deep ellum locations? new to dfw :)

[sseeton]

hey there! i just relocated to the dfw area :) i have an urban maternity/family session coming up this sunday and they requested to do the session in deep ellum. i've never been...and i do know that it's not the safest area to be in, but given that we will be shooting in daylight on a sunday i'm assuming we will be fine.

my question is....does anyone know of a good location to meet up with my clients? like i said, i am totally not familiar with the area at all. and any tips on any cool spots in that area? looking for graffiti, old brick buildings, colorful walls, fire escape stair cases, etc.

any help at all?? :)

[sseeton]

anyone??? come on people! help me out...please!

[toverman]

Deep Ellum is fun. I suggest you scout out particular spots beforehand and get a feel for what the client wants. There are some wall murals, sculptures (I like the big silver man ones), old buildings, bars, DART train platforms, etc. One important thing to do, if you can, is to visit the spots at the same time of day you'll be doing the shoot to see where the light and shadows fall. That will make things easier.

The area isn't any more dangerous (in my opinion) than any other part of downtown Dallas.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Sara you won't find any graffiti per se anymore in Deep Ellum but you can find art "projects" that are painted on specific sites in it. Art In and Around Deep Ellum Photo Gallery by pgkps at pbase.com You can also look around my other albums and see pics of a lot of the buildings in Deep Ellum and on the east side of Downtown. No real staircases that are public access in the area other than one inside THE BONE bar that goes to their roof deck and it ain't fancy.

THe area is pretty much safe, just don't leave your camera out and visible in your vehicle because a lot of homeless walk through the area even during the day-some of the biggest soup kitchens are just a few blocks away towards downtown.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Since most of these buildings were built as commercial warehouses/factories their fire escapes in the 1900-1920's were all inside the buildings stairwells even on the few that are multiple stories high. I would tell them to meet you at Cafe Brazil on Commerce, where a few murals are nearby-look across the street at the Prophet Bar- and then you can drive down to good lattimer to the dog park area with all the other art and then you can go west a couple blocks to the DART station with its couple of murals.

[diannars]

There are some fabulous murals at the Deep Ellum DART station. They are on the walls of a building across the tracks from the station. The metal sculptures are also cool. "Traveling Man" is near the station and there is one of several metal birds on the opposite side. I have a Deep Ellum photo album on my site: http://dispix.shutterfly.com/ although I was only able to spend about an hour there before the heat got to me. :)

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Dianna I wouldn't call those new murals fabulous, they are a poor substitute for what was along the walls of the good lattimer tunnel that DART destroyed, in fact they were so poorly done that less then 18 months later paint is pealing on many of them while some of the gl pieces had been up for 5 years+ with no pealing. Yeah some parts of it were done by the same artists but it just doesn't have the feal of the older work which was destroyed.

SARA BTW, how did the shoot go?

[diannars]

I was looking at pictures of the tunnel the other day. What a freaking shame... seems like there could've been SOME way to save it. I'm just sad that I didn't really know about it then and only found out about it after it was gone. :(

[janikphoto]

Originally Posted by diannars

I was looking at pictures of the tunnel the other day. What a freaking shame... seems like there could've been SOME way to save it. I'm just sad that I didn't really know about it then and only found out about it after it was gone. :(

They said it couldn't be saved, because the weight of the dart trains was too much for it. Silly engineers and their load measurements?!?

Sorry I was late to this thread, but I can tell you that Deep Ellum is safer than many parts of Dallas. I always meet clients at the Cafe Brazil at the corner of Malcom X and Elm Street. You can pretty much just walk and wander to find great shooting areas down there!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Well it turns out that the way that they ran the DART rail tracks that the tunnel wouldn't work but THEY DIDN'T HAVE TO RUN THE TRACKS THE WAY THEY DID! It's just DART and their overblown opinions of themselves which is why they are way out of budget on their build out.
(Back about 25 years ago when the freight yard was there right north/east of the tunnel I actually saw 5 fully loaded freight trains parked on the tunnel waiting to be worked, there is an apartment building there now).

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by sseeton

anyone??? come on people! help me out...please!

So how did it go?

[sseeton]

hey guys....shoot went well :) for anyone interested, here's the session on my blog:
the dorsey family | dallas maternity photographer sara seeton photography | dallas fort worth child + family photographer

[sseeton]

Originally Posted by janikphoto

They said it couldn't be saved, because the weight of the dart trains was too much for it. Silly engineers and their load measurements?!?

Sorry I was late to this thread, but I can tell you that Deep Ellum is safer than many parts of Dallas. I always meet clients at the Cafe Brazil at the corner of Malcom X and Elm Street. You can pretty much just walk and wander to find great shooting areas down there!

that is exactly where we met :) lol

[hutchm92]

Wow! Awesome Job in the Dallas heat!