A night shoot in Zionsville, Ind.

In a final push to capture nighttime holiday decorations, I accompanied a group of photo enthusiasts to the town of Zionsville, a northwest suburb of Indianapolis, on Thursday night, two days before Christmas. It was my fourth or fifth opportunity to put my new PowerShot G12 to the test, and I remain pleasantly impressed with its ability to deliver fine, sharp RAW images at shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 and even an occasional 1/6. Those were my default settings using Program mode and an ISO of 1600. 

We were hoping to hook up with the Indianapolis Hiking Club, which was having its annual tour of Zionsville and Chocolate shop stop outing. But by the time we got out of the eatery where we dined beforehand, we apparently had missed the rendezvous. The four of us meanered through the nearby neighborhood then returned downtown to shoot.

We ended the evening in the upstairs restaurant called Plum's, where we had a chance to experiment with different still life opportunities using our plate and drink dishes as subjects. Our nice waiter, seeing us shoot away, even brought over an empty wine bottle, suggesting that it might make for an interesting subject of our images. He was right.

I also tinkered, for the first time, with the HDR (high-dynamic range) feature on the G12; it captures three images at different exposures with one press of the shutter, then automatically melds the best exposure elements of each of those three captures into one, amply-exposed image. You get the best brightness, best contrast and best dark characteristics of the image. Because you are shooting multiple images when using HDR, you need to use a tripod to ensure stability (no camera shake). I didn't have a tripod, so I rested the G12 on the table. The HDR feature is an "automatic," not "creative," mode, however, which means the image will be rendered as a JPG, not a RAW data file. That was fine with me, as I didn't buy the camera for this feature, though it did pique my interest. However, I did like what I saw of it, and I'm likely to explore it more. I'll show you a frame from one of those HDR images near the bottom of this post.

A lot of the shots you see in the second half of the photos are looking into window displays of downtown Zionsville storefronts. The lead image at the very top of this post features two Zionsville landmarks: In the foreground, the Christmas tree that the town erects in the middle of brick-covered Main Street each December. And yes, cars respectfully drive around it. The structure in the background is Carter's Toy Museum and Ice Cream Parlor.

The first several images below are simply homes within a two- to three-block range of the heart of downtown.

 

I would like to have tried to capture the tree above with a DSLR mounted on a tripod and equipped with a wide-angle lens. But as it is, it didn't turn out too bad.

 

The angle gives the illusion that this street lamp is ensnarled by leafless branches. But in fact, the lamp hovers well away from the branches.

Above, a member of the photo group silhouetted while taking a shot of the most spectacular home we came across. We chatted briefly with a resident of this home who had come out to go to her car to run an errand. The image above and the next three below are from the same residence.

 

Above, a holiday decoration in the display window of the studio, shop and gallery of "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade.

Above, another juxtaposed illusion: The colored-lighted building in the background is about a block away from this Zionsville street clock.
 

Above and below: Two frames from the 15 or 16 I took of the combination of candleholders, water glass and wine bottle.

Above: New props: a dish with leftover brownie and orange slice (two forks indicating the person who ordered it -- not me -- offered to share) and a saucer and expresso cup.

The picture above is the HDR-treated capture. Notice the background details picked up and the milky brown color tones to the table, which was actually very close to what I remember of the table's color. You can see from the pictures above this, however, that the single-exposure, non-HDR treated photos pick up very little by way of background.

Above and below: I couldn't decide which of these -- color or B/W -- I liked better.

Above: A college sports-neutral retailer displaying the logos of Butler, Indiana and Purdue.

 

Above: It seems like model trains are part of so many decorative holiday displays this season. The gnomes on the right are a different touch, however.

Above: An exterior shot of the studio and shop (the Sanctuary) and restaurant (Ghyslain at the Sanctuary) owned by painter Nancy A. Noel.

Above: A horn of plenty, but hardly plentiful, in another window display among the downtown shops.

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.