Indy SoJourn

I've added the ability for readers to subscribe to this blog via email. At the right top of the page you will now find a small box labled "Your email address:"

When you enter your email address in the box and click on "Get email updates" you will automatically be signed up for email updates anytime new content is added to this blog. The registration process is painless and they will never spam your inbox.

To complete your registration just go to your inbox and click on the confirm registration link FeedBlitz sends you.

Hopefully this will make knowing when new content is posted easier for everyone!

Go do it now!

Labels: FeedBlitz

I must admit, I have a horrible dreadful aversion to Hawaiian print shirts. I've lost count of the number of photographers I've seen wearing them. Maybe it's a local phenomenon.

There are a few things I notice about other photographers when I first see them in a basic order of importance.

1. How do they carry their gear? Do they have a big SUV (stupid useless vehicle) out in the parking lot with a trunk full of stuff in it and they are working without any bags? Perhaps they prefer belt systems. Are they using a leather satchel with a nice patinae?

2. What are they wearing? Does it fit the demeanor of the event? Do they have any special touches to their clothing to make their job easier?

3. Finally, how is their demeanor and how do they carry themselves? This often requires and introduction and requires a bit of friendliness.

I have a horrible pet peeve with item number two. I should preface this with a bit of background. I used to work in theater, I was the technical director and master carpenter for a troupe and there was a strict policy that all non-actors had to wear black from head to toe. It was a practical policy. It meant you would never draw unwanted attention to yourself in any given situation and you would always appear at least semi formal.

Now when I see someone photographing a wedding in one of the aforementioned Hawaiian print shirts, or covering a ball in jeans and sandals, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up a bit.

I know the photographer is working, and efficiency and comfort are key. You won't see me in a tux when I'm photographing a wedding, but you're sure as hell not going to notice me sticking out like a sore thumb. I think it's largely a matter of professional courtesy extended to the clients or the guests at an event and I think sometimes it gets too easy to overlook such details.

So here's a plea to others photographers, check yourself out in a mirror before you leave the house for a gig. To everyone who already does, kudos to you. Keep on keepin on.

(I forgot my black shoes in the car in the above photo, but yes I always wear funny socks)

Throughout the years I've been called in over and over again as ad hoc family photographer. It's a role I accept, sometimes with enthusiasm, sometimes with great sighs of exasperation. No matter how I may feel about filling the role, I can say it's made me a better photographer.

I've got a feeling the total number of frames I've shot of my family is awfully close to the number of shots I've done for myself. That's a whole lot of experience photographing in a fairly fast paced dynamic environment, if you push yourself to do it well you can learn from it.


This is my new little cousin imported here from Ukraine. It's a fairly typical example of what we end up with and it makes most of the family happy. Hardly a masterpiece, but a decent snapshot nonetheless.

If nothing else it give you an excellent chance to experiment with your equipment in a consequence free environment. Your family won't care much if you photos aren't technically perfect.

I think lots of photographers have an obsession with decaying objects. I know I do, there are whole flickr groups dedicated to rusty objects.

I have a particular weekness for elevator pully motors. Many a fire escape have I ascended in hopes of capturing the rare beasts. I passed up some of the horse show to photograph the chairs in the stadium. I simply couldn't help it.

My name is Jammy, and I'm addicted to junk.

Labels: Rust

Just a quick follow up to the previous post. Comments welcome.

Labels: Horse Show

These were taken earlier today at the Indianapolis Charity Horse Show.

It was exciting, you can Still check it out Sunday night if you like. I've never shot horses before, this was a first for me. The shots have an unusual feel to them. Thoughts? (click on "comments" to add a comment!)

Labels: Horses "Charity Horse Show" Equine

This is a tiny test of a freeware application before it goes live on my main site. Enjoy the preview. I'm fairly happy with the functionality and the layout options. It looks like it will be placed inside an iframe on the main site and it should work nicely... weee.

The content in the above window is the same as the content in the badge on the right. It's dynamically changeable! All I have to do to update the slide show content on the main page of my site is edit the tags in my flickr stream.

Doing things this way serves several purposes. It makes the main site where I send clients to dynamic and changeable, it supports free software use, and it keeps me from having to use one of those horrendous pre-made flash sites for photographers.

After a bit of a challenge getting settled in with an excellent copy of the 70-200mm F/4L IS I've started critically examining my results from field use. This series of posts will detail my opinions regarding the lens.

I wasn't sure what to expect regarding an F/4 zoom for use in portraiture, but so far I must say I've been pleasantly surprised. The can be no argument that the lens is critically sharp when used with proper technique, but what about depth of field and subject isolation? Unless I'm trying to achieve a very specific shallow DOF effect I've found that working at F/4 really presents very little problem in most settings, not all. At 200mm at F/4 when shooting a portrait as seen above there is already so little depth of field that the back side of a subjects face is falling gracefully out of focus. The quality of the lenses OOF areas or boke is nearly exemplary for such a complex optic.

The benefits of being able to change focal length, in the range the zoom offers, during a portrait shoot should not be underestimated. I will say this though, if my primary consideration for using this lens was portraiture, I would have purchased the F/2.8L IS version. That would have gained me some subject isolation at the cost of weight and absolute sharpness. However, portraiture was not the primary motivator for using this lens. It simply works very well for that purpose though.



The lens handles very well. I've found no reason so far to lament the absence of tripod ring. It's been a beauty so far. More to come.

The penguins, walruses, elephants, and rhinos have webcams at the Zoo! The penguin webcam has to be the best waste of time I've seen in a long time.

If you have any problems viewing the webcams in your browser, try Firefox, there's a link to it at the bottom of the right column on this page.

Labels: elephants, Indianapolis Zoo, Penguins, rhinos, walruses

I'm soon off to visit the newly re-opened Oceans Exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo. My hopes are high, and hopefully I shall return with some tasty photos of the exhibit as well. I'll share them with everyone here. I really missed the old exhibit with it's beautiful live corral reef.

There are a few things to keep in mind when photographing through glass, these guidelines apply to aquariums and museum displays. Turn your flash off if it you can get a decent exposure using the exhibits built in lighting. Glass is highly reflective, mixing it with flash is a recipe for disaster. Get your lens as close to the glass as possible, if you can use a flexible lens hood or a large baffle push that bad boy right up against the glass. In a pinch. a baseball cap works well for shading reflections off the glass in front of your lens. (Don't let the front element of your lens hit the exhibit glass!) Finally, make sure the glass is clean, fingerprints in front of your lens will only lower the quality of photos taken in an already challenging environment.

Labels: Aquarium, indianapolis, Indianapolis Zoo, Oceans, Zoo