Palladium pictures, Part III

Today brings the third and final post from my shoot Sunday at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel, Ind., the centerpiece of which is the striking limestone 1,600-seat Palladium (above), which I referred to as a "concert palace" in the first post two days ago.

The first day's post focused on the primary concert hall interior, yesterday's post was about the areas in the building adjacent to or surrounding the concert hall. Today, the attention is on the Palladium's exterior and the landscape nearby, and to accomplish this, I bracketed my images for purpose of processing the photos for high-dynamic range (HDR). HDR is the melding of two or more images of the same scene, with each image exposed differently for the purpose of culling maximum detail from each image to form one image of optimum, dynamic range of detail during the melding process. I used three exposures in each case, varying the degree of exposure by 1 to 1.5 stops (i.e., one shot at normally metered exposure, one shot underexposed by 1 to 1.5 stops, one shot overexposed by 1 to 1.5 stops).

Almost all of my shots at the Palladium were taken with a wide angle Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 lens. I swapped it out at the very end, when I ventured across 3rd Avenue to start shooting in Carmel Clay Veterans Memorial Plaza. I used my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens for those. The wind was blowing hard at that point of the day; you can even detect some "ghosting" around the heads of the plaza statue in the closeup/detail shot at the very bottom. That no doubt was from the tripod shaking from the wind. Notice the how animated the flags look in the vertical shot of the statue and flags; the wind was having its way with the fabric. I fully expected that shot not to work out because of the movement involved with multiple layers. I used Photomatix's automatic ghost correction feature during the HDR conversion, and it did a marvelous job stilling the ghosts. 

To see a full gallery of photos from my shoot, visit this link.

And without further adieu, the rest of the images:

A wide shot of the south CFTPA structure, across the green from the Palladium, is above; below is a development east of the Palladium, on the other side of the Monon Trail. 

Above and below: A straight-on shot from afar, exposing the construction activity still going on in the mall-like "green" separating the Palladium from the south structure, where the 200-seat Studio Theater is located. 

Above and below: Detail shots from the facades of the structure forming the south portion of the CFTPA complex, located across the green from the Palladium, which is on the north end of the complex. The south structure houses the 200-seat Studio theater. The 500-seat Tarkington proscenium theater -- the third piece to the CFTPA complex -- is scheduled to open in late summer.

Above and remainder below: The Carmel Clay Veterans Memorial Plaza, across 3rd Avenue from the Palladium.

Dylan-inspired: The Brains Behind Pa

For a few days, I've been feeling remiss about not adding a post -- before I'd added a post on the Tad Robinson CD release party show from last Friday night -- about The Brains Behind Pa, an Indianapolis band I'd seen and photographed a week before Tad's show.

The show, on April 16, was at the Wheeler Community Arts Center in Fountain Square, where on April 3 I'd seen national country-blues performer Rory Block. The Block concert was an intimate show; the Wheeler is a relatively new (and apparently little known) venue, and it's a couple blocks away from the heart of Fountain Square, so I guess that's why attendance was sparse. But it's an interesting venue for a show of this sort.

"Intimate" also describes the atmosphere for the April 16 show by The Brains Behind Pa, a three- and sometimes five-person side project of Indianapolis musicians Bill Price and Gordon Bonham since 2000. Their songs and sound are inspired by the works of renowned folk-rock legend Bob Dylan. In fact, the band's name is lifted from a line in the Dylan composition "Maggie's Farm" ("Well, when she talks to all the servants about man, and God, and law, everybody says she's the brains behind pa").

"Gordon and I both have a love of Dylan's music and much that inspired him," Price explains at his website, "so we started a side project to kind of explore that music." The results include the CDs "Old Hat" and "Better for the Deal." Also performing with the group are bassist Jeff Stone, accordian/mandolin/keyboard player Garry Bole and drummer Jeff Chapin. On the night of the April 16 show, Chapin couldn't make it, so Jamey Reid sat in for him.

These images are from that show.

Gordon Bonham


Jeff Stone

Bill Price

Gordon Bonham


The full band, The Brains Behind Pa

Bill Price


Jamey Reid

Garry Bole

The shooless foot behind, er, of Garry Bole

For a look at more images from the show, follow this link:

The Brains Behind Pa Photo Gallery

An exhibit inspired: Remembering Ernie Crowe

For a six-week period in each of the past three years, members of the Indianapolis Photographic Society -- a group of people who indulge the craft of photography -- have displayed examples of their work in an exhibit at the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis. They've used the "Through the Lens" label to identify this annual exhibit.

The society holds its weekly meetings at the center, and in exchange for doing some promotional and public relations photography work for the center, the center gives the society members wall space in its main gallery hall to display their work each year for "Through the Lens."

Saturday, May 8, marks the opening of the society's fourth annual "Through the Lens" show, and this year's is a bit special because the society has dedicated it to one of their members, Ernest Crowe, who died -- unexpectedly, according to his obituary -- on Sept. 8, 2009. He was 61 years old.

Crowe, a retired chemical research employee of Reilly Industries, held degrees in organic chemistry (bachelor's, Purdue University) and chemistry (master's, Western Michigan). The majority of his years in photography he did so in the film medium, although in his last years he did scan many of his prints into digital images. His primary interest was nature -- the zoo, flowers and, as his obituary described it, "unique life forms."

"Through the Lens: Artistically Speaking, in Memory of Ernest Crowe" is free, runs through June 23 and is accessible during regular art center hours: Tuesday through Thursdays, 2 to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays. The center is at 2432 Conservatory Drive in Garfield Park, just south of the Burrello Family Center.

For related links:

Crowe's obituary

Crowe's gallery at the Indianapolis Photographic Society website

A little-seen tunnel to history

A lot of people don't know that for a short period of time in its early history, Garfield Park in Indianapolis had a zoo. I learned this some years ago, after a visit to the conservatory, where I had picked up a brochure that contained a history of the park. The brochure detailed how the park got its start as a horse-racing track and how the city acquired and annexed additional parcels in the years thereafter, including the tract at the southeast corner that now is home to the conservatory, library and tennis courts.

Back to the zoo ... During cold weather months, the animals in this zoo were sheltered in the building that is now the Garfield Park Arts Center, a building that has served many purposes over the years.

I happened to drop in at the center last weekend and got to talking to Lesley Meier-Shore, the center's assistant manager, who gave me a tour of the three-level remodeled facilities, which includes many rooms -- for meetings and learning crafts and musical instruments. The real surprise -- maybe even "gem" -- of the tour came when we got to the boiler room, where we went after I asked Lesley what caused the persistent musty smell I detected throughout the building's two lower levels.


She attributed it to the boiler room and ventilation system. But not only did she show me the boiler room ... but she also led me to a door inside the boiler room that led to a tunnel that she said operators of the zoo, many years ago, used to shuffle animals back and forth from the shelter to the display area. She said the tunnel collapsed at some point after the zoo closed, but that the first 60 feet or so were still in good shape.

That's Lesley in the top picture, standing in the preserved portion of the tunnel just at its one and only bend. The second picture shows you the rest of the remaining tunnel to the door, which was installed at the point where the tunnel collapsed.

One thing that struck me about the tunnel: It didn't seem very wide, so I can't imagine the zoo maintained any of the traditional large beasts -- elephants, rhinos, etc. Then again, perhaps the tunnel was used only for a select number of species kept at the zoo. Pure speculation there ...