Roberts Raw!

Next Photowalk At Crowne Plaza, Thank Cambrie

Look at this: the photo walk was just last night, I haven’t even imported my photos from it yet, we haven’t followed up for clarifications on that IMA policy, and here I am announcing the next walk. Cool, right?

Before I get into details, I should remind everyone that if you want to be on our mailing list for this, send me an email at dmartin@robertsimaging.com and let me know. If you’re a Twitter person, you can follow either @robertscamera or @zedmartinez to keep up. And, there’s the Facebook page also. Those are all the ways you can keep your finger on the pulse of the next photo walk.

If you’ve gone on a photo walk and have a Flickr, there’s a group you should join and submit shots to here.

OK, now, onto the next walk. 2011 Photo Walkabout regular Cambrie Anderson has arranged for us to be able to shoot in the old Union Station / Crowne Plaza. All massive props go to her for making this one happen. This’ll be taking place next Wednesday, June 1st, at 6pm at Crowne Plaza. You need to show up at a specific place or you can’t get in. Per Cambrie:

Everyone will need to enter Union Station [huge red brick building] through the double green doors off Illinois Street.  The doors are located underneath the overpass which is north of South Street and just south of the Omni Severin; these doors are on the west side of the building.  They should not try to enter the doors on the north side of the building, underneath the stained glass window [this is across the circle drive from the Omni].  Also, they will not be able to get to the Grand Hall if they enter over by Cadillac Ranch.

If anyone is unsure where it is, there is no physical address, so they can just put the Crowne Plaza Hotel into their GPS [123 W. Louisiana St., Indianapolis, 46225].  If they are at the front doors of the hotel, they will just walk across Illinois Street and enter through the double green doors.

The closest / cheapest parking option would probably be either Pan Am garage or any of the mall parking.

And, for those of you who are more visual, she means these doors (picture links to Google Maps street view for more visuals and approximate address):

 

So, got all that? Good. Also, we’re sure Cambrie would love it if you’d check out her site at www.cambrieanderson.com, or follow her on Twitter at @cambrie_a



ManMade show opening and gallery talk at pictura gallery in Bloomington, IN

Brenda Stern, Associate Director of the pictura gallery in Bloomington, IN, dropped me a line today about their upcoming show, ManMade.  The show will run June 3rd to July 30th with the opening reception on Friday, June 3rd from 5-8pm. The pictura gallery is at 122 W. 6th Street in Bloomington. There will be a Gallery Talk with Dr. Brenda Weber on Wednesday, June 8th from 7-8pm.

You can find pictura on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gallerypictura and the event page for Dr. Weber’s talk on Facebook here.



Photo Walkabout Tomorrow, IMA Grounds

So, quick note here, we’re doing a photo walkabout tomorrow, 6pm, at the IMA grounds. No model this time, so, you’ll have to hunt out your own shots. There’s been some concern expressed over the IMA’s new policies, so, for those of you who’ve heard they changed but weren’t told how, let’s make it a little less scary. Non-commercial, public photography of most things is still absolutely hunkie-dorie, including posting to social media. All the real changes involved two things: commercial photography, or photography of copyrighted works. Don’t take pictures of Robert Indiana’s sculptures and don’t sell any of these and you’ll be fine.

Now, that map I promised:

Remember, 6pm. There’s a chance Nick and I might be late is traffic is being a pain, so, give us a few minutes either way, we’ll be there. Promise.



Weekends Will Offer Lower Free Shipping Thresholds

So, we’ve got this thing to announce. For the next four weeks, every Saturday and Sunday, we’re lowering the minimum order value you need to get free UPS ground shipping to the contiguous 48 states down to $100. Yup. $100. It’ll still be our usual low value of $300 Monday through Friday, but on the weekends we’re letting loose, going crazy, and pulling it all the way down to $100. For the next four weekends, anyway.

So, yeah. That’s all. Feel free to go back to work. or looking at pictures of kittens. Or, whatever it is you were up to this fine Wednesday. But, remember, $100 minimum for free shipping the next several Saturdays and Sundays. Might just come in handy.



Wednesday Used round up (A day late and a dollar short)

Quickly here, I’ll point out our used Panasonic gear:

http://robertscamera.com/used-refurb/used/dmc-tz4.html – A Tz4

http://robertscamera.com/used-refurb/used/used-10100626.html – the much loved LX-3 (Heck, I have one. I love it.)

http://robertscamera.com/used-refurb/used/dmc-tz5.html – A Tz5

http://robertscamera.com/used-refurb/used/dmc-gf1-body-only.html – if you’re looking to break into the m4:3 user’s club.



Photo Walk Tomorrow, Pretty Girl Included

Friendly reminder, tomorrow is the next of our infamous photo walkabouts. For the newcomers out there, Nick and I feel that getting out and shooting photos is good practice and good experience, and started taking time out of our schedules once a week to go out and shoot for an hour or two. Then, we started inviting everybody who wants to come along with us. We’re not gear snobs, we welcome you to bring anything with a shutter button. We’re also not experience snobs, everyone starts somewhere, and if you’re new and need help we’ll gladly provide it.

Photo walks are free to all, although you’re encouraged to grab money for parking just in case. You’re also encouraged to bring a few bucks to tip models when we have them out. And, this time, we do once again have just such a model.

Photo courtesy Caitlin Davies

 

Isn’t she just lovely? We feel she’ll bring a lot to your pictures. And, since it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow, I’m going to bring along my Quadra light set, and try and grab the one from Rentals as well. So, we can play with having two different light set-ups, or throw them all together for one sun-decimating 4 light set-up. We should be able to pull some serious gorgeous shots off. And, don’t worry about your gear, anything with 1) Manual controls and 2) either a flash or a hotshoe will be able to get in on the lighting fun. We’ll also be sure to have some time for ambient lighting shots for everyone who only has automatic.

The location for tomorrow’s meet-up is West and Washington, by the Eiteljorg. We’ll meet people there from 6-6:15, after which we’ll move on to the canal for my attractive backdrops. If you get there late, or otherwise have trouble finding us, you can tweet us at @robertscamera, hit up our Facebook wall, or do something so silly as call me at 765-215-9249



Let’s Walk Again, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Place

Tuesday’s photo walkabout was such rollicking fun, Nick and I want to do it again. And, since we found the museum grounds / canal area to be full of nice spots to shoot and hardly exhausted them, we’re just going to do it at the same place. And, right now the weather forecast for next week says Tuesday might be drop-dead gorgeous, so, heck, let’s just do the same time. Deja vu is always in fashion.

So, Tuesday May 10th, 6pm, meet at the corner of West and Washington by the Eiteljorg and then we’ll drop back as a group to the canal area. I’ve got a couple models I’m going to contact and see if we can’t get a new face out. So, the same rule applies, you’re welcome to come shoot for free, we won’t judge you. Nick and I know what it’s like to have no budget. If you can, though, bring a few bucks to help compensate whatever lovely model we get to have grace our photos.

If the forecast holds steady and it is a gorgeous day, I’ll bring along my Quadra kit, and if it’s extra gorgeous maybe rentals will let us bring out their pair as well and we can have some fun shooting with larger strobes this time around. I know I love working with my set when I can, although the rain has been making that irksome of late.

Anyway. Rain or shine, but boy we’re hoping for shine, next Tuesday, May 10th, 6pm, meet at Washington and West for a canal area walk. See you then, gang.



This Is How An Aperture Looks When Working

Alright, I got a chance to watch this earlier today, but not to blog it until now. This is a video made by the fine folk at Camera Technica of the aperture on a Canon 18-55mm doing it’s thing. There’s… not much to say beyond that. This is pure gadget porn, but man, look at how awesome it is. Watch it! Press PLAY! PRESS PLAY!