Sunday Social Photo Tour-April 13-Fell Point

When I scheduled the Sunday Social Tours, I didn't realize the the weekend of April 11 is the Fells Point Privateer Festival!  So our tour on Sunday the 13th of April was quite interesting.  There were tons of boats in the water, schooners docked along the piers and people milling around, some in their best pirate attire (read: boobs and tight pants.)




We met at the Daily Grind for a crash course to explain the basics of photography including aperture, shutter speed, white balance and focusing. 



Our first stop was again the courtyard where Schooner Lion is on display.  I love this spot; it's a great place for people to get used to all the "new" settings on their dSLRs.  Attendees practiced shifting their focus from foreground to background while shooting wide open and then increased their aperture to see the different it made in their images.  Many also played around with White Balance, to see the affect it had on the feel of their images. 







After spending some time there we moved across Thames Street to the pier where the pirate ship Fearless is docked.  This was a great place to take images with a very long depth of field. Under Armour sits directly across the water and there were lots of boats out sailing.  The lighting wasn't great for outdoor shooting, but these were just practice shots to get people ready for the Golden Hour later in the tour. 







Next, we stopped at the old Homocide: Life on the Streets HQ building We were graciously greeted by Snowdrift the deaf Pitbull and her master who were sitting on the steps.  Both were very friendly, well behaved and kind enough to allow students to take their photos. This unexpected opportunity resulted in some great photo journalistic images.   




For our mid tour break we headed to The Point in Fells for some yummy light fare, drinks and a slideshow of students images thus far. This also gave everyone time to relax and mingle. 



Once back out on the street, we worked our way down past HQ to the water taxi stop. Attendees spent some times shooting each other in front of the blossoming trees and hectic background of Fells.  We moved down to the Broadway pier just in time for the crew to be furling the top sail on Pride of Baltimore II!

As the sun started to set, the Golden Hour of photography arrived, making the water shimmer gold. We moved along from Broadway to Bond Street.  The setting sun and the natural light diminishing made it an ideal time to explain exposure bracketing.

When the sun was mostly down, we switched to shutter priority to capture some light trails and motion blur as cars drove up and down along Thames.  

See more pics from the tour below.

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Charm City Craft Mafia-Holiday Heap 2013

I was the lucky winner of 2 early bird tickets to Holiday Heap from Downtown Diane via Twitter.  The Heap took place on Saturday at 2640 Space, the former church turned cultural center on St Paul St.  Organized by Charm City Craft Mafia, Heap brings together the best of the best of local artisans and crafters.  If you were looking for an unusual gift for someone, chances are you would find it there. 

Early Bird goodie bag design by Annie Howe

Soaps, Oils, Handbags, Belts, Prints, T-shirts and more lined tables in two rooms chock full of creativity.  One of my favorites was "Bmore Papercuts" by Annie Howe.  This MICA trained artist cuts intricate full scenes from a single sheet of paper. Her design adorned the screen printed goodie bag that was given to all early birds.  

Early Bird tickets were a mere $15 and included coffee from Zekes, pastries, 10% off coupons for all vendors and the goodie bag with an amazing assortment of other small hand made items. In mine, I was lucky to receive a hand quilted key chain by Namoo, a sketchbook from Utrecht Art Supply, several hand crafted greeting cards by Sugar Shop & Paperie, chocolates, cookies, soaps and much more.  I am not too proud to say some of these goodies will be re-gifted as stocking stuffers!  

As I walked around the two rooms, I was greeted by friendly smiles, delicious smells and tons of interesting things to look at.  I was happy to see one of my favorite vendors from many different Baltimore art festivals including Artscape, Fisticuffs Leathers, had a table at the Heap. And I found a new interest in comic books due to Spaghetti Kiss.
 
If you were able to make it to Holiday Heap this year, lucky you! If not, I highly recommend going next year as you'd be hard pressed to find such a wide selection of unique and hand made gifts anywhere else in Baltimore. 

 

A look inside the goodie bag! Well worth the price of an early bird ticket by itself!

For more info about Charm City Craft Mafia, click here. 

For more info about Baltimore Photo Social, click here.