Columbus, Indiana
Back in 2020 I had a trip planned with some photographer friends to go to Columbus, Indiana. What’s in Columbus you may ask? A LOT of architecture. So many great works by world renowned architects that Columbus is often referred to as “The Athens of the Midwest”. Unfortunately in 2020 there was this small thing called COVID that occurred, which caused the May 2020 trip plans to be cancelled.
Fast-forward to this year. Renee and I decided that instead of spending our Spring Break in the woods like we normally do, we booked a hotel room in Columbus and spent 3 days walking the city and enjoying the architecture.
Rather than explain to you in writing how Columbus became the mecca that it is today, I thought I’d share a video with you that does it better than I can ever do.
We stayed in the Hotel Indigo, which is a very nice boutique hotel with some amazing architecture and decor. The price was very good, but we understood why on the first night. It’s right next to train tracks, and the train comes by, whistle blaring, at 11:20pm, 1:20am, and 3:40am. Now we knew why there were earplugs in the drawers next to the bed. It reminded me a lot of that scene in My Cousin Vinny where the train kept waking them up. In spite of the train, it was still a pleasant stay though.
Columbus is a very walkable town, so we left the car parked in the hotel lot and explored the town mostly on foot. On our last day there we took two tours through the Visitor Center - a general architecture tour, and the tour of the Miller House. The only way to get access to the Miller House is to take the tour, so if you want to see it while you are there I highly recommend it.
For this trip I brought my Fuji GFX 50S medium format digital camera and two lenses - the 35mm-70mm and the 17mm tilt-shift. This light combination allowed me to capture most every image I wanted to take while on the trip. I love the flexibility of the GFX to shoot in different crops - most of my shots were either square or “X-Pan” panoramic images. The files straight out of camera were beautiful - I barely had to do any post work on them. I also brought a Sprocket Rocket to take some film panoramas, but at the time I’m writing this I have not yet had a chance to process them.
Below are some of my favorite images from the trip. Click on the first one to open in a new window and scroll through.
What do you think? As you can see, there is a lot to see in Columbus. I’m looking forward to going back when everything is green and we can take advantage of walking around the city during the warm weather.
I’m really enjoying the GFX. I think on this trip it finally began to feel like more of an extension of my hand, much like my Nikon digital cameras have over the years of shooting events and wildlife with them. By the end of the trip I felt like I knew all of the controls much better, and the ability to pick aspect ratios in-camera and compose with them has been great. Will it replace my film cameras? No, but for times like this when I don’t want to carry around multiple cameras for different formats, while still getting the “look” I want with little post-production work, the GFX is perfect. It’s a welcomed addition to my workflow and I am looking forward to using it for a few big projects that I have for 2026.
As always, thanks for reading! Drop me a line if you are thinking about visiting Columbus, Indiana. I’d be happy to give you a few ideas on what are “must-see" spots and places.
Jeremy