On the first Friday of each month, downtown Phoenix Arizona’s Roosevelt Row arts district hosts an event called “First Friday Phoenix.” This event bills itself as the largest self guided art walk festival in the US. I’ve been working in Phoenix since the beginning of this month, and my family is staying in the district. Many art galleries and public art spaces, restaurants and nightclubs are here.
We arrived at the apartment we’re renting on the afternoon of the first Friday of the month. So we were indoctrinated to this event right away. While First Friday formally calls itself an “art walk” it’s definitely more of a street festival than a gallery walk. With a balcony overlooking Roosevelt Row, we watched the street fill up with people very early in the evening, and it was clear it was going to be a LOUD night!
Heading out with Nikon Z f in hand
So I grabbed a camera and a small lens and set out into the crowd. This evening I chose the Nikon Z f and the tiny TTArtisan 50mm f/2 manual focus lens – practically a pancake lens. Roosevelt Avenue and its side streets were crowded with food and artist booths. At one prominent intersection was a “drum circle” (when I lived in Iowa City, Iowa, which also had such a thing, we referred to this concept as a “bongo jam”: 30 or so bongo players in a circle, sharing a rhythm. There were also buskers galore.
My daughter and I did participate in the bongo jam. Some people obviously brought their own bongos. But there were also bongoes set up on the sidewalk for anyone who wanted to play, so we stepped up.
Skateboard competition
One of the First Friday Phoenix highlights for me was a cityblock-long skateboard competition hosted by a local skate shop. Once upon a time I was an active skater with multiple boards, though I haven’t skated in decades. (I gave it up after watching my best friend suffer quite an injury – one of those tragic falls that one experiences in slo-mo, if you know what I mean). But I still enjoy the sport and culture, and I love watching competitions. Occasionally I even stop in skate shops during my travels and tell myself I’m going to buy a board. But I don’t.
Anyway, at this event the three boarders executing the best tricks each won a new complete board. I had great fun photographing this action with the simple gear I brought. I have my Nikon Z f set up to operate as similarly as possible to an old Nikon FM2N from the 1980s: center-weighted metering, single-shot, all “auto” modes disabled. Not exactly “sport mode” but I enjoy shooting it this way. The TTA 50mm lens I had mounted gives very vintage-looking image quality, and is manual-focus only. So it was a fun challenge trying to capture skateboard action with this combo.
That said, for perhaps the first time ever I set a camera to ISO 12.800, realizing this represented an exception to my “FM2N approach” to managing the Z f camera settings. I don’t think I’ve ever reached above ISO 6400 before, for any reason on any camera. So it was a fun experiment, and the performance of the camera was pretty amazing at this ISO. To portray movement, I intended a bit of motion blur in my skateboard images. That is, it wasn’t my intent to fully freeze the skaters. Given that I set the camera up to act like a 40-year-old manual film camera (high ISO aside), and used a manual focus lens, I was pretty pleased with the results.
Yeah Dog!
Note the gentleman in the orange hoodie with the megaphone in the above photos. Each time a skateboarder landed from his or her trick, he yelled either “Yeah!” or “Yeah Dog!” into the megaphone. As long as we were there, that’s all he ever said. One time, he was having a conversation with someone and not even watching the skater. But he heard the skateboard hit the pavement after the jump (you know the sound). He lifted the megaphone to his mouth and yelled “Yeah!” to the side, without skipping a beat in his conversation. Since this event, whenever I’m walking down the street and hear a skateboard clacking on the pavement near me, when I hear a louder clack I yell “Yeah Dog!” every time. So I guess First Friday Phoenix has left that impression on me, at the very least.
There was even a fingerboard competition for those not so airborne-inclined. Have you seen these little fingerboards? Mini hand-sized skateboards that you can flip, spin, and do other tricks. Of course in a miniature tabletop skate park.
Nikon Z f B&W’s at ISO 12.800
Finally, each month a rock or punk band sets up in one of the “back alley” areas of the event, away from other performers ( clearly due to volume!). This month there was a talented three-piece band that was a lot of fun to listen to. Alas, I didn’t catch their name. I These images were the Z f at ISO 12.800 again, and I was amazed at the very low noise.
I’ve been exploring the Roosevelt Row area and other nearby downtown neighborhoods when I have bits of free time. It’s colorful and interesting with lots of public art, street art, murals and graffiti, a mix of old and new architecture. It’s also a mix of sophistication and grit. I’ll share more images from my explorations of this area in another post in the coming days.
