Downtown Photography

I finally got off my lazy ass and went and took some pictures! Amazing!

So I went to downtown Valpo just to see what it offered in terms of photographic elements. Prepare yourselves for a lot of pictures, because this is going to be a big-un.

(These were all taken on my Nikon D7000 with a 35mm f/1.8G lens.)

First off I went to Designer Deserts, because it is a fun bakery with lots of cakes and cupcakes and such. My girlfriend had the great idea to start there, and I went from there.

 A couple similar shots, I just didn't know which I liked best.

Then I headed around the corner to Silcott Shoes, a store with great brick walls and great uses of leather and fabric.

 I like the tones and textures that this one suggests, even though it is in black and white. In retrospect, I should have used my cameras built in digital level to get that bottom part flat, but oh well.

 I found that tag ironic.

 More shoes, but these are girl shoes. This shot was a bit overexposed.

I might go back to this store sometime and actually buy some of the shoes. They all look really nice, and they are very reasonably priced, even less than you can get the equivalent at WalMart or Target, if I'm not mistaken. (I'll obviously be buying men's shoes.)

 This one actually didn't use any photoshop at all. I really like the sort of more subdued colors and tones in this one. I am very happy with how this turned out.

 I couldn't decide which of these two I liked best. I think that I like the one on the right, but it would have been much better if I could have had a model sitting on the couch.


After this I headed out and just sort of wandered around a bit outside.

 This is a picture of the Porter County Courthouse, in black and white, of course.

 Awesome old Porsche. This guy was cool enough to let me take his picture.

I stepped into a knitting shop, also, and found whole walls of pure color.

Back outside.

 And back outside. I found another awesome, old, red car, though I don't actually know who made this one. The badge on the front said "MG"

 There is this great mural on the side of one of the buildings in downtown. I kind of want to get a picture with a few people walking in front of it.

 And last but not least, selective coloring of a back alley. I had to crop it like this because there was an annoying UPS truck parked right out of the frame on the right side. What do you all think about it? I think it could be just as good if the whole thing was still just in black and white.

EDIT: I have now decided that selective coloring is the worst thing in the world and I shall never do it again.

So that was a really fun excursion, though there were some things that I could have gotten better if I had had someone else with me, either as a model or as a fellow photographer. Also, all of the business owners were more than happy to let me come into their shops and take pictures. It made me feel pretty good about some of the people in Valpo.

I absolutely LOVE my D7000. As you could see above it could get some awesome bokeh shots, but then some amazing clarity (like in this last picture). And yes, I do know that that has a lot to do with the lens that I am using, but the whole experience was great!

So that was my excursion for the day. I came back home afterwards and uploaded the pictures, did a little bit of editing, and made myself chicken and rice for dinner.

Sorry that I haven't gotten those Lego pictures edited yet, it is next on my list of things to do.

And that's all for now!

Kevin


TV: Game of Thrones
Movie: Prometheus (excited for it)
Music: The National
Game: Minecraft, Sins of a Solar Empire
Food: Chicken and Rice!