The Dallas Photowalk MeetUp Group met up today for a scavenger hunt. I didn’t get much rest last night, and so I sort of mumbled my way through it, but I did manage to capture 8 out of 12 things in one picture (the 365 shot for today, above), another 4 in this one…

and the final two here:

D7000. Nikkor 24mm f/2.8. ISO100, 1.6 seconds (AP mode), f/22, -1EV, minimal processing in Aperture.

If you’re curious, here’s the full list:

Red
Big
Soft
Money
Water
Reflection
Triangle
Parallel
Place to sit
Arch
A cover
The letter “R”

As you may have noticed, some of my finds were a bit more conceptual than others…

Took a walk around the UTD campus with momma this morning, and decided all spur-of-the-moment like to take only the iPhone and give Hipstamatic a workout. Dan Cristea (@Konstruktivist) recommended some lens/film combinations at LoFiMode that I wanted to test out, and see how my only ‘favorited’ combination (the new-ish Loftus lens (from the Foodie SnapPak) and Big Up film (from the Bondi HipstaPak)) stacks up against @konstruktivist’s favorites.

Truth be told, I’m quite hesitant to shoot strangers without permission, and tend to point my camera (or iPhone) only at things that can’t scream at or chase me. Yes, this is quite irrational. And, yes, it it something I would very much like to get over, since it stems from my agoraphobia, I think, and getting over that would be rather helpful methinks. @konstruktivist has no such fear, and is quite … Read More »

from the Grapevine, TX photowalk.

D7000, Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 ai, ISO100, 1/4000, f/2.8.

Good times at the Grapevine photowalk with the Dallas Photo Walk Meetup group. I spent the vast majority of the time wandering around by myself and marveling at the changes a little town can undergo in just a few years.

Most  interesting to me—and not pictured, unfortunately—there were numerous instances of fresh sidewalk throughout the quaint-ish downtown. While it’s great to see a community keeping up with its infrastructure, for sure, these newly replaced/repaired/added sidewalks were pressed with a mold of some sort that adds some texture to the fresh concrete and appears designed to make the sidewalk look like it’s of the period. This is also all well and good, except the sidewalk that they replaced actually was of the period.

Why not just put in new sidewalk? In 10 years it’ll look weathered and be worn smooth and not look … Read More »

I came across an oddity in Dallas county… the Spring Creek Forest Preserve in Garland TX, of all places.

So Momma and I went out there (all 10 minutes from her North Dallas abode) and wandered around for a few hours.

From the time we left the car (about 9:15am) until we were leaving (about 11:45am), a tent meeting was going on at the horse farm next door. It began with a prayer meeting: scary screaming and wailing, punctuated by cries to the Lord. This was followed by some singing, which I missed most of due to the loud Rock and Roll I listen to so much of the time—and have for such a long time—and partly due to the distance between us and the meeting. And the last 3/4 of the walk we were accompanied by a fire-and-brimstone, scorched earth, come-to-Jesus sort … Read More »

The Dallas Blooms photowalk went down today, organized by Greg D of the DFW Photography Club of Texas MeetUp group, and held at the Dallas Arboretum.

I took the D7000 and 75-150mm E Series (mounted in reverse…), as well as the Ricoh 35 ZF. I finished a roll of Fuji Pro 400H and started a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus, and will post pictures once I get around to getting the film developed.

I set the reversed 75-150 to f/8, and the ISO to 400, and let the camera decide on shutter speeds. All in all, it did as expected: overexposing by 1/4 stop most of the time, which gives some nice wiggle room, while also creating some nice blown highlights occasionally.

And the 75-150 performed admirably as a walk-around lens. Previous photowalks have had only the Sigma for company, and I’ve goten quite … Read More »

When I uploaded and started looking at the photos from today’s photowalk in McKinney, TX with the Dallas Photo Walk MeetUp group, I realized two things: 1) I’m getting a bit better, but not much, and 2) my photos from photowalks all pretty much look the same.

So I need to do something to shake things up. But what? Shoot in full manual instead of Aperture priority? Tried that in the Worldwide PhotoWalk a few months back, and may try it again, but don’t really know what that would help. Pick a focus to stick to, say ‘textures’ or ‘shapes’ or somesuch? This might help, if I went on photowalks more often than once a month or so, but the occasional-ness of the walks means that any lessons I learn from one walk are largely forgotten by the time the next … Read More »

So last night I was out shooting the Fort Worth skyline with the DFW Photography Club of Texas MeetUp Group, and I set the white balance to florescent to give the sky a nice blue color and generally brighten everything else up (a nice trick, as long as there’s not too much tungsten or acid-based lights around).

I shot full manual all night, and remembered to switch to Aperture priority for today’s Bishop Arts PhotoWalk with the Dallas Photo Walk MeetUp Group, but I forgot all about the florescent white balance…

Oh well. It made for some nice skies, anyway…

The DFW Photography Club of Texas MeetUp Group met up last night to shoot the Fort Worth Skyline. I managed to make it out, despite my agoraphobia, and chitchatted with a few shooters while I was there. I experimented a bit with deliberately defocusing, white balance, and wide/narrow aperture vs. shutter speed comparisons. I wish I’d remembered the remote release, as quite a few of the night shots were blurred due to my twitchy trigger finger. All in all it was a really good time.