Visiting Hendricks County, Part III

McCloud and Sodalis nature parks are on opposite ends of Hendricks County, Ind. -- McCloud is in the northwest corner, right on the Putnam County line, Sodalis -- which just opened last month -- in the southeast corner, just outside Plainfield and not far from Indianapolis International Airport.

As nature parks, they are largely wooded and minimally developed. There isn't a lick of asphalt in McCloud; the snaky access road (pictured above) off Hughes Road is gravel, as are the parking lots. The pavilion has electricity, and the nature center has heat, air-conditioning, running water and modern plumbing. But after that, it's all rustic -- and trails provide access to the wooded interior. Sodalis is much the same, although its short access road and smaller parking lot is paved, and a very large fishing pond is near the access point on the east end of the park. A manicured grassy area sprinkled with picnic tables is adjacent to the pond, but beyond that to its western extremes, there is nothing but woods and trails.

These parks will be the start (McCloud) and finish (Sodalis) points of the inaugural Park2Park relay race, a 60-mile team running event on June 25. I visited them and Hendricks County points between on June 3. Today's pictures are from my visits to McCloud and Sodalis.

FROM McCLOUD NATURE PARK

FROM SODALIS NATURE PARK

 

Elegance in the urban landscape

While walking back to my car after my shoot Saturday at the inaugural Indy Crit cycling competition, I came across this striking, lavender-colored bloom in a couple of the gardens along the north border of University Park in Downtown Indianapolis.

Thanks to the help of a blog visitor, I've been able to identify this flower as a Cleome Rose Queen.

The closeup shot (above) comes with a bonus, tiny insect clinging upside down along one of the thin plant whiskers in the lower left portion. I like the perspective shot (below) almost as much for its elegance: the combination of bloom, its distinctive, sculpted stem and the drooping foliage of its buddy to the right.

A good one to ... well, make you feel good.

Southeastway Park: Off the beaten path

On Thursday, I visited Southeastway Park, a somewhat overlooked haven in one of the few remaining rural pockets of Indianapolis/Marion County. I've been curious about the place for some time, as it's a popular site for high school cross country meets, especially sectional and regional competitions.

What I found: Well-kept hiking (gravel) and biking trails, a playground, lots of picnic pavilions, an activity center, an expansive wooded area along Buck Creek, a pond favored by gaggles of geese, a few families trying to get kites up in the air, and -- perhaps its most distinguishing feature -- acres of yellow coneflowers populating the expansive park meadows.

I visited in the early afternoon, normally not an ideal time where optimum and dramatic lighting is concerned. But I had envisioned spending most of my time in the woods and near the creek anyway, so I wasn't too concerned. Ahhhh, but once I hit the woods, the mosquitoes let me know they weren't going to let me stay there very long, and ... they were right. Nevertheless, I did take advantage of some wonderful lighting opportunities along the forest fringe, where the developed park meets the woods. That's where a pedestrian trail was positioned, and on this day, I caught quite a bit of nature-made highlighting and shaded backgrounding of plant life along the path.

I also took advantage of the overhead sunlight to capture the coneflower meadow shots without tree shadow interloping.

Finally, to make the shoot even more challenging (and so as to be able to walk around lightly), I decided to take with me only two camera bodies, my 7D with a Canon 70-200mm and 1.4 extender, and my 30D with a Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 wide-angle. I was going to forgo quite a bit of the middle focal range to see what I could come up with. Yes, there were times I wish I had the middle-range lens and my macro lens, but I made do with what I had.


An attractive vista in the park, with the pond in the foreground and a wooden fishing deck overlooking it.


The first of several looks at the signature coneflowers populating Southeastway Park meadows.
















Two pieces of heavy equipment sat near one of the hiking trails, which are still under development. The shadow on this backhoe's bed is from the overhead foliage.


A tractor adjacent to the backhoe. I liked the two tires' balancing element in this frame ... and 90-degree angles of the tires.


Wild grass from along the pedestrian path in the park's southwest corner. Nature delivered the spot lighting and shaded background.


A tree-lined path to the activity center, captured with the 10-20mm wide-angle lens.


At Buck Creek, this contrast in lighting -- the silhouetted driftwood in the foreground and the sun-splashed tree branch in the background -- caught my attention.


Angles, curves, rippling water and reflections combined to make this composition. Balancing the primary elements are foliage in the foreground and a sun-splashed whiteout in the background.


Normally, this way-too-slow shutter speed would be an outtake in a shoot. But I really loved the effect it had on these tall tree trunks in the forest along Buck Creek. With some time down the road, I'm going to play with the colors some.


Without my macro lens, I turned to the 70-200mm + 1.4 extender to grab this Royal Catchfly bloom in a garden outside the activity center. Because it was in a garden with limited maneuverability, I was challenged to position the frame with as little background clutter as possible. This was the best I could get without trampling other plants in the garden.


The gaggle, heading out -- in near perfect order -- into the pond for a cool-off and to forage for a snack.

Still in lock-step, er, glide formation, the geese are about ready to turn around ...

... and head back to shore.

A first visit to Holliday Park

Finally made it to Holliday Park on the Northwest side of Indianapolis for a shoot two Saturdays ago, thanks to an outing scheduled by the photo club I belong to. We had overcast skies, but squeezed in a two-hour sweep in the afternoon before wrapping things up right before the clouds opened up with another in a series of downpours we'd experienced here that weekend.

We spent most of the time along the nature trails, but everybody makes a point to check out "The Ruins" when they visit Holliday Park, and so did we. Our approach to the shoot embraced the Andy Warhol saying someone penned on a wooden bench (photo at the top): "The world fascinates me."

A quick background on "The Ruins" for out-of-towners who visit this post: This attraction constituted the facade of New York City's first skyscraper, the St. Paul Building, erected in 1898 at 220 Broadway. The figures in the facade, made of Indiana limestone and called "The Races of Man," depicted Caucasian, Asian and African-American races working together to seemingly hold the skyscraper on their backs. In the 1950s, the Western Electric Co., owners of the building, decided to build a more modern structure on the site, so it held a competition among cities interested in bidding for the facade, with the judging criteria based on which bidder would propose the most appealing idea to preserve the facade. Indianapolis won, and it placed the Ruins on the park grounds just south of the nature center. For the full story, visit this website containing a PDF file with the Ruins' history.

Above: The first of four images featuring gnarly works of nature ...


Above: I liked this more for the seemingly out of place golden leaf at the top than for the gnarly textures.

Above: First of two gnarly above-ground tree roots, in a black-and-white conversion.

Above: Not a fork in the road, but a bend in the brook.

Above: An image to add to my benches gallery.

Above: The first of four images of The Ruins.

Above: Holliday Park had some nice flowers and foliage ...

Above: A field of dandelions, from a crawler's perspective.

... and from a little higher up

Above: A statuesque way to bring this photographic look at Holliday Park to a conclusion.