Dave Daniel Photography

Desperately needing to get out of the house, and even more desperately needing to exercise the camera (and myself), we trekked off to Indianapolis’ Holiday Park to shoot the famed Ruins. For those that don’t know, Holiday Park is a 94-acre park located on the north side of Indianapolis. The park has something for almost everyone, including botanical gardens, hiking trails, native wildlife, the White River, a nature center and, as mentioned earlier, the Ruins.

Holiday Park Ruins in Winter

The Ruins is a sculpture by Elmer Taflinger, based on the facade of the St. Paul Building, which was located on Broadway in New York City. The facade was originally designed by Karl Bitter, a prominent architect of his time, and featured Indiana limestone carved into the “the Races of Man.” The limestone found its way back to Indiana as part of a contest to preserve the carvings. About 50 years later, the Ruins are even more beautiful, although the surrounding area needs some attention from the City.

The gallery from the shoot is available here . All images were shot with a Nikon D200, using a Nikkor 18-200 lens, all on a tripod. Exposure information for each image is provided in the gallery. I’m planning on returning in the spring to shoot identical views. Enjoy!

Page Arizona – February 16, 2008

It’s has taken me over a year to get through all the images during the Arizona shoot, and I’m still working through them! Here’s the next set, shot in the Page, Arizona area while I was there to shoot the beautiful Coyote Buttes, White Pockets, and the amazing Antelope Canyon. This series of shots were taken before and after the canyon shoot session. This area is the same as shot in the Coconino Plateau images.

The weather certainly cooperated for the day, yielding over 800 images to choose from. Here’s a brief set of Page area views, up and down the Colorado River. This area is about 60 miles upstream from the Grand Canyon. From these shots, it’s easy to see how the canyon may have looked millennia ago.

On a personal note, these images were shot on February 16th. Two days later, while back in Phoenix, I suffered a major heart attack which put me in the hospital for a week. I firmly believe I was being watched over, as having a heart attack in the remote areas I shot that weekend would have been fatal. I’m a lucky man!