So, we have a photo walk scheduled for tonight. Rock. On. We’re meeting at 6pm at Crowne Plaza. But not just anywhere. Cambrie Anderson, who arranged this opportunity for us, passed along the following instructions:

Everyone will need to enter Union Station [huge red brick building] through the double green doors off Illinois Street.  The doors are located underneath the overpass which is north of South Street and just south of the Omni Severin; these doors are on the west side of the building.  They should not try to enter the doors on the north side of the building, underneath the stained glass window [this is across the circle drive from the Omni].  Also, they will not be able to get to the Grand Hall if they enter over by Cadillac Ranch.

If anyone is unsure where it is, there is no physical address, so they can just put the Crowne Plaza Hotel into their GPS [123 W. Louisiana St., Indianapolis, 46225].  If they are at the front doors of the hotel, they will just walk across Illinois Street and enter through the double green doors.

The closest / cheapest parking option would probably be either Pan Am garage or any of the mall parking.

If that’s all a bit abstract for you, I found the doors she means on Google Street View, which’ll also give you a hand approximate address and driving instructions. Click here to map it.

Now, communications: If you have problems finding us, try the following:

Tweet us at @robertscamera

Call Derek at 765-215-9249

And, if you’re still not on the mailing list, shoot me an email at dmartin@robertsimaging.com and I’ll get you added.

See you all at 6!

Look at this: the photo walk was just last night, I haven’t even imported my photos from it yet, we haven’t followed up for clarifications on that IMA policy, and here I am announcing the next walk. Cool, right?

Before I get into details, I should remind everyone that if you want to be on our mailing list for this, send me an email at dmartin@robertsimaging.com and let me know. If you’re a Twitter person, you can follow either @robertscamera or @zedmartinez to keep up. And, there’s the Facebook page also. Those are all the ways you can keep your finger on the pulse of the next photo walk.

If you’ve gone on a photo walk and have a Flickr, there’s a group you should join and submit shots to here.

OK, now, onto the next walk. 2011 Photo Walkabout regular Cambrie Anderson has arranged for us to be able to shoot in the old Union Station / Crowne Plaza. All massive props go to her for making this one happen. This’ll be taking place next Wednesday, June 1st, at 6pm at Crowne Plaza. You need to show up at a specific place or you can’t get in. Per Cambrie:

Everyone will need to enter Union Station [huge red brick building] through the double green doors off Illinois Street.  The doors are located underneath the overpass which is north of South Street and just south of the Omni Severin; these doors are on the west side of the building.  They should not try to enter the doors on the north side of the building, underneath the stained glass window [this is across the circle drive from the Omni].  Also, they will not be able to get to the Grand Hall if they enter over by Cadillac Ranch.

If anyone is unsure where it is, there is no physical address, so they can just put the Crowne Plaza Hotel into their GPS [123 W. Louisiana St., Indianapolis, 46225].  If they are at the front doors of the hotel, they will just walk across Illinois Street and enter through the double green doors.

The closest / cheapest parking option would probably be either Pan Am garage or any of the mall parking.

And, for those of you who are more visual, she means these doors (picture links to Google Maps street view for more visuals and approximate address):

So, got all that? Good. Also, we’re sure Cambrie would love it if you’d check out her site at www.cambrieanderson.com, or follow her on Twitter at @cambrie_a

So, quick note here, we’re doing a photo walkabout tomorrow, 6pm, at the IMA grounds. No model this time, so, you’ll have to hunt out your own shots. There’s been some concern expressed over the IMA’s new policies, so, for those of you who’ve heard they changed but weren’t told how, let’s make it a little less scary. Non-commercial, public photography of most things is still absolutely hunkie-dorie, including posting to social media. All the real changes involved two things: commercial photography, or photography of copyrighted works. Don’t take pictures of Robert Indiana’s sculptures and don’t sell any of these and you’ll be fine.

Now, that map I promised:

Remember, 6pm. There’s a chance Nick and I might be late is traffic is being a pain, so, give us a few minutes either way, we’ll be there. Promise.

Friendly reminder, tomorrow is the next of our infamous photo walkabouts. For the newcomers out there, Nick and I feel that getting out and shooting photos is good practice and good experience, and started taking time out of our schedules once a week to go out and shoot for an hour or two. Then, we started inviting everybody who wants to come along with us. We’re not gear snobs, we welcome you to bring anything with a shutter button. We’re also not experience snobs, everyone starts somewhere, and if you’re new and need help we’ll gladly provide it.

Photo walks are free to all, although you’re encouraged to grab money for parking just in case. You’re also encouraged to bring a few bucks to tip models when we have them out. And, this time, we do once again have just such a model.

Photo courtesy Caitlin Davies

Isn’t she just lovely? We feel she’ll bring a lot to your pictures. And, since it’s supposed to be nice tomorrow, I’m going to bring along my Quadra light set, and try and grab the one from Rentals as well. So, we can play with having two different light set-ups, or throw them all together for one sun-decimating 4 light set-up. We should be able to pull some serious gorgeous shots off. And, don’t worry about your gear, anything with 1) Manual controls and 2) either a flash or a hotshoe will be able to get in on the lighting fun. We’ll also be sure to have some time for ambient lighting shots for everyone who only has automatic.

The location for tomorrow’s meet-up is West and Washington, by the Eiteljorg. We’ll meet people there from 6-6:15, after which we’ll move on to the canal for my attractive backdrops. If you get there late, or otherwise have trouble finding us, you can tweet us at @robertscamera, hit up our Facebook wall, or do something so silly as call me at 765-215-9249

Tuesday’s photo walkabout was such rollicking fun, Nick and I want to do it again. And, since we found the museum grounds / canal area to be full of nice spots to shoot and hardly exhausted them, we’re just going to do it at the same place. And, right now the weather forecast for next week says Tuesday might be drop-dead gorgeous, so, heck, let’s just do the same time. Deja vu is always in fashion.

So, Tuesday May 10th, 6pm, meet at the corner of West and Washington by the Eiteljorg and then we’ll drop back as a group to the canal area. I’ve got a couple models I’m going to contact and see if we can’t get a new face out. So, the same rule applies, you’re welcome to come shoot for free, we won’t judge you. Nick and I know what it’s like to have no budget. If you can, though, bring a few bucks to help compensate whatever lovely model we get to have grace our photos.

If the forecast holds steady and it is a gorgeous day, I’ll bring along my Quadra kit, and if it’s extra gorgeous maybe rentals will let us bring out their pair as well and we can have some fun shooting with larger strobes this time around. I know I love working with my set when I can, although the rain has been making that irksome of late.

Anyway. Rain or shine, but boy we’re hoping for shine, next Tuesday, May 10th, 6pm, meet at Washington and West for a canal area walk. See you then, gang.

It’s a bit drab outside, sure, and the forecast says rain most of today. But, it also might clear up by this evening some, so, as of right now Nick and I are not canceling the photo walk, and will continue to assess the situation throughout the day. But, even if it gets miserable, we’ll be out there at 6, if just to send you off.

If you’re feeling hopeful and adventurous like us, and don’t mind a little damp but think your camera might have other thoughts, we’re bring along some of the wonderful little Optech camera rainsleeves. They’re not up to the par Aquatech is, but for a single casual shoot or two, they’ll protect your camera just fine. Nick’s used one in the past himself. At a photo walk even.

We’ll have these technological wonders for a low photowalk price of $5 for a 2-pack, just in case.

This isn’t a shameless plug, we just want to make sure you don’t come out and visit us and then get caught in a torrential downpour that makes ducks happy and cameras sad.

But there won’t be. It’ll be dry. Positive energy, people. See you at 6pm. West and Washington.

So, friendly reminder to everyone, tomorrow at 6pm (hope for sun, the forecast is bouncing all over the place), we’re meeting at the northwest corner of West and Washington (by the Eiteljorg) to do a new photo walk. If it’s raining we’ll cower under the canal bridges. As always, free to everyone to attend, and you’re welcome no matter what you shoot. Point and shoot, DSLR, view camera, whatever. It’s mostly just important you get out and shoot.

Picture used with permission

As a special perk, we’ve got a lovely model by the name of Amanda lined up for you all tomorrow. Now, while Nick and I will always keep these free if we can help it, when we have a model along we do encourage you to bring a few bucks to chip in for their time. This is only polite, after all.

So, get your camera batteries charged. Grab an Optek rain cover just in case (they’re cheap), and remember to come out and meet us tomorrow at 6. We’ll wait until about 6:15 for any stragglers, but after that we’ll be putting the “walk” in “photo walk,” so, if you’re running that late, here are some contact options:

Call me at 765-215-9249. Please, if you call, start with the fact that you’re asking about the photo walk. I’m notoriously cross with sales people calling me, and I don’t want to be terse with you wrongly.

Email me at iamzedmartinez@gmail.com, it pushes to my phone

Or, for you in the new tech world, send us a tweet at @robertscamera, I’ll be keeping an eye o it during the shoot.

Alright, back to your afternoons. See you tomorrow evening.

Remember those photo walkabouts Nick and I did last year? Yeah, us too. The weather’s warming up, and the forecast finally has a few days without rain and misery, so, we’re going to roll the dice and go ahead and announce our first one of the season for next Tuesday, May 3rd, at 6pm. Let’s say meet us at the northwest corner of Washington and West, then we can hit the museum district or the canal as the mood suits. We’re going to try and bring out a local model for this, so, pack your portrait kit, and remember, while it’s always free to attend any photo walk, we encourage you to bring some money along to help pay models for their time when we have them out (also note you might grab five bucks for parking, just in case. Parking does get spotty downtown.)

For those of you new to this, the idea is like this: Nick and I, being firm believers in getting the heck out there and using your gear when you can, like to go out from time to time and just spend an hour or two taking pictures of… whatever. We think it’s way more fun with a group, so, we invite anyone who wants to to come out with us. We don’t care what you shoot, whether you’re just getting going or an established pro, just so long as you’re coming out for some fun and photos. Since we’re both camera dudes, we’ll gladly give you any tips or help we can, but, what we won’t do is turn this into a sales pitch. This isn’t about gear, it’s about photos, you know?

So, yeah. Tuesday, May 3rd, 6pm, West and Washington, we’ll try and get a model. Make it out if you can, it’ll be fun.