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.

Palladium pictures, Part II

Today's post is devoted to looks at areas of the Palladium concert hall in Carmel, Ind., outside the main performance hall itself -- the vestibules, halls, rotunda and other gathering areas. Note the marbled floors, elegant stairways and array of colors, patterns, lines and shapes, beginning with the shot leading off the post -- note the lines, colors, shapes, patterns, all packaged into this slightly different perspective.

That's what I was pursuing in these shots, taken Sunday with other members of the Indy Meetup Photo Club, beginning with the "different" perspective shot leading off the post. This, actually, was an accidental shot. My camera had unexpectedly made a left downward swing on the tripod as I was trying to adjust it for a traditional shot of the stairway, and when the camera ended its unaided tilt, it gave me this "look." I was using the 7D's live view feature at that point of my shoot, so I got an instant glimpse at the wall pattern, almost straight on, but it threw the stairway and other things on the right side out of alignment. I liked it immediately.

Most of the shots below need no real explanation; I'll add some where I think it might be helpful. 

Above: This shot in the east rotunda I first captured with the dome squarely in center, and it's a nice shot. Immediately afterward, I noticed the column on the right and did a second shot pushing the dome to the left.

Above and below: This reflective feature rotates its promotions of various upcoming performances. The one above was promoting the June 17 Clint Black show, which is part of the Palladium's country-western series; the one below promotes the "Celebrating Miles" show, a tribute to jazz trumpet great Miles Davis for the jazz series, a show that actually was held the previous night (April 30). Interesting that they would use an illustration of a guitarist for a Miles tribute, no? Sure, there's electric guitar in jazz, but again, Miles was a trumpet player ...

Above and next three below: These are all from the east rotunda. 

Above: The Basile cafe and gift shop off the east rotunda. It was named for Indianapolis philanthropists Frank and Katrina Basile. I liked the range of color, the exit door contrast, and the door window's bright reflective glare on the marble floor.

Above: Simplicity in a glimpse of a table, mirror, a real light (above table), reflected light (in mirror) and a reflection on the shiny table top.

Above: This shot had little to do with the Palladium, but when I noticed how all the elements fell together, I had to grab it. The arched shaped on the left is the dangling camera strap I was trying to steer out of the way, and I believe that is the strap's shadow winding out of the bottom of the picture just to the strap's right. The shadow of the square element in the center of the arched strap belongs to the camera housing on the tripod (the housing would be just out of the picture on the right). You also see two sets of legs here -- the tripod's and mine, with a bonus shadow of one of the tripod legs. The shadow coming off my right pant leg is from the shutter-release cable I have attached to the camera.

Above: To grab this, I was lying supine on the ground and used the live view function of the camera to compose. 

Above and next two below: Carol Baker of the COTPA staff, who greeted and welcomed our group when we arrived, encouraged us to explore the restrooms because of the tiling, and this is why -- the keyboard (ceiling) and treble clefs (floor) illustrations. The third shot is nothing about tiling; it's just about the nifty marbletop counters and shiny silver plumbing hardware. Oh wait, I spoke too soon! Look closely on the counter top and counter side panels, and what do you see? By gosh, it's the reflections of both the keyboards and the treble clefs!