Not the primary face of Indy's Old Northside

A project that has kept me busy -- and busy enough to derail regular posts here or at my Facebook page in recent weeks -- has been the task to photograph the Old Northside neighborhood of Indianapolis. The project actually is being undertaken by several interested members of the Indy Meetup Photo Club (IMUPC), the same club that covered the inaugural Park2Park Relay Race in Hendricks County on June 25.

The Old Northside project has been going on since May, and it's been in full steam since June. Club members have been out photographing various scenes in the neighborhood -- either as a group or individually -- since then. I've done both group and individual shoots in the neighborhood, and as you might have guessed from my existing neighborhoods galleries folder at my online site at Smugmug.com, this is something I really enjoy doing, and the Old Northside project is no exception.

I'll be posting some shots from my efforts in the project later this month; the Propylaeum, the club's partner in the project, will display our work at an open house fundraiser on Aug. 21. Admission is $10; there will be food and refreshments (including a cash bar) as well as an opportunity to tour the historic Propylaeum structure.

This neighborhood definitely is worth a photographic profile; there are remarkable, beautiful structures there to behold. However, while on an individual shoot in the neighborhood last weekend, I came across an off-the-beaten path alley scene that was unlike anything I've seen anywhere else in the neighborhood. In a way, an antithesis to all the striking features I'd found, but nevertheless intriguing ... and even interesting. It was some brick wall art and graffiti in the shell of a structure roofless except for a section with overhead crisscrossing, intersecting thin steel beams -- a sort of work of art themselves. It reminded me -- but on a much larger scale -- of a surprise I came across earlier this month when I took a shortcut en route to my car after a photo gallery opening in the Fountain Square neighborhood of Indianapolis and came across an alleyway of murals and artwork that I'm sure wasn't commissioned.

I took quite a few photographs of this Old Northside discovery, none of which I intend to submit for the Old Northside project, so I feel I can post them here now.

Above and below: I might not have even thought to explore the alley had I not been intrigued by the bright green doors on the facade and the lack of roof I could detect from the open area above the green door on the left. The doorway (below) gives a hint of what's to come once one makes the precarious step inside.

An alley of art in Fountain Square

The Indiana Photographic Society had its opening reception Friday night for a second showing of its "Heart and Soul" photography exhibit. 

 The photo club had a first run, in April through May, of "Through the Lens: Heart and Soul" at the Garfield Park Arts Center in Indianapolis. In the weeks leading up to that show, the Fountain Square Branch of Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library invited club members to bring a portion of the images from the GPAC show to display at the library branch for two months, this month and August, during normal library hours. 

Friday's reception coincided with the monthly First Friday art walk in the Fountain Square cultural district, so I found it fitting that on my departure from the photo club's reception about 8:45 p.m., and during a walk through an alley behind the library en route to my car, I came across several striking paintings on the backsides of buildings fronting the alley. There were several "art works" in this short one-block alley, although I'm not sure the alley was officially designated for such work ... or that any of the works was commissioned.

The images you see here are those art works I came across.

Guardian of the snowcovered alley

Above documents a brief encounter of the feline species I had in an alley not far from my house this afternoon, my first opportunity to get out and document the recent snow blitz that came through Central Indiana.

Actually, I've seen the stray before, but it doesn't usually hang around very long. The moment after I snapped this photo and made a step toward it in hopes of getting a closer shot (not to mention it was on the way to my house!), it high-tailed it out of there in the direction of the open snowpath behind it. I shot this with my Canon Rebel 300D equipped with an EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS telephoto lens, at maximum focal length, with image stabilization engaged.

I'll be posting a few other frames from today's shoot in the days ahead.