There are five locations we went to in the course of the class under the leadership of our teacher, Mason McCuddin. The first was Riverside Park in downtown Spokane. Since it was January, the park presented a challenge, both for the lighting and content. I had the misfortune of suffering a broken leg so I shot all of my photographs from a wheelchair. Click on the album cover to see the entire set.
The second Location was the Mica Brick Factory, a turn of the century plant on the historic register. The beehive kilns on the property are protected from being dismantled and two of them are still in production. For this shoot I was still in the wheelchair so all of my shots were from a lower perspective than most. This was a fabulous opportunity to be in an industrial setting so unlike anything I had experienced before. The lighting came from green skylights, heat from the kilns and dust from the ever present clay. I would like to go back and do it again, time was too short!
The third class was at Mirabeau Park, in Spokane Vally along the Spokane River. For the first time I was actually on two feet and able to get around albeit in a rather halting manner. The lighting presented difficulties as the clouds were moving over the sun rapidly and settings had to be changed often. Like the other locations so far I want to go back and do it again, another time, another season.
The fourth Location class was at Finch Arboretum in Spokane, a day that was promised to be 50 degrees and sunny. It was chilly, foggy and almost raining. It made for some difficult shooting and me without my tripod. All the water shots came out unsatisfactory as the speed was too slow to freeze the movement. It was a fun day though nothing spectacular was produced.
The day started out cold and misty for the last Location class of the quarter. We met at the Whitworth Aquatic Center to shoot a short triathlon – laps in the pool followed by cycling and running. Going into the pool area from outside caused fogging of my glasses and camera lens and ruined a couple of interesting pictures until everything stabilized. The center is lit by sodium lights so I used the custom white balance setting for the first time. My first attempt was a bit on the blue side but a second was fairly successful. The thing everyone noticed about this assignment was the happiness of the participants. People were all smiling and the feel was cooperation rather than competition. The day finished a sunny 50 degrees, a nice finish to the class.
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| Whitworth Triath-Lite |
Images and comments from Toadflax Lane 