Hatfield Paint Company

With "the winter that never ends" still hanging on into late March, I have been anxious to exercise my creativity.  I read a few photography blogs like Digitial Photography School and I have seen posts about "photo walks".  A "photo walk" is where a group of people get together and just walk around and take photographs of things that look interesting to them.  This always seemed intriguing to me, but I had never been able to find an appropriate day or time to do one (much less someone to do it with).    As my wife had plans yesterday and I would be spending the day with son, C, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to try out one of these "photo walks".  Even though he is only 11, he is interested in photography as well and does pretty good with a camera.  During our walk, C and I found this sign for the Hatfield Paint Company, Inc., on the side of a building in downtown Indianapolis.  This sign is situated at the end of a valet parking lot for a hotel and definitely appears to be from a bygone era in the city's past.

This photo was taken with my Canon 60D and a Canon 18-135mm lens.  Some Lightroom adjustments were made to accentuate the texture of the brick and to make the lettering on the sign pop just a bit more.

C and I had a blast on our first "photo walk" and he took some good pictures of his own!  As a bonus, I've included below one of the pictures that C took with his "point-and-shoot" camera, a Fuji JX650.  This photo was taken on Monument Circle.  I made some small adjustments made in Lightroom to boost the contrast and bring out the texture of the building for this one as well.

Hopefully this will inspire one of you to get out and get their creativity going by trying something you've never tried before!  If you do, let me know how it goes.  I'd love to see some of your photos!

Sith Eyes

2011 was a difficult and challenging year to say the least for my family and I.  It was mainly due to this that we decided to "get away" for Christmas. When it's winter in central Indiana, going somewhere warm and tropical was an easy choice.  As going to California has been on my "bucket list" for as long as I can remember, we decided to "get away" to sunny San Diego!

When my wife and I decided on San Diego, we started talking about things to do while we were there.  At the top of the list was the San Diego Zoo. The zoo sits on 100 acres and is home to more than 4,000 different animals!  Needless to say, the zoo lived up to all of the expectations we had and more.  The zoo affords you the opportunity to see many of these animals up close.  Even though many of the animals were close (relatively speaking), I decided to go with my 75-300mm zoom lens for most of my photos that day.  One of the animals we were able to see the closest, was the flamingo.  They were seemed close enough to touch, especially with my zoom lens.

Now at this point, you are probably wondering what the title of this post has to do with the San Diego Zoo or flamingos.  Well that's an easy connection to make with a bit of background.  My son C loves Star Wars.  As soon as C saw the picture below, he thought it looked like the flamingo had Sith eyes, "ya know Dad, like Darth Maul!".  Enjoy this week's photo, and if you ever have the occasion to visit the west coast, I highly recommend San Diego and the zoo, you won't be disappointed.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, and you would like to have last week's photo of the Reuben Wells or this week's photo as wallpaper for either one of these devices, please leave a comment or send me a direct message through Facebook or Twitter.  As always, your feedback is welcome!

Reuben Wells

Welcome to Classified Photos! I've been taking photos for a couple of years now with my Canon Rebel XS digital SLR and I've taken quite a few pictures to say the least. This blog is my way of sharing these photos with family, friends, and anyone else who may be interested. I'm always looking for different ideas and new ways to improve my photography. Hopefully this site will become an avenue for others to learn and spark new ideas for inspiration.

This is a photo I took not long after purchasing my digital SLR. This is the Reuben Wells locomotive at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis (click the link to read an article about why this locomotive is so unique). This is one of the best Children's Museums in the country. This is one of my favorite photos that I've taken from the many visits to the Museum with my family. I think there are two main reasons I like this photo so much. The first is that the train is just cool! The second reason is there no one else in the picture. If you've ever visited the Children's Museum here in Indianapolis, you know it is usually busy, especially in this area of the Museum. I was fortunate to grab this photo early in the day...before a lot of the students on school field trips invade the Museum! So now you understand why this was such a unique shot. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly encourage you to visit the Museum. Even if you don't have small children, you won't be disappointed. There is something there for all ages to enjoy.

 I'd love to hear your feedback on this photo, so please feel free to leave comments. Hopefully, this will be the first of many posts and photos that I share with you.