Indianapolis Airshow 2012

A Thunderbird F-16 flying overhead

Just for fun I went to the Indianapolis Airshow 2012 at the Indianapolis Regional Airport.  I knew it was going to be extremely hot and sunny, but I figured there would also be aircraft, people, activity, noise, etc.  You got it - a photo rich environment.

I took a fairly simple kit simply because I didn't want to lug a big camera bag around in the hot weather.  I took my Nikon D300s, my AF-S DX Nikkor 18-200mmf/3.5-5.6G ED VR II, AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF- ED & a Tokina AT-X 107 AF DX Fisheye – 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5.  As you can tell, I wanted to go long and wide.  Also, just for giggles I brought a Chinon Flash II 35mm film camera recently rescued from a Goodwill Outlet for, wait for it .... 50 cents!!

The Old and the New

Thunderbirds Flyby

Because the conditions were incredibly sunny, shutter speed was NOT a problem.  I simply set my ISO to the lowest setting, 200, and aperture to f/8 or higher to get maximum DOF.  Only a few times did I open up my aperture to get a shallower DOF.  When I did I decreased Exposure Compensation to avoid overexposure.

Watching the action on the ground and in the sky

I basically walked around taking pictures of anything I thought was interesting.  Lots of people, lots of aircraft on the ground, aircraft in the air for the airshow, and of course the Thunderbirds.  I took mainly "snapshots" since I wanted to capture the event versus getting the best technically correct image. 

Ended up with a good mix and overall had fun. 

After action report:

• Take a towel or a rag (which I did).  When it's toasty outside you want to make sure you don't sweat on your camera, especially when changing the lens. 
• Minimize your kit when you do an event like this.  I really could have just gone with the 18-200mm, since this is a good "walking-around" lense, and that's basically all I was doing.
• Take care changing your lens.  It was extremely dusty in parts of the location.  Need to minimize the dust that can get on your sensor.
• Don't be afraid to take photos of the people watching the show.  Got some good images of people looking at the aircraft in the sky.
• Have fun with the camera.  Sometimes I need to remember it's sometimes just fun to shoot pictures.

First Friday M10 Studio Showing - "Nighttime is the Right Time"

An Indianapolis monthly event the IDADA First Friday is just around the corner.  The July gallery crawl is scheduled for July 6th from 6pm until 9'ish.

At M10 Studio where I'm a partner, I'll be featured and showing many of my nighttime urban landscapes and street scenes, titled "Nighttime is the Right Time".  Come on out to see good photograhy by me, Paul D'Andrea & Eric Schoch.  Also, good conversation and we plan to have a working portrait setup so we can show our guests how some of our portrait magic happens.

Also, while there you can check out the other galleries and artists at the Circle City Industrial Complex.  Mark it on your calendar boys and girls.  Come and see the show.

M10 Studio is located at:
1125 Brookside Ave.
Studio C7-A (central galleries)
Indianapolis, IN 46201

Facebook Event

Before & After

I joined an online critique forum on Facebook to get comments on images from other photographers.  One of the challenges with any pursuit, whether it's photography, painting, being a lawyer, or whatever is to always find avenues to find out honestly how you can do better / improve.

Photographers have many options to get online feedback and post their images.  We have FB, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr just to name a few.  My experience is that whenever you post something online you may or may not get comments or feedback....even if you ask for it.  And almost all the time the feedback is something like: "great photo", "excellent lighting", "amazing", etc.  What is often missing is, "Wow Steve, that image really is dark, what gives..", or "how about if you crop the image down to put focus on your subject".  That is helpful, but I find that most people don't provide constructive comments online.

Well so far the local FB page that is a critique forum appears to be doing this.

I posted this image for comment.  This was a model shot done at the Spark Art Photo owned by Dave Fulton in Indianapolis during a model shoot / party.  The setup was pretty standard - black background, large softbox camera right, reflector camera left, manual mode.  This shot was taken about 6 months ago.  Model compliment of LModelz

Before - model from LModelz

I thought it pretty good, so posted it for comment on Flickr, etc.  Got lots of really positive feedback and comments.  However, I also posted it on the photographer critic group and got the following comments:

• My model's face is too cool
• There's lint on you model's shirt
• The eyes are way too blue (note the model had colored contacts)
• The image is too dark

There we go.  Solid feedback, and when I looked at the original I thought...you know my model's face is too cool, man, I didn't even see the lint, and yes too dark.  So I made a few adjustments in the image and here it is.

After - Model from LModelz

Honestly, there may not be much difference (I would suggest you view the image at full size since the small blog thumbnail doesn't provide full effect), but there are subtle changes that a photographer will pick out.  This is the type of feedback that all photographers need.  How can we be better.  Don't shy away from it, be bold and ask for constructive feedback.  I know I will.

Street Photography - Indianapolis 500 Style

Sitting on the sidewalk watching the crowd walk by

Another after dark street photoshoot.  This time I went out the night before the 2012 Indianapolis 500 along Georgetown Road.  I knew from previous year’s shoots this setting was going to be street photographer friendly.  Lots of alcohol loosened people, mixed lighting, loads of people in every stage of dress.  You guessed it, another perfect shooting opportunity.  Also from previous years I knew it was best to go light weight.  For this reason I simply took my Nikon D300s camera and my AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8mm lens.  I also took a Nikon SB-600 speedlight, but never broke it out.

All shots were done in Aperture priority.  I set my ISO to 1600 and f/stop between f/1.8 through f/5.6.  I tried to keep my aperture as tight as possible to get reasonable depth of field.  Shutter speed normally ended up around 1/50, but whenever it got slower than 1/50 I cranked the ISO up to 3200.  I wasn’t too worried about noise due to the high ISO because I was going to convert all images to B&W.

Way too much to drink !! Unable to get up

This setup was solid for street photography.  It was low profile and pretty speedy.  The only challenge was that on occasions I had problems focusing due to the extreme darkness in some areas.  No problems I just switched to manual focus.  

So with my camera kit all ready to go I arrived around 10pm, but the area was HOPPING!  I simply joined the crowd of people walking up and down Georgetown Road.  Occasionally I would walk over to the sidewalk and stop to shoot as people walked by.  It was a great photographic environment as everyone appeared to be having a great time.  

Loads of people enjoying the after dark atmosphere

After action report:

·         If you are going to shoot in an environment like this pack light. I’d learned from previous shoots that too much kit was just going to sit on my back.  Way too many people for a tripod also.

·         Bring your fastest lens.  I took my 35mm, but probably should have also brought along my AF-S 50mm F/1.4G.  Even though this would take tighter shots of the crowd the additional aperture stop would have been supremo in this lighting situation.

·         As I’ve said previously, don’t be afraid to go up and ask people if you can shoot their picture.  In a night like this, it’s really no problem.

·         Balance your shutter speed with your ISO.  Keep your shutter speed up above 1/50 if at all possible which means sacrificing ISO if you want to keep your aperture as high as possible to maximize your DOF.  I sacrificed ISO on this shoot to keep my aperture at F/5.6 and my shutter speed at 1/50 or higher.