Dave Daniel Photography

Motorists on I-65 are enjoying an interesting distraction just north of Lafayette as they enter the middle of an immense wind energy farm with wind turbines towering over 250′. The wind farm is home to over 600 wind turbines spread across 100,000 acres. The entire farm provides thousands of megawatts of clean energy to local energy users. Honestly, there really isn’t much of interest to look at on northern Indiana highways, but as I found myself looking around the countryside at the countless wind turbines, I began to wonder if the accident rate has increased on this stretch of highway.

After many trips through the area, I finally managed a short stop to get a handful of images. Pictures don’t do these turbines justice, as they are incredibly large with a total height of 372 feet, and there are so many of them. On the windy day I stopped, the 110 foot long blades made a low vibration as they slowly spun. Even though the blades turn at a seemingly slow speed of 15rpm, the tip speed is high enough to blur them in the photos.

I plan on returning to the area in the near future to take a number of night shots. It’s really hard to describe, but picture hundreds of red lights a couple hundred feet in the air, flashing on and off in unison well off to the horizon. The area truly looks like a sci-fi invasion. Meanwhile, enjoy these daytime shots of a very small fraction of the turbines in the area.

The Indianapolis Canal was a spectacular destination for this unusually warm spring day. With camera in hand, I spent the afternoon watching visitors to the canal take in the views, the museums, and memorials along the canal. I was also wanting to check out the canal length for candidate locations for some upcoming portrait shots.

In case you didn’t know, what we know as the Indianapolis canal downtown was actually part of the Indiana Central Canal. It was intended to connect the Wabash And Erie canal (which is partially intact today) to the Ohio River. The Indianapolis section roughly parallels White River and extends in pieces between Broad Ripple and White River State Park.

Although it’s a wonderful destination, I continue to be upset that the city allowed private construction along the canal, such as a tacky Residence Inn hotel, office buildings and condos. In my never to be humble opinion, the entire canal should be surrounded by park space and public venues. So much for the soapbox.

This was a chamber of commerce day – unusually warm at 84 degrees, slightly breezy, and mostly sunny. I ended up shooting over 200 images ranging from canal views to some families and pets along the canal. It’s clear that I need to make up some info cards so people know where to go to see some of the pics I took of them.

I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and will be back with some photo clients to use the canal as a backdrop for some portrait shots. I easily found a couple dozen locations that should provide excellent results.

Enjoy!

A mid-winter snowy day recently brought us to Indianapolis’ Garfield Park Conservatory for an escape from the cold and a much-needed photo shoot. The Conservatory houses over 10,000 sq. feet of plants, flowers, trees and ferns from the world’s equatorial regions.

Surprisingly, we had the building to ourselves allowing whatever time was needed to view and shoot some the wonderful orchids that are scattered around the facility.

I was traveling light with my Canon G10, but definitely want to return for an afternoon with the D200, macro lens and strobe. I continue to be impressed with the image quality available from the G10. I hope you’ll agree that the results are worthy.

See more images here or click on the image.

Mid August in Indiana means photo road trips! This particular visit took us to Fall Creek Gorge, near Attica, in west-central Indiana. The area is very lush, with mosses and ferns covering the steep limestone and sandstone walls of the gorge. Think of Turkey Run State Park on a very small scale, and without the kayaks and crowds.

The gorge is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy, and was dedicated as a State Nature Preserve in 1986. Although I am an Indiana native, I just recently became aware of the site in recent years.

It is worth the trip – not only for the photo opps, but the water feels absolutely wonderful on a 90 degree Indiana summer day. Some of the potholes make for some creek lounging; the water in a few choice locations is up to my chest. The water is very clear and refreshingly cool.

The gorge is a difficult place to find. It’s in the middle of nowhere, on a gravel road, with a huge parking area for a half dozen cars. Don’t ask the locals – they probably don’t know where it’s at. But always willing to help, I’ve got directions for you:

Assuming you can find Attica, from the corner if S.R 28 and U.S. 41 travel west on U.S. 41 4.6 miles to Potholes Road (Kramer electric substation is across the road). It’s a gravel road and easy to miss. Go north roughly 1.5 miles to a small parking lot on the left side of the road. If you cross over the twin bridges over Fall Creek and Big Pine Creek, you have gone to far. From Daniel Central, it’s a short 100 miles to the Gorge.

Park your car, tailgate a nice lunch, leave your trash behind, walk the short trail to the gorge and prepare to get wet and enjoy yourself. I hope you enjoy these shots – I will have a full gallery posted soon.

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!