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On the morning of Feb. 10, 2012, I went on a self-assigned photo walk in the Mural District in downtown Fresno. I collaborated again with my friend Joseph Edgecomb, who previously went on a photo walk with me at the Big Fresno Flea Market last summer. It was my first photo walk of the new year, and I wanted to try out a bunch of new camera skills that I’ve been practicing in my photo classes at Fresno City College.

This was the first photo walk I’ve taken with my new hand-me-down Nikon D50 digital SLR camera. I used a Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8 prime lens. For the first time, I made all of my exposures using manual settings. I did a lot of bracketing of exposures while in the field, and I tried different exposure combinations on each composition. Also for the first time, I shot the photos in a raw format rather than in JPEG to allow for maximum quality. That allowed me to practice some of my new editing techniques in Photoshop, including the fixing of blemishes with the clone stamp, spot healing brush, and dodge/burn tools, as well as making basic color adjustments.

I loved walking around the Mural District. There is so much new development going on down there, driven by the Assemi family and GV Urban among others. There is also an amazing juxtaposition of new and old throughout the entire area, as renovations pop up alongside, inside, and outside of what has been there before. It’s easy to spot the murals, of course, but it’s also fun to think about what already exists on the streets as a kind of urban art, too. After a while, the mural art and the non-mural art seem to form this seamless mix of visual inspiration.

Check out Joseph’s excellent gallery to compare and contrast with mine.