1600 at 1/100th shutter speed.

This is Becky Jo Benson, singer and banjo player for the group.  She was a good person to shoot and I never saw her on stage without a smile.  The settings for this picture are the same as for the above picture.

This is a Greg O'Haver, guitarist for the group.  I enjoyed photographing him and especially catching his fingers on the strings.  He also had a good singing voice.  The setting for this picture are the same, except for the aperture which was set at f5.  He was more in the shadows than the other performers and need a bit more light to see him.

As with the Innocent Boys, the stage lights cast a horrible blue pall on the performers that just didn't look good.  I wanted to post the pictures as I photographed them, but that blue light just bothered me and I played with the white balance in order to get good skin tones for all of the members of both bands.   In previous pictures, I had never changed the white balance as much as I did for the members of these two bands.  My approach has always been to keep everything as close to how I saw it as possible, but not this night.  I'm happy with the white balance decisions I made for both bands.

I'm looking forward to more band/music photography; it is something I am really starting to enjoy.  

Innocent Boys at Spades Park

I was at a festival on Saturday, August 27th at Spades Park on the east side of Indianapolis.  The festival was called the Feast of Lanterns.  The festival had vendors, exhibitors, a lantern auction, community organizations along with games and a play are for the kids.  Throughout the park, were hung lanterns and festival lights. The larger lantern displays were to be lit with candles while the smaller lanterns would be lit with the festival or Christmas lights.

During the day and into the evening, several bands played on the main stage.  Most of them were so-so and I didn't feel as if I was missing much as I wandered around the park. While waiting for the lanterns to be lit, my main reason for being at the festival was to photograph the lanterns at night, I sat down to listen to a band playing on the main stage.

The band turned out to be the Innocent Boys, a local band from Indianapolis.  I really enjoyed listening to them play and realized what a great opportunity this would be to do some low light and concert photography.  So, off I went.  I primarily went for close up individual pictures of the band members.  I took a few wider angle shots of multiple band members, however I was determined to come out of the evening with some good shots of the band members.

The are around the stage was wide open, front, sides and in back of the stage.  I was shooting with a couple of other photographers and we didn't have any problems moving around the stage area to get pictures.  Of course, we respected the audience and didn't stand in their way during the show.  When I shot from the the front of the stage, i was sitting on the grass and I like that angle better than just relying on line of sight pictures which can be boring. Always change your viewpoint when photographing people, climb up on something or kneel/crouch to get a lower viewpoint.  In my opinion, changing your viewpoint makes the pictures so much better.

So, here are a few pictures of the band, starting with the Lead Singer/Guitarist and here are the settings: f5.6, ISO 1600 and 1/80th.  I know, a high ISO. Well, until I can get a good f2.8 lens, the higher ISO's will have to do for know.

I like how this picture turned out of the singer. The awful blue hues from the stage lights are gone and he looks much more natural.

Next, on to the very animated and great playing upright Bass player.  I'm not sure why, but he reminds me of a younger Tom Waits.

The settings for this picture are the same as for the lead singer.

Finally, on to a close up shot of the drummer:

In the left side of the picture, I cleaned up this picture a little by cloning out a light stand.  It was just too distracting.

The band had two additional members, a keyboard player and a guitarist.  I haven't quite finished with those pictures.  Maybe next week.

Next week, more from the Innocent Boys and pictures from the last band to play on Saturday, the New Christy Minstrels.  Have a good weekend!