Indy Criterium: An inaugural cycling event

There is something about the geometry of dozens of bicycles moving together that appeals to me, which I guess is why pro cycling has become a favorite spectator sport of mine. That's why I decided to drop in on the inaugural Indy Criterium on Saturday in Downtown Indianapolis, where cyclists of several skills levels and age divisions competed for a total purse of $4,000 over a 0.7-mile loop course.

Cyclists began their multi-lap loop of the Indy Crit on Meridian Street alongside University Park, went north to Vermont Street, turned west for a block to Illinois, then turned south onto Illinois to Market Street, and east on Market, following the curved northwest quadrant of Monument Circle before completing the loop with a north turn onto Meridian Street.

The route allowed for fascinating visual backdrops involving two of the city's most striking structures -- the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Monument Circle at Market and Meridian streets, and the State Capitol at Illinois and Market streets.

These images are from the second half of the men's Masters competition and the first part of the men's 3/4 skill category competition. The weather turned out to be splendid for the athletes -- solid overcast skies. Which might explain some of the boredom (too much of a comfort zone?) and face-making going on you see in the last two pictures, which were taken moments before the start line of the men's 3/4 race.

A full gallery of images from my shoot of the competition is available at my online site at SmugMug.com.

Yeah, but does he/she have THIS?

Do you need to buy for a camera/photographer geek friend who has everything? Really? Does he/she own a coffee or beverage mug that looks like a Canon L series lens? I didn't think so.

The photo above (not mine) is not made up; it's a real beverage mug, made to look like a Canon L series lens (it even lists the real Canon 24-105mm lens parameters) and is for sale at an online site called Photojojo, which has lots of other novelty items like this.

The link I provided takes you to the page with the lens mug offer ($24 if you need to know before you actually check it out). As Photojojo describes it, "Our lens mug runneth over with camera-geek joy."

If you click on the Photojojo logo at the top of the page of the link provided here, or just click here, you'll go to the store's home page where you can start to browse the full catalog.

Cheese: Concert comfort food?

I've seen a lot of people tote snacks and drinks to casual outdoor concerts, so this image wasn't unusual in that respect. I saw this gentleman pull out some cheese for his snack at Saturday's shoot at the Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra's show in the Sunken Garden of Garfield Park, then noticed how the setting sun was highlighting his beard and shirt, so I felt compelled to grab this frame.

Here's to finding comfort and making the best out of your experience -- on what was a very uncomfortable, hot and humid evening.

Jazz ensemble livens up the Garden

It was a hot and humid early evening, but that didn't stop the Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra from keeping its date Saturday to perform in the Sunken Garden of Garfield Park as part of the "Music in the Garden" series.

With temperatures reaching into the mid-90s for the sixth consecutive day, organizers wisely staged the ensemble at the west end of the garden, where the stage and a good 30 yards of audience seating area extending into the garden lawn were protected from the setting sun by the shade of at least a couple dozen trees. Joining the band on several numbers were vocalists Lydia McAdams and Rick Vale.

A note of gratitude to Indianapolis Star photographer Alan Petersime, who I ran into at the show Saturday. He was covering the performance for the newspaper. Alan showed me a striking image he had captured of some people sitting on a cement bench under the sprawling limbs of an expansive tree lining the north fringe of the garden, so I felt compelled to grab a copy myself. It's the image you see at the very bottom of this post. I think his turned out better; Alan grabbed a frame with the full tree displayed, which I think made the image more powerful because it really dwarfs the people underneath. Also, he caught it at a time when the sun splashed highlights on the full tree, contrasting it nicely with the out-of-sunlight trees behind it.

Sunken Garden visit, 2010

For the past six summers, I've made it a point to record in images the summer floral arrangements in the Sunken Garden of Garfield Park (a formerly simple and enjoyable task; but in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult -- not nearly as enjoyable -- because of an apparent misinformed security staff that tries to shoo away any photographers using (and this is their term) "fancy" equipment -- instead of just professional portrait photographers. But that, perhaps, is for another post).

I think my first visit to shoot the garden arrangements -- which was in July 2004, just five weeks after I had acquired my first digital SLR -- remains my most favorite, primarily because I think the arrangements that summer have not been topped since -- violet petunias bordered by white dusty millers in one arrangement, coral-colored blooms and bright green coleus in the other arrangements.

This summer, there are burgundy coneflowers, tangerine marigolds, apricot and dark apricot zinnias, bulls-eye salmon geraniums, Titan Bush periwinkle, Red Bunny Tails, diamond frost Euphorbias and Lantana "Lucky Peach." The coneflower images were the toughest to deal with in post-processing, although I expected that from the LCD views I was seeing after I took each image. The color was just not reproducing properly. I have the forgiving nature of RAW image format and Photoshop to thank for enabling me to restore those coneflowers' "look" to almost what I remember seeing!

Beneath the group of images below from this year's shoot, I've posted three images from the aforementioned shoot of the Sunken Garden arrangements on July 18, 2004.

Enjoy.

FROM JULY 18, 2004