A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

Yesterday, the 24th of July, was the third annual Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. A photowalk is a group of people getting together to wander about somewhere, cameras in hand, and shooting photos. Scott Kelby (his blog is linked in my blogroll on the right) organized an event in which folks all over the planet gather in their various locations all on the same day.

This is the second year I’ve participated. Rochester had its own walk for the first time last year. Then, we did the shoot downtown at night. It was fun, and I don’t do much urban (can we call Rochester urban?) photography, and the night shoot was also a nice challenge.

This year, we tried something vastly different, shooting during a festival in the tiny town of West Concord, MN. One of their attractions was a vintage car show. From a photographer’s point of view, this wasn’t ideal – shooting in the mid-day sun, on a very sunny afternoon. We prefer early morning and late evening light, but sometimes you have to shoot with what you have. Much like a wedding.

Personally, I enjoy trying new things and working in less than ideal conditions. In a way, anyone can shoot a nice sunset, but it takes more thnking when the light is working against you. Like trying to light up the shadow side of a dark blue car so that its reflection looks proper. I like that. I have another shot of the headlight on the other side of this car, with the reflection of the sun-lit side of the car over there. It might be a better photo, but I like this one better because it took more planning, more skill to achieve. On the other hand, to a casual viewer, the other shot might look better. Such is art.

We wandered through town, looking for the Heritage museum, and we passed this old church. Both this and another, better maintained church, have what looks to be some very nice stained glass. It would have been nice to see them from inside. This church has character in spite of, or maybe because of, its worn siding and flaking paint. Photos of churches aren’t really a big draw for me, but there’s something I liked about this shot. Perhaps the angles up toward the heavens produced by a somewhat wide angle focal length. Perhaps its the clouds and very blue sky. Anyway, I liked it enough to upload here!

The heritage museum occupies an old school house. They have many classrooms decorated in various ways. A fun one is the 50s and 60s room with an old sofa and big console B/W TV on display. This room was decorated in its more familiar attire. I was shooting the old chalk board then turned around and saw this. I just had to find the right angle, and I knew when I took it I would be doing a sepia treatment. It’s always nice when you see in your mind’s eye the shot as you’re taking it, then produce that shot in the digital darkroom.

Others on the walk were not as lucky in this room and had other visitors looking around and, well, getting in the way! I’ll take luck when I can get it.

Sometimes, all you need is a little push, a little reason to pick up the camera and shoot. There’s no better way to learn and to hone the craft. And there’s always – always – more to learn. Here’s a new situation, here’s the lighting you have, here’s the subject: make it art. A photowalk is just such an opportunity and well worth doing regardless of skill level. For me, it was a Saturday afternoon well spent.

I posted earlier about my Canon S90 purchase. Here’s a shot I’d have been a bit reluctant to take with my 5D MkII. First, it would be tough to hold it and take the shot one-handed. Second, I could drop it – yikes! I think we were in Des Moines when I took this shot, but I have similar photos taken at highway speed. The 70 mph wind makes things a bit challenging, especially when the wind is swirling around the bike and a quartering headwind makes the actual wind speed perhaps 20 mph higher. Tip: work slowly, be certain something is being held in place before letting go, pay attention to what you’re doing.

This was a cool bridge, apparently fairly new, over the swollen Des Moines River. This was taken pretty much in the middle of the day, so not the best light, but the high contrast and blue sky seem to work with the architecture.

We attended Wing Ding, the international Gold Wing Road Riders Association annual rally. One of the program highlights was Clint Ewing doing some stunts on a Honda sport bike. He was pretty remarkable, and I was able to move in nice and close to the parking lot where he was performing. In fact, I was standing well onto the parking lot for this shot – as you might imagine. This was a real test of the S90. I found the tracking-focus setting which seems to have worked pretty well. This was shot in Av mode (aperture priority) and in RAW mode letting me make all the processing decisions in Lightroom. That’s my preference, certainly.

Clint was routinely standing the bike up nearly vertical and was often on the edge of toppling over backward. He has some sort of idle adjustment on the side of the bike which he’d use to help hold the engine speed during maneuvers.

This sort of shooting highlights the shortcomings of a point-and-shoot camera. The crispness is not quite up to DSLR standards, nor is the overall focus. Considering the size of the lens and the cost of the package, though, it’s quite amazing. Think about what this camera is doing. I didn’t happen to find and turn on continuous shooting, but even if I had, I believe it only shoots about one frame per second. On my DSLR, I’d have been in continuous and just holding down the shutter button, filling the buffer.

In fact, this is where a camera like the 7D shines with a good 8 fps rate. Or the 1D Mk IV at 10 fps.

Another common event at Gold Wing rallies is the light parade. Some owners spend countless amounts adding various lights around their bikes. The advent of LED lighting gives them the option of installing many lights, mostly hidden from view, with terrific brightness, and at a pretty low current draw. There’s little worry of overtaxing the charging system of the bike.

I shot the light parade in full manual. I was a bit worried about noise if I set the ISO too high, but the new noise reduction in Lightroom 3 was up to the task. I probably could have pushed it further. Shooting this sort of photo with a less adept P&S would have been tough, I think. I feel at home in manual mode and the S90 came through for me.

Here’s a shot taken at highway speed. The camera isn’t designed for motorcycling, so I had to remove my right glove to operate the camera, as you can see. Gloves make good flags – I had to hold onto the glove carefully to ensure it continued the trip with me. Lynne’s bike has a driver backrest with a small zippered bag on the back. I’d unzip it, carefully remove my glove, and stow it in the bag. Then I’d zipper it mostly shut before pulling my camera out of my pocket. My first attempt, I found that the strap for the camera was nearly useless as a safety catch for the camera. The strap just blew off my wrist. It has no adjustment for cinching it down. It now sports an overhand knot to keep it in place.

As an Ohio native, I’m always happy to see one of these signs. Traveling the roadways of the US, there are many places where you aren’t certain if you’ve crossed state lines. One of the worst is between Illinois and Indiana near Chicago. But most (all?) interstates entering Ohio greet travelers with one of these signs.

There is a silly story to accompany this shot. I had it in mind that if Lynne was driving when we entered Ohio, I’d try to take a photo of the sign. When I knew we were approaching the state line, Lynne was driving, so I pulled out my camera and prepared. Not a trivial undertaking, as I’ve explained. I just waited patiently. Okay, this should be it – the sign should be close. Hmm. What’s going on? I know there is a sign on this highway, as we’ve passed it many times.

Oh! I’m one state ahead of myself. I was watching for the sign, but we were crossing the Illinois/Indiana border! Good grief. I guess it’s good that I wasn’t operating the bike just then. I don’t know where my head was.

During our Columbus visit, Lynne and I spent a short while at Sharon Woods Municipal Park, not far from where my folks live. Back when I was in college at OSU, a friend and I would ride our bikes up to this park and do one or two laps of the trail there. I learned about dive-bombing red wing blackbirds there. It’s a very effective scare tactic to ward off predators, unless the predator is a human who realizes a bird isn’t going to actually hit you at high speed.

All in all, the S90 came through for me. It’s unlikely to accompany me on any real photo shoots, but for a camera I can throw in my pocket, I’m pleased with its performance.