A little bit on the dream.....

So if you've just visited my blog for the very first time and read this as your initial introduction to me and DPA, you'll probably, hopefully, get a good idea for who I am, and some of the ideas, projects and visions I have.

I've included Rick Coombes' property/development "The Villagio" located downtown off Virginia Ave for a number of reasons. First of all, is simply, because it's absolutely beautiful. "When I grow up" I would love to find this place as my home.

Another reason is because the view of downtown Indy is spectacular from this locale. In other words, I like Indy. It's my hope that when I do live here that I'll be grilling on the roof and shooting fireworks (photographing them) over the 4th of July with friends scattered on the roof and such.

Second to last, from time to time, I'll be throwing on some of my favorite pics in place of my POTD that 96% of the time is created within 24 hours of my facebook/blog posting. Thus is the case because, I have another reason. I have ulterior motives today!

The last reason, well, not last, but the biggest ulterior motive is that I want to do business with and for interior design firms that design commercial/public/private spaces. Not so much doing pics of the interiors as much as filling their designs with my art. Which, as you've possibly read if you're one of my 5 loyal readers :)(just kidding, I actually have 13....), well maybe even more, but that's not the point. Without trying to lose my train of thought, and make this readable, please push through that past sentence or two and continue, my apologies.

So if you've read previously, you'll recall the opportunity to get to bid for the guestroom's art at the JW. Since Homewood bought my big shoe pic last year I've wanted to place more of my work in these spaces and, well, it just makes sense that I try to compete with these huge printers that buy posters, tuck'em in a frame and bang out 5000 pieces in 22 minutes. Whether I'll get the bid, I'm not really sure. I'm not even concerned with that, as I'm "learning" how this biz is done, because I'll be one of those poster makers tucking images in a frame at 1000 pieces at a time. The difference is, is that they will be MINE. And that will be satisfying for the first time I get to nail the job. & who knows, don't think I'm checkin' out on this. I've only just begun...(cue the music).

So there you go, that's a bit about me. Read between the lines, read the lines and who knows, maybe I'll see you in line someplace, sometime.

Cheers!

Is Eight enough????

This weekend I had the pleasure of photographing Josh and Sarah Brown's family this past week. If you're a friend of mine on Facebook or a fan of DPA on facebook... http://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Indianapolis-IN/Diehl-Photographic-Arts/110913265596796

(I just pasted that ridiculously long hyperlink into my blog. Why doesn't facebook make links more simple.... for the Love of All things Holy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

Anyway, if you're a friend on there you've already seen the Merry-Go-Round pic from something I do every day called POTD or - pic of the day. The cool thing about having both a Facebook and Blog is that I use them to play together and so I'll put one pic in the POTD and link them (normally) to my blog which I put more pics of. So, today's posting is "Is Eight enough?" And I said this for obvious reasons, Josh and Sarah have ocho nin~os and well, they're actually a really amazing family, so is 8 enough? It seems that really big families run really well, everyone I know of, at least from the kid perspective always seem to be anchored, well behaved and get through childhood really ready for adulthood. Anyway, enough of my thoughts on families. I don't have kids- will I ever? who knows, would I like 8???! Uh, well, I have a hard enough time flying a kite so, 8 kids....?! Enjoy the Brown's photos and click on them to see'em bigger.

POTD... My "dream" opportunity.....

So for those of you that live in Indy, you've undoubtedly seen the city's newest, latest, & biggest skyscraper coming to completion. The new JW as it will be called is a 1005 room full service hotel in the Marriott chain.

Well, for a couple months now I've been wanting to get in with White Lodging, the owner of the franchise for this Marriott and, well most Marriott's in Indiana and all over America for that matter. So I've wanted to see if I could get my photography in all the rooms. Well, today I was blessed with a returned phone call from Merrilville, IN. where White Lodging Inc is located and discovered that they just sent out the RFP's to get bids for the art in the rooms.

So,today, I headed downtown via Fishers where the staff at the 96th st SpringHill Suites (which are amazingly helpful and lovely, thanks Dee!) suggested I head down to the Marriott block which has a Springhill, Courtyard, Fairfield and the JW.

The short way to this ridiculously long set up was that I wanted to see what kind of art/theme they have in their showroom example of a typical guestroom. So, again, with incredibly helpful staff at Fairfield and Carolyn Pike on the construction side of the project graciously allowed me to see what a typical room looks like.

Ironically, I may be completely putting the cart before the horse as I don't have the official request for proposal to even try to become a vendor for this project. But I am a man of prayer and for some reason, I just "have a feeling". Whether I get "in" or not, I'm excited with the opportunity to fulfill this opportunity that I can hardly contain myself, so, I'm half tempted to erase this, half tempted to send it to White Lodging.

What do you think I'll do???

Oh, and the huge red sculpture is a Cardinal in the Marriott Art garden with other symbols of Indiana's state flowers and trees. Click on'em to see them bigger. Enjoy! Cardinals are delicious too!

POTD... making an antler sexy...

So I met Cindy Dunston Quirk of scout and zoe's fame among many others at Zarvos' Breakthrough last fall.

We made a brilliant friendship and gratefully she had asked for me to help her attempt to make her chews for her new business http://scoutandzoes.com/ look "sexy".

Well making antlers sexy could be done, however, as you see, these are dog chews, not adornments to one's walls, hood or chesticle region. So really, what she wanted was to get good clear, clearly discernible images of which she struggled greatly on her own behalf.

Now bless her heart, I've seen some of her photography and she is no slouch, but, um, well, I knew there was a reason I got a degree in photography :) to make antler's sexy.... and well, yes, according to scout and zoe they're diehlicious! and truly, these chews, just to plug them a bit for those that wonder, why antlers???
Well, 1st and foremost, they're totally hypoallergenic so dogs like my Choochoo-Bear, aka Lucy (she's the little black Shih Tzu) would love as she's allergic to everything except the sun. 2nd they're all natural, so they're chemical free, duh, nothing was made, and not necessarily killed as they're shed even though, she gets them from a game farm in Indiana and finally they're practically eternal. Yep, great dane's will salivate for months while devouring these chews, so stock up and tell Cindy that her Antler's are sexy!

P.O.T.D......

Go fly a kite is often a phrase that's kind of dismissive, kindly blunt, well, uh, yeah. Maybe not so much when the weather was as nice as it was yesterday I had to get out the "wind-schooner" and set it off. Most of the pics you'll see I was handily flying and shooting, yeah, I know, it's like texting and driving.... Illegal but we do it anyways. :) Regardless, the one that's way up there, Anne from my church was skippering it by this time and seriously, that boat was like a football field away at least and 100+ feet in the air. So, let's go fly a kite! I wont' take offense and to see these larger, just click!

Thanks!
OH, and thank you and enjoy! and if you know anyone that's in the advertising world/ V.P.'s of marketing, Public Relations, Business Owners, anyone that would like to have "a good face to go with their good name", or make their business more attractive, perhaps even maybe more Diehlicious, then get them in touch with me please. After all, isn't that why my blog isn't about me, but about my business???? :) oh yeah, sorry, it is all about me...... :)

Enjoy! diehlicious is yummy!

Happy Easter!

Imagine walking into a room filled with thrity-some planters of Easter lilies, roses, hyacinths, tulips and probably a bunch of other fancy pretty smelling hard to spell flowers! (Being a resident for 8 years now I spell Lily like the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly Inc...) That is what awaited me this morning when I arrived for worship team practice and graced our olfactory nerves through church today!
So I want to thank Lisa Schwier of Post Road English Garden for decorating our church for Easter and I absconded with a Lily from the sanctuary so I could put a pretty set of Easter photos on my blog because "he is the lily of the valley"...

For anyone interested in a little more study on why Jesus is the Lily of the Valley check out this link. http://www.learnthebible.org/the-lily-of-the-valley.html

Happy Easter America!
B

3rd song and Indiana's largest....

Round barn.

So I was gallivanting early this morning and thought of a shooting a barn that's on Mt.Comfort road and 56th aka 500n I drive by on my way to church. I got to the intersection and the light was just not "right" and here it was, 7:30 and I'm out, so, what do I do? I sometimes abide by the 3 song rule, which I learned from one of my photography friends or profs, or perhaps a book I read, back in the past millennium, which is actually a shooting rule Minor White would give his students. Simply, at the end of the 3rd song, wherever you are, you stop get out of your car and shoot. So I drove a bit south on Mt. Comfort Rd by the airport, Shameless playing, song 1, down, the road photo in here came from Garth Brooks' inspiration, or at least, that's who was playing, obviously, not the 3rd song. Then I believe it was either Counting Crows or Lenny Kravitz, regardless, I'm taking back roads behind/around the Mt. Comfort airport and come across this amazing sight. A HUGE, I mean, larger than like any other barn around and perhaps what made it so much more special to me was that it's round. So, I get out and Lenny's playing "just can't get you out of my mind" and I'm sucked in across a few pastures and fields by this enormous red barn.
Naturally, I'm figuring out how I could get closer without trespassing or getting in the way or shot at and decide that the best way to get the best view is to make my way to the owners property and see if anyone's around and inquire about photographing their barn.
So I pull up their road, beautiful, typical turn of the century white farm house at the front leading you to the barn and beside it another enormous shop which is where I meet Gary Kingen.
Like a typical jovial Hoosier he looks up at me from behind his cutting torch as he's busy fabricating something on his flatbed, smiling. Most likely wondering who I was and perhaps figuring that if I'm brave enough to walk up to him with 4 dogs barking very unhappily that I at least deserve a glad hand and big smile.
So I introduced myself and told him how amazed I was by this barn. Now, I've seen a lot of barns. For some reason, I've never registered seeing a round barn, although in hindsight there's another one, not far from the Kingen's that's now a B&B, but it's tiny in comparison.
Gary, being the gracious proud family farmer put his torch down, and began to give me a short history lesson and tour of this amazing structure built in 1903 by a Pennsylvania robber baron-type by the name of Lillith or (it's close, but not exactly right) and his family bought the farm and has lived and worked it since 1906.
Now I love farms, they remind me a lot of working at the gold mine's from my college days except you don't have to wear hardhats and deal with MSHA or OSHA. My point is, is that I got to mosey around this amazing structure which in and of itself should be a museum piece and thankfully, didn't have to get documentation and legal junk to enjoy this historical structure.
I could go on and on about this barn, obviously, I never write this much in my blogs, all I can say is that the entire inside is handhewn wood from the property, the floors are laminate 1x2's and well, I'll let the pictures speak the rest. I've probably got close to a 1000 words already and hopefully, my pics will give you a much greater appreciation for what I happened upon this morning on my 3rd song...

Like everything else on my blog, if you want to see the photos larger just click and I'd like to thank Gary again for his graciousness and willingness to show me a part of his family's history and a bit of Indiana's neatest oddities.