| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:08:26 12:03 PM |
| Exposure time | 1/60 sec |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| F-Stop | f/8 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure Bias | 0 |
Showing posts with label Air Show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air Show. Show all posts
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Afterburnin
Finally; the last photo (for now) from last year's downtown KC Air Show. This is what you might call the business end of the F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. Without these turbines it wouldn't be able to go Mach 1.8. In fact, it wouldn't be able to go anywhere (count it!). In any case, I think I'd like to fly in one of these. If anyone knows how to make that happen, then lets get to it.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Hydra Rockets
This is what you might call the business end of an Apache helicopter; the M261 launcher, which houses Hydra rockets until they’re fired. This is an essential part of the Apache helicopter if your primary mission is to fire rockets at people, which I can only assume is probably the primary mission at least some of the time.
This one is tied for favorite of the recently posted air show pictures from last year’s show. I’ll put up the final in this series soon. Then you can tell me which of them is your favorite. And I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong.
This one is tied for favorite of the recently posted air show pictures from last year’s show. I’ll put up the final in this series soon. Then you can tell me which of them is your favorite. And I’ll tell you if you’re right or wrong.
| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:08:23 11:17 AM |
| Exposure time | 1/100 sec |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| F-Stop | f/8 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure Bias | 0 |
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Apache Reflection
Before I was so rudely interrupted by a perfectly reasonable request to see more California pictures, I was going to post a few more from the Kansas City Air Show from last year.
This is probably my third favorite picture in a series of pictures from the Downtown Kansas City Air Show I’m going to post in the next few days or weeks (don’t worry, I’ll sprinkle them in between more California stuff). This is what one might call the business end of an Apache Helicopter. You might call it this because of what this device is used for. It is on the front of the helicopter, and from what I’ve learned, it is essential to the operation of the machine. If you’ll notice, you can see me a couple of times in this picture, including in the upper-middle portion of the frame. This is the pilot’s night vision sensor, which is pretty essential if he wants to fly at night – without crashing that is. A bit further down is another reflection of me, this time in what could be called the business end of the business end of the helicopter, the laser rangefinder and target designator device. These devices track targets during the daytime. The large thing to the left of my reflection is the gunner’s night vision sensor, which, strangely, is much larger and therefore probably much better, than the pilot’s night vision sensor.
Anyway, that’s an interesting bit of technology on the front of these helicopters. I also enjoyed seeing myself in the picture. Stay tuned for more awesomeness from the Air Show!
This is probably my third favorite picture in a series of pictures from the Downtown Kansas City Air Show I’m going to post in the next few days or weeks (don’t worry, I’ll sprinkle them in between more California stuff). This is what one might call the business end of an Apache Helicopter. You might call it this because of what this device is used for. It is on the front of the helicopter, and from what I’ve learned, it is essential to the operation of the machine. If you’ll notice, you can see me a couple of times in this picture, including in the upper-middle portion of the frame. This is the pilot’s night vision sensor, which is pretty essential if he wants to fly at night – without crashing that is. A bit further down is another reflection of me, this time in what could be called the business end of the business end of the helicopter, the laser rangefinder and target designator device. These devices track targets during the daytime. The large thing to the left of my reflection is the gunner’s night vision sensor, which, strangely, is much larger and therefore probably much better, than the pilot’s night vision sensor.
Anyway, that’s an interesting bit of technology on the front of these helicopters. I also enjoyed seeing myself in the picture. Stay tuned for more awesomeness from the Air Show!
| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:08:23 11:15 AM |
| Exposure time | 1/200 sec |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| F-Stop | f/8 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure Bias | 0 |
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Downtown from 169
I think this will be my last downtown Kansas City picture for a while; I have processed all the ones I have taken that I like. I feel this is a pretty unique angle of downtown. It was taken from north of the city on Highway 169 as I was walking home from the Downtown Kansas City Airport Air Show. I lived north of downtown, so this is similar to the view I got from my apartment. This is also pretty much the reverse view of my Highway 169 photograph.
I’m not sure what the name of the apartment complex is, but if you notice on the left side of this picture, there is a large parking garage somewhat visible. It doesn’t look bad in this picture, but in real life, that parking garage and the associated apartment buildings look terrible. Pretty much all of the other buildings in the River Market area of downtown are old brick buildings. Many have been renovated and are very nice on the inside, but the historic exterior remains unchanged. Anyway, these new apartment buildings are architecturally completely different from the rest of the River Market. They’re poorly constructed, much like many of the suburban apartments in Overland Park (all wood construction, cheap materials, build quickly), and look generally like a suburban apartment complex. Because these apartments were built surrounding my old gym, I got to see construction progress every day, so I feel that I’m pretty much an expert on the subject. What I’m really trying to say here is that these apartments are ruining the River Market, and I’m glad I moved away when I did. I always hoped during construction that the building would ‘accidentally’ burn down and the project would be scrapped. If you ever get the opportunity, please stop by their office, and tell them to go to hell for me.
Getting back on point, this was taken during my HDR period, so it’s a 5 shot handheld HDR. Check out the EXIF info below for a little more information.
I’m not sure what the name of the apartment complex is, but if you notice on the left side of this picture, there is a large parking garage somewhat visible. It doesn’t look bad in this picture, but in real life, that parking garage and the associated apartment buildings look terrible. Pretty much all of the other buildings in the River Market area of downtown are old brick buildings. Many have been renovated and are very nice on the inside, but the historic exterior remains unchanged. Anyway, these new apartment buildings are architecturally completely different from the rest of the River Market. They’re poorly constructed, much like many of the suburban apartments in Overland Park (all wood construction, cheap materials, build quickly), and look generally like a suburban apartment complex. Because these apartments were built surrounding my old gym, I got to see construction progress every day, so I feel that I’m pretty much an expert on the subject. What I’m really trying to say here is that these apartments are ruining the River Market, and I’m glad I moved away when I did. I always hoped during construction that the building would ‘accidentally’ burn down and the project would be scrapped. If you ever get the opportunity, please stop by their office, and tell them to go to hell for me.
Getting back on point, this was taken during my HDR period, so it’s a 5 shot handheld HDR. Check out the EXIF info below for a little more information.
| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:08:23 12:34 |
| Exposure time | 1/1000 sec |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| F-Stop | f/8 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure | 5 Photo HDR |
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Sweet Plane, Man
Well life has been pretty hectic lately; hectic but exciting. Some of you already know about this, but I’ll save the story for the rest of you until I have photographic evidence to back my story. This excitement in my life may be good in general, but it hasn’t been good for my website since I’ve (obviously) been neglecting my updating duties. Anyway, I seem to be in a writing mood tonight, so hang on, this could go anywhere (I’ll try to keep it on point).
For the second year in a row, I headed to the Downtown Kansas City Airport Air Show; this time though, I had some friends to go with! Had I gone alone again, I probably would have just stood outside the show in the same location I stood last year. I would have gotten some good shots, but I wouldn’t have gotten this shot because the airplanes weren’t sitting out on the freeway.
Now, you don’t need to know this, and it’s not at all important to anything, but as the words rolled off my fingers just then, they decided I was going to post a different picture than I was originally planning on posting. See, I told you this could get crazy! Hang on folks.
Like I was saying, my friends wanted to go into the air show and see things up close and personal. I was happy to do this, because I too wanted to go in, and I’m glad I did. There were all sorts of airplanes and helicopters sitting around on the tarmac, and you’d better believe I got lots of pictures of all the interesting ones.
(Editor’s Note: I went back and read my American Chopper post to see how much I talked about going back to the air show in that one, and I pretty much just wrote the same thing I wrote in that post in this post’s second paragraph and this paragraph. Sorry about the duplication, but I’m not going to delete it, so I guess I’m not really that sorry.)
This airplane is a T-45 Goshawk; a Navy trainer aircraft. This also happens to be my dream aircraft; you know, for when I buy a jet and learn how to fly it. I originally wanted a T-38 Talon, which I first saw at the Kansas Cosmosphere (which is an awesome place; you should go there sometime). The T-38 however is capable of reaching supersonic speeds, so really, that would probably be overkill; I mean, come on.
I gave this single exposure photo a good helping of some sweet post-processing, and I really enjoy the results. Hopefully you do too!
Also, today happens to be Veterans Day, so thank you to all of you who have served! I hadn't necessarily planned to post a military related photograph on Veterans Day, but things turned out quite nicely in those regards.
For the second year in a row, I headed to the Downtown Kansas City Airport Air Show; this time though, I had some friends to go with! Had I gone alone again, I probably would have just stood outside the show in the same location I stood last year. I would have gotten some good shots, but I wouldn’t have gotten this shot because the airplanes weren’t sitting out on the freeway.
Now, you don’t need to know this, and it’s not at all important to anything, but as the words rolled off my fingers just then, they decided I was going to post a different picture than I was originally planning on posting. See, I told you this could get crazy! Hang on folks.
Like I was saying, my friends wanted to go into the air show and see things up close and personal. I was happy to do this, because I too wanted to go in, and I’m glad I did. There were all sorts of airplanes and helicopters sitting around on the tarmac, and you’d better believe I got lots of pictures of all the interesting ones.
(Editor’s Note: I went back and read my American Chopper post to see how much I talked about going back to the air show in that one, and I pretty much just wrote the same thing I wrote in that post in this post’s second paragraph and this paragraph. Sorry about the duplication, but I’m not going to delete it, so I guess I’m not really that sorry.)
This airplane is a T-45 Goshawk; a Navy trainer aircraft. This also happens to be my dream aircraft; you know, for when I buy a jet and learn how to fly it. I originally wanted a T-38 Talon, which I first saw at the Kansas Cosmosphere (which is an awesome place; you should go there sometime). The T-38 however is capable of reaching supersonic speeds, so really, that would probably be overkill; I mean, come on.
I gave this single exposure photo a good helping of some sweet post-processing, and I really enjoy the results. Hopefully you do too!
Also, today happens to be Veterans Day, so thank you to all of you who have served! I hadn't necessarily planned to post a military related photograph on Veterans Day, but things turned out quite nicely in those regards.
Monday, September 28, 2009
American Chopper
No, not that American Chopper; Paul Sr. and his size 12's have no place in this post.
I’ve been a little preoccupied and without a fully functioning computer the past few weeks, so my artism has taken a backseat to whatever else I’ve been doing with my time. The following paragraph is my harrowing story of fixing my computer, despite HP’s best efforts to give me no advice, bad advice, and really just try to rip me off. I offer this as a warning to anyone thinking about purchasing an HP branded computer. Details on the photo (you know, since this is a photo website) are below.
I finally got my computer fixed this past weekend; well, I finally fixed it, to be exact. I learned that HP is not a very friendly or helpful company when your computer is out of warranty, or if you purchase replacement parts from a company other than HP. One of my hard drives began to fail a couple weeks ago so I called HP to see if my computer was still in warranty. Unfortunately for me, but suspiciously fortunate for them, my warranty had expired less than a week before the drive began to fail. I don’t actually believe that this was anything other than an unfortunate coincidence, but how convenient for HP that my computer falls apart right after the warranty ended. The tech support guy I talked to at that time made sure that the software that detected the failure wasn’t providing a false diagnosis, and told me how much a replacement hard drive from HP would cost. Amazingly, purchasing the Samsung replacement hard drive directly from HP would have cost me 3-5 times more than buying it somewhere else. I expressed that concern to the tech guy and he said “exactly, it would be cheaper to buy it somewhere else.” Now this is the type of honest help I would expect from someone. I proceeded to buy a new hard drive from another retailer; two times the size and around 1/3 the cost of buying the smaller one from HP (not to mention got better reviews and is supposedly less prone to failure). Eventually I got around to replacing the hard drive and ran into some errors when I was trying to use the HP recovery disks I had created. I called up HP support once again, this time to find out why my recovery disk wasn’t working, and upon mentioning that I bought my new hard drive from another retailer, the tech guy (who was an American, as opposed to the friendly Indian people with bad fake American accents I’ve talked to in the past) became very abrasive and refused to help me at all. I tried to reason with him, explaining it didn’t matter where I got my hard drive, and offering a hypothetical situation wherein I had purchased the drive from HP, but he refused to help. He said that not only does he not have to help me with a hard drive purchased somewhere else (the hard drive wasn’t the issue here, it could have come from anywhere) because my computer was out of warranty he didn’t have to help me at all; then he tried to sell me another year of telephone support! This guy is a good example of someone caring when they shouldn’t have. I gave him a good piece of my mind, hung up, and called back and didn’t mention where I got the hard drive from. This tech guy offered his help even though my computer was out of warranty; but gave me the worst bit of technical support I’ve heard in a long time. He said that because the hard drive is not the one that came with the computer, the recovery disk won’t work and I’d need to get a new recovery disk from HP for the price of shipping. I told him his information was wrong, and that I’d just make it work without any help from HP and bid him good day. I had been pretty satisfied with HP’s support up until this problem arose; apparently though, I’m dead to them out of warranty. I got on the internet and learned that HP (and apparently all major computer “manufacturers”) “tattoo” their motherboards to reduce piracy of the operating systems sold with the computer. This annoyed me because I like the option to upgrade all components of my computer, but proved that my recovery disk should still work because I was using the original motherboard. Eventually I realized that I was making a simple mistake when trying to install the new hard drive and got it all working, proving that I am smarter than HP.
None of this has really hindered my ability to post new photographs here, because I actually have a decent queue of photos to put up; I just haven’t been motivated to write anything, and I like to have some text to accompany my pictures. As you can clearly see by the dissertation I wrote above, I have gotten some motivation to write. I’ll continue by explaining that I took this photograph last month at the annual downtown Kansas City Airport air show (here’s one of my all time favorite photographs, which was taken at last year’s show). I went with some friends, and actually went inside this year, rather than watching from the highway like I did last year, and I was pretty glad I did. For one, I could hear some commentary on the show via the loudspeaker (even though most of it was terrible and cheesy), and I could get up close and personal with a bunch of planes and helicopters that were sitting around on display (photographic evidence of said display to come). This CH-47 Chinook helicopter was pretty cool, and could maneuver surprisingly swiftly for its size. As I learned from the loudspeaker, this was the first time a Chinook, paired with the American flag below it, has ever done this type of demonstration at an air show. They also said it was so popular in Kansas City that they’re making it a permanent part of shows nationwide from now on, so that’s pretty cool if you’re into that sort of thing.
Anyway, technically, this is a pretty simple photograph. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to compose a picture like this, but I like it. I like the negative space and the simplicity of it; I also like the perfectly clear blue sky behind it; I’d also like to think that somehow in my minor post-processing I’ve made it unique to me. OK, enough of that, here’s the picture.
I’ve been a little preoccupied and without a fully functioning computer the past few weeks, so my artism has taken a backseat to whatever else I’ve been doing with my time. The following paragraph is my harrowing story of fixing my computer, despite HP’s best efforts to give me no advice, bad advice, and really just try to rip me off. I offer this as a warning to anyone thinking about purchasing an HP branded computer. Details on the photo (you know, since this is a photo website) are below.
I finally got my computer fixed this past weekend; well, I finally fixed it, to be exact. I learned that HP is not a very friendly or helpful company when your computer is out of warranty, or if you purchase replacement parts from a company other than HP. One of my hard drives began to fail a couple weeks ago so I called HP to see if my computer was still in warranty. Unfortunately for me, but suspiciously fortunate for them, my warranty had expired less than a week before the drive began to fail. I don’t actually believe that this was anything other than an unfortunate coincidence, but how convenient for HP that my computer falls apart right after the warranty ended. The tech support guy I talked to at that time made sure that the software that detected the failure wasn’t providing a false diagnosis, and told me how much a replacement hard drive from HP would cost. Amazingly, purchasing the Samsung replacement hard drive directly from HP would have cost me 3-5 times more than buying it somewhere else. I expressed that concern to the tech guy and he said “exactly, it would be cheaper to buy it somewhere else.” Now this is the type of honest help I would expect from someone. I proceeded to buy a new hard drive from another retailer; two times the size and around 1/3 the cost of buying the smaller one from HP (not to mention got better reviews and is supposedly less prone to failure). Eventually I got around to replacing the hard drive and ran into some errors when I was trying to use the HP recovery disks I had created. I called up HP support once again, this time to find out why my recovery disk wasn’t working, and upon mentioning that I bought my new hard drive from another retailer, the tech guy (who was an American, as opposed to the friendly Indian people with bad fake American accents I’ve talked to in the past) became very abrasive and refused to help me at all. I tried to reason with him, explaining it didn’t matter where I got my hard drive, and offering a hypothetical situation wherein I had purchased the drive from HP, but he refused to help. He said that not only does he not have to help me with a hard drive purchased somewhere else (the hard drive wasn’t the issue here, it could have come from anywhere) because my computer was out of warranty he didn’t have to help me at all; then he tried to sell me another year of telephone support! This guy is a good example of someone caring when they shouldn’t have. I gave him a good piece of my mind, hung up, and called back and didn’t mention where I got the hard drive from. This tech guy offered his help even though my computer was out of warranty; but gave me the worst bit of technical support I’ve heard in a long time. He said that because the hard drive is not the one that came with the computer, the recovery disk won’t work and I’d need to get a new recovery disk from HP for the price of shipping. I told him his information was wrong, and that I’d just make it work without any help from HP and bid him good day. I had been pretty satisfied with HP’s support up until this problem arose; apparently though, I’m dead to them out of warranty. I got on the internet and learned that HP (and apparently all major computer “manufacturers”) “tattoo” their motherboards to reduce piracy of the operating systems sold with the computer. This annoyed me because I like the option to upgrade all components of my computer, but proved that my recovery disk should still work because I was using the original motherboard. Eventually I realized that I was making a simple mistake when trying to install the new hard drive and got it all working, proving that I am smarter than HP.
None of this has really hindered my ability to post new photographs here, because I actually have a decent queue of photos to put up; I just haven’t been motivated to write anything, and I like to have some text to accompany my pictures. As you can clearly see by the dissertation I wrote above, I have gotten some motivation to write. I’ll continue by explaining that I took this photograph last month at the annual downtown Kansas City Airport air show (here’s one of my all time favorite photographs, which was taken at last year’s show). I went with some friends, and actually went inside this year, rather than watching from the highway like I did last year, and I was pretty glad I did. For one, I could hear some commentary on the show via the loudspeaker (even though most of it was terrible and cheesy), and I could get up close and personal with a bunch of planes and helicopters that were sitting around on display (photographic evidence of said display to come). This CH-47 Chinook helicopter was pretty cool, and could maneuver surprisingly swiftly for its size. As I learned from the loudspeaker, this was the first time a Chinook, paired with the American flag below it, has ever done this type of demonstration at an air show. They also said it was so popular in Kansas City that they’re making it a permanent part of shows nationwide from now on, so that’s pretty cool if you’re into that sort of thing.
Anyway, technically, this is a pretty simple photograph. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to compose a picture like this, but I like it. I like the negative space and the simplicity of it; I also like the perfectly clear blue sky behind it; I’d also like to think that somehow in my minor post-processing I’ve made it unique to me. OK, enough of that, here’s the picture.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Highway Divider
This is another one from my day at the downtown Kansas City airport air show. I took this near the end of the day as I was walking home across the bridge from the other side of the Missouri River. This photo turned out pretty close to what I had envisioned when I took the picture. The only thing I would really like different would be a wider view. I took this at 18mm, the widest my widest lens will go; I’d like to see this at 10mm and see how it looks. A super wide angle lens is at the top of my wish list, but lenses aren’t cheap; especially super wide lenses. In my mind though, I already have so many pictures I want to take with a super wide lens.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Highway 169
Sorry for the delay in updating the website; I've had other things going on lately so I've been busy and haven't made much time to get any photos ready to post. Worry not though, I've got more for you, so keep checking back!
I took this photograph last summer during the air show at the downtown Kansas City airport. This is a bridge that lets US Highway 169 cross the Missouri River just north of downtown. Normally it wouldn’t be safe and probably wouldn’t be legal for pedestrians to be on this bridge, but the entire highway was closed to let buses drive on half, and to let spectators walk on the other.
I enjoy the architectural design of this bridge in this picture, as well as the angles created by composing the picture like I did.
I took this photograph last summer during the air show at the downtown Kansas City airport. This is a bridge that lets US Highway 169 cross the Missouri River just north of downtown. Normally it wouldn’t be safe and probably wouldn’t be legal for pedestrians to be on this bridge, but the entire highway was closed to let buses drive on half, and to let spectators walk on the other.
I enjoy the architectural design of this bridge in this picture, as well as the angles created by composing the picture like I did.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Air Show
I got home from work one Friday evening last summer to hear the roar of what sounded like jets flying overhead. I live near a small airport in downtown Kansas City, so it was conceivable that these jets were flying in and out of there for some reason, but quickly assumed that we were being attacked by a foreign nation and consequently sat back and waited for the bombs to start dropping.
Then I remembered seeing a sign for the Downtown Airport Air Show. "Of course," I thought, "that is much more logical than someone deciding to bomb Kansas City." I pulled up The Google and got a copy of the schedule only to realize they were merely practicing that evening. The next day however, had flying planned for the entire day.
The next morning I got my camera ready and started walking towards the airport. The crowd was awesome. Anywhere you could sit with a view of the airspace above the airport, people would eventually sit. After wandering around and getting some shots of the crowd and the bridge that normally would be inaccessible (unless I wanted to get run over or arrested) I headed to a nice overpass just outside the airport property for a perfect view of the action.
This was my favorite shot of the day.
Then I remembered seeing a sign for the Downtown Airport Air Show. "Of course," I thought, "that is much more logical than someone deciding to bomb Kansas City." I pulled up The Google and got a copy of the schedule only to realize they were merely practicing that evening. The next day however, had flying planned for the entire day.
The next morning I got my camera ready and started walking towards the airport. The crowd was awesome. Anywhere you could sit with a view of the airspace above the airport, people would eventually sit. After wandering around and getting some shots of the crowd and the bridge that normally would be inaccessible (unless I wanted to get run over or arrested) I headed to a nice overpass just outside the airport property for a perfect view of the action.
This was my favorite shot of the day.
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