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Angels of Crown Hill Cemetery

PK — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:26:29 +0000

Crown Hill Cemetery is an Indianapolis landmark, and the final resting place for many prominent and not so prominent denizens of Indiana. They say death is a great equalizer, however we humans still try to be different even in death. Some chose elaborate memorials while others simple tomb stones. A few graves have statues of angels watching over them. I have always found them fascinating. I never tried to photograph them for some reason but was inspired to do so recently. Part of the inspiration came from a recently acquired Kodak Kodet Duaflex II Camera and the rest from a recent trip to Savannah, GA, home of the St. Bonaventure Cemetery. The Kodak camera has a 75mm fixed focal length lens with a f/15 aperture and a shutter speed of 1/30 sec. So I had to go with a slow film and I chose the Ilford FP4 Plus B&W Film for this project. I also used a Tiffen #25 Red filter as it was partly cloudy that day and I wanted to take advantage of the weather conditions. The camera takes 620 format film which is not manufactured anymore. I used a 120 film roll by modifying it to fit in the film chamber of the camera. Even then I was only able to get 11 exposures out of a possible 12. I don’t know why that happened and will definitely investigate further. I developed the film in Kodak HC110 for 9 minutes using Dilution B at 68ºF. I started with a 30 second agitation followed by a 10 second agitation every minute. Only 6 negatives were useable. I ruined the first two exposures because I forgot to reset the switch back to the single exposure (I) mode from the bulb (B) mode. The other 4 were out of focus because I was closer than the recommended closest distance for the lens.

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Retro looking Small town diners – hanging on to a bygone era

PK — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:51:20 +0000

Some more photographs from our trip to Highland Indiana. I couldn’t help but notice some old fashioned diner signs while driving around town. Here is one for the Miner-Dunn Hamburger joint. You can read all about it on YELP:

Next up is Johnsen’s Blue Top Drive In. This place is reminiscent of a by gone era. You can read more about it on Urban Spoon:

Celebrating Fourth of July in Highland, Indiana

PK — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:44:01 +0000

Small towns have the best parades. It is something that everyone looks forward to and the entire town turns out to support the troops and the community. Highland, IN is one such community. We were visiting a good friend of ours and took advantage of the opportunity to see the Fourth of July parade. We were sitting opposite the setting sun so it was pretty darn hard to get good photos of the parade. It did however work very well for the photo above of a marching officer and his US flag against the sun.

The vintage car broke down threatening to hold up the parade. But some men jumped to the rescue and pushed the car along.

And finally yes that is me with a StarWars Stormtrooper. I found him hanging out with Darth Vader

Creating interesting photograps using outlines, patterns, and shapes

PK — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:18:54 +0000

Interesting store window displays (Bardstown Road, Louisville KY)

PK — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:41:47 +0000

Balancing ambient light with a Nikon Speedlight (flash)

PK — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:17:25 +0000

I still have a lot to learn on how to use Nikon Speedlights. There are some amazing resources out there for anyone wanting to learn and one such resource is the Strobist Website. On a recent trip to Florida we stopped at a beach in the historic St. Augustine area. The sky was pretty ominous and the ocean was rough because of a small Atlantic Storm. As we were walking to the beach from the car I saw this pigeon sitting on the fence against this dark grey sky.

I took a meter reading of the sky which came to 1/250 sec @ f/11 which would have been too dark for the Pigeon. I set my SB-24 Flash in Manual mode at 70mm Zoom, 1/16th power and f/11 giving me a working distance of roughly 7 feet. I fired off a couple of shots and each time I changed just the distance from the pigeon. I am pleased with the result and the fact that I am getting the hang of Speedlights and using them efficiently.

Seating for 2 [@ the MOMA in NYC]

PK — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:11:07 +0000

I visited New York City just before Thanksgiving holidays. It was my first trip to the city after 12 years. It was a little over 12 years ago (August 12th 1997) that I first set foot in the United States. I did not get to see anything that day as I had a connecting flight to catch. This time I wanted to take in as much as humanly possible. The hotel we were staying in was right next door to MOMA and naturally was the first place to go see. I was pleased to see quite a few users of film cameras hanging around and one adventurous soul even had his Rolleiflex with him.

The above photo was taken just outside the area where crowds were gathered for a sneak peak of Tim Burton’s Exhibit. It was open only for members and select guests of MOMA so we were a bit disappointed. I did however manage to grab some cool information cards from the exhibit. The chairs were occupied all the time, but when I saw that they were empty for a brief moment I just had to swing the camera around and grab a quick shot. What do you think?

Seeing what others miss and making it your own

PK — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:26:05 +0000

I was telling someone over lunch that photography changed the way I look at the world. Before I purchased my first camera, I would go around my business, never took in my surroundings, and almost always never interacted with locals. That changed after I started photographing, I started noticing and appreciating my surroundings more and more. When I look at a building I wonder what was the architect thinking when he drew the plans. When I look at an old and decaying tree stump I try to look for the beauty in its rotting structure. That was the case when I took the photo above. I was coming back from a weekend trip to Lake Patoka about which I blogged last year and instead of barreling down the interstate I decided to take one of the side roads. This road was not paved at all. It was gravel and the going was a bit rough. As I kept driving down this path I noticed this meadow to my left and how beautiful it looked as the sun was rising. I pulled to the side of the road, set up my camera, and got to work before the sun got too high and the light too harsh. The camera I used was a Hasselblad 500C/M with a 60mm Distagon Lens + Polarizer and the film used was Fuji NPC160 Color Print Film. I am sure many have driven down that gravel road before, but I don’t think anyone ever stopped where I did and took a photograph to preserve that moment in time and space. This photo has given me ideas for other projects that I plan to pursue this year.

Your landscapes are around you. You don’t have to travel to some exotic locale or National Park – look around you, keep your camera handy, and more importantly keep your eyes open.

Mira’s first trip to NYC

PK — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:08:11 +0000

Mira and I visited New York city this past week to see Julie who was already there for a meeting. From what I can tell Mira loved the city. We stayed at a hotel close to Times Square and pretty much walked around checking out the sights. We spent a whole morning in Central Park and could manage only to cover about 20% of it. The above is a photo of Mira at the Bethesda Fountain. Unfortunately the roll of film I shot got ruined by Airport X-Rays (my on fault) and only has a few usable frames.

Mira Having fun at White Oaks Cabins

PK — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:59:33 +0000

Some images of Mira that I took while we were staying at the White Oaks Cabins at Patoka Lake.

PhotoIndica Blog » Travel

Angels of Crown Hill Cemetery

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