Bloomington | Alex Farris Photo Blog

It's always a pleasure when I can find an excuse to go to Bloomington, my favorite big small town. Kristina Hunter (now Kristina Mullis) provided me a very good reason to go back when she asked me to take her wedding photos. Kristina is a fellow IDS alum, so I was thrilled; and she celebrated her wedding to U.S. Navy seaman Patrick Mullis at Woolery Stone Mill, which made me even more thrilled. To top it all off, the groomsmen climbed up the rusty stairs and a dilapidated firetruck for their group pictures, and there were at least two babies in the bridesmaids' RV. (Oh, and there was an RV.) This was definitely the most unique wedding I've shot, and I'm glad I was a part of it.

Awesomely enough, the wedding gave me a second reason to visit Bloomington, as yesterday I delivered the photos to Kristina in the Indiana Memorial Union. Bonus.

Kristina Hunter and Patrick Mullis got married on Sept. 8 at Woolery Stone Mill in Bloomington, Ind.

Little 500 is my favorite event of the year, as it is for a lot of people. Some of my best IDS memories are of taking or editing photos of the men's and women's races, the rush to make the best photo of the eight-person team and telling a full story of the event in an award-winning photo gallery. There's so much pageantry around the event, and it produces many of my favorite photos.

This year, I shot for The Indianapolis Star instead of the IDS, and even though I was shooting on my own, I still think I got a complete picture of the event. Check it out below.

Note The Star put up a gallery of the 20-odd photos I sent them yesterday, but this is a looser/more expansive edit of about 40 photos. Y'know, more bang for your click. Also, the IDS did a great job this year at both the women's and men's races.

Delta Gamma's Kayce Doogs beats Kappa Alpha Theta's Kathleen Chelminiak to the finish line to win the women's Little 500 bicycle race at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington, Friday, Apr. 20, 2012. The win was DG's second in the 25-year history of the women's race. (Alex Farris / For The Star)

The camera already provides a rigid frame, and often it's a pretty constraining one. Human sight is so panoramic, and so narrowing that range to a 3:2 box already takes some of the majesty and breadth out of a landscape or a piece of action. Why, you might ask, would you limit a photo even further? Three reasons: More story, more depth, and more focus.

The Plaza de España in Seville, Spain (regrettably dredged for renovations for this photo on Mar. 27, 2010) was a filming site for the Naboo sequences in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, as well as a site for Lawrence of Arabia.