This last weekend was the annual Denver Chalk Art Festival along Larimer Street. On Sunday afternoon, I made a trip downtown. Last year, it was really hot and there was at least one rain shower that washed out some of the artist’s work. Images from last year’s festival may be found here. The weather was great on Sunday with some light overcast weather that made photography easy.
Something Independent
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Fuji XE-1. This is a retro rangefinder style camera with electronic viewfinder. This last week I have been making images to get used to this new camera. I have always been a left-eyed shooter with SLR’s for many years. Rangefinder cameras are designed for right-eyed shooters. This was the biggest adjustment that I had to make. Left-eyed shooting does have some advantages — check out Joe McNally’s blog for details.
The image quality from the XE-1 is astounding. Most images here were made with aperture priority auto exposure. These images have minimal post processing in Lightroom. “Something Independent” just has a contrast tweak. The RMCAD artist below, made in afternoon sunlight, has no adjustments!
RMCAD Chalk Artist At Work
Walking along Larimer Street, I made a few images of the artwork on the pavement. The artist below was was in the shadowed side for the street. The crowds in the distant right were in the sunny side of the street. Adjusting the Lightroom “Highlights” slider, toned down the potentially distracting bright highlights.
Artist’s Gaze
Mythica chose to make an image to honor Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn’s birthday was on Saturday. This was a spectacular image of Marilyn, with saturated pastel (or chalk) media. Mythica won an award for the best Color image.
“Marilyn” By Mythica
This artist was deeply immersed in this image.
LEG Artist At Work
Near the food vendors, a manikin was put out on display. Of course, this attracted a crowd of visitors and well-wishers (!) wanting to include him in a picture. This guy was no exception.
Greeting The Manikin
“The Great Gatsby” is currently showing on the movie circuit. This was the subject of the following chalk art.
Gatsby
Here are two of the artists having a discussion about their work.
Gatsby Artists
More images to follow…