| 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 Kansas City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kansas City. 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 |
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Corporate Fountain
Here’s an old one that I had intended to re-shoot after I got my wide angle lens. I never got around to reshooting it before they turned off the fountains for the winter, so I decided to just go with this one for now, because I like it. It isn’t as wide as I’d like, and now that I have a new filter that will allow me to shoot long exposures during the daylight, I believe I can greatly improve this image with a reshoot, but that probably won’t happen for a while. I know you’re all disappointed, but that’s very insulting since I gave you this perfectly good picture to hold you over.
Anyway, this is a 5 shot HDR I took at the same time as Quick Turnaround, located in this corporate office park in Overland Park, Kansas called Corporate Woods.
Anyway, this is a 5 shot HDR I took at the same time as Quick Turnaround, located in this corporate office park in Overland Park, Kansas called Corporate Woods.
| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:05:23 19:59 |
| Exposure time | 1/500 sec |
| Focal length | 18mm |
| F-Stop | f/22 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure | 5 Photo HDR |
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Back in Kansas City
No, I’m not back in Kansas City, but I am starting to miss the place. I took this the last full weekend I lived there. I had actually gone to that area to take a specific picture I had in mind, but that didn’t turn out well because I didn’t like how it looked with the cloudy sky. I did like this one though, and a few others from that day. For those of you not from the area, that is downtown Kansas City’s skyline, with the back lawn of the Liberty Memorial in the foreground.
I’ve been steering away from the HDR photos recently, but I took this one at the beginning of my journey towards primarily single shot photos. There is something about a cloudy sky though that makes an HDR work very well. As long as it’s not overdone, I think it’s alright. This is a 5 shot HDR. I strengthened some of the more subtle colors in the sky during post-processing, and of course combined the 5 images for the original HDR.
I've got a number of pictures I really like lined up for you all, and many more just waiting for post-processing. I'm also out and about in southern California pretty much every weekend shooting, so stay tuned for a lot of posts in 2010!
I’ve been steering away from the HDR photos recently, but I took this one at the beginning of my journey towards primarily single shot photos. There is something about a cloudy sky though that makes an HDR work very well. As long as it’s not overdone, I think it’s alright. This is a 5 shot HDR. I strengthened some of the more subtle colors in the sky during post-processing, and of course combined the 5 images for the original HDR.
I've got a number of pictures I really like lined up for you all, and many more just waiting for post-processing. I'm also out and about in southern California pretty much every weekend shooting, so stay tuned for a lot of posts in 2010!
| Exif information | |
| Model | Canon EOS 20D |
| Original date | 2009:10:10 14:26 |
| Exposure time | 1/100 sec |
| F-Stop | 10mm |
| Focal number | f/16 |
| ISO speed | ISO-100 |
| Exposure | 5 Photo HDR |
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I Didn’t Even Know What a Nuclear Panner Plant Was
No, this isn’t a nuclear power plant, but that is a really funny line from the classic The Simpsons episode “Homer’s Enemy” featuring Frank ‘Grimey’ Grimes. What this photograph actually depicts is a power plant located in the River Market District of downtown Kansas City where I used to live. I was never exactly sure what this plant was, what kind of fuel it burned (I guess I knew it burned coal, since there’s a huge coal pile attached to the facility), and what exactly it powered. There was no way I was just going to go around all willy-nilly posting pictures featuring buildings I didn’t fully understand.
I set out on trying to figure out what this power plant was all about with a single name I had gotten from a sign hanging on the building. It wasn’t easy, but I eventually tracked down the parent company and the official name of this generating station, and found an obscure article that made a reference to this power plant. It’s called the Grand Boulevard Generating Station, and it turns out it burns both coal and natural gas to create super heated steam, which is piped under the city to various buildings downtown for heating. I didn’t even know that was a thing until I read that article.
This is a hand held 5 shot HDR, with a some sweet post-processing work done after I did the HDR.
I set out on trying to figure out what this power plant was all about with a single name I had gotten from a sign hanging on the building. It wasn’t easy, but I eventually tracked down the parent company and the official name of this generating station, and found an obscure article that made a reference to this power plant. It’s called the Grand Boulevard Generating Station, and it turns out it burns both coal and natural gas to create super heated steam, which is piped under the city to various buildings downtown for heating. I didn’t even know that was a thing until I read that article.
This is a hand held 5 shot HDR, with a some sweet post-processing work done after I did the 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.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Green Graffiti
This is another bit of graffiti from the River Market, where I live in Kansas City. This wall is across the street from my building, and the entire wall, which extends for about half a block, is covered in a huge mural of graffiti. As opposed to the last piece of graffiti I posted, this graffiti is far more artistic in nature. I took this photograph the afternoon that my new ultra-wide angle lens arrived. It was a sunny day, and I felt the conditions were perfect to test my lens on this wall I had been waiting to photograph.
I’ve never been sure whether or not this mural was painted legally or not. I am inclined to believe it was not painted at the request of the owner of the wall for a couple of reasons. First of all, I witnessed this piece of art being created. I was coming home late one Sunday night and the particular route I took home that night brought me past this wall. I saw a couple of guys out on the sidewalk spray painting the wall, and although it was at night, they were not exactly covered by the darkness. The street isn’t a main street for the area, but it gets a fair amount of local traffic. These guys didn’t appear to care if anyone saw them, but then again, I wasn’t a police. The next day I saw the extent of their work, and was blown away that they had spray painted the entire wall.
The second reason I would believe that the wall’s owner was not particularly amused at this piece of self-expression was that they eventually hung a large sign advertising their business, which is behind the wall. Who do these jerks think they are? Covering this possibly illegally painted piece of street art, just so they can advertise their business, which just happens to be located on the other side of that same wall? Isn’t that what the yellow pages are for?
I’m getting off topic here, so going back to the photo; I really love this lens. In post-processing I was able to get the colors to pop a little more than they did straight from the camera, and overall I like the results.
I’ve never been sure whether or not this mural was painted legally or not. I am inclined to believe it was not painted at the request of the owner of the wall for a couple of reasons. First of all, I witnessed this piece of art being created. I was coming home late one Sunday night and the particular route I took home that night brought me past this wall. I saw a couple of guys out on the sidewalk spray painting the wall, and although it was at night, they were not exactly covered by the darkness. The street isn’t a main street for the area, but it gets a fair amount of local traffic. These guys didn’t appear to care if anyone saw them, but then again, I wasn’t a police. The next day I saw the extent of their work, and was blown away that they had spray painted the entire wall.
The second reason I would believe that the wall’s owner was not particularly amused at this piece of self-expression was that they eventually hung a large sign advertising their business, which is behind the wall. Who do these jerks think they are? Covering this possibly illegally painted piece of street art, just so they can advertise their business, which just happens to be located on the other side of that same wall? Isn’t that what the yellow pages are for?
I’m getting off topic here, so going back to the photo; I really love this lens. In post-processing I was able to get the colors to pop a little more than they did straight from the camera, and overall I like the results.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Fake Bicycle
I got my new lens in the middle of the week and only really got to play with it for about an hour the day I got it. The Saturday after I got it was a nice day, so I geared up and went to do some exploring north of the River Market where I live. There is this nice bicycle and walking trail along the Missouri River that I’ve been on a few times before, but never with my camera. I spent a few hours down there, mostly in solitude, taking photographs of some interesting things I saw, and trying out a few new techniques with my new lens.
As I was walking around a bend in the trail, I heard a shout of pain, and then witnessed a goofy guy with his kids, playing on this statue of a bicycle. The man had climbed on the fake bike and sat down with unsurprisingly painful results. He quickly got off the bike, and though his kids were thoroughly entertained by his antics, he was visibly shaken by the experience. I chuckled to myself, and made a mental note to come back and investigate this bike more thoroughly. A few hours and many pictures later, I made my way back to this bicycle. This time there was nobody playing on it, and I was able to get a couple pictures of it. I found it interesting that they placed this very inviting plaything right next to some dangerous steps that led down to the river. As you can see, these steps are so dangerous someone was compelled to install a sign warning of their hazardous nature! Enough about these crazy steps; I think this is a pretty cool little statue to have on a bike path.
As I was walking around a bend in the trail, I heard a shout of pain, and then witnessed a goofy guy with his kids, playing on this statue of a bicycle. The man had climbed on the fake bike and sat down with unsurprisingly painful results. He quickly got off the bike, and though his kids were thoroughly entertained by his antics, he was visibly shaken by the experience. I chuckled to myself, and made a mental note to come back and investigate this bike more thoroughly. A few hours and many pictures later, I made my way back to this bicycle. This time there was nobody playing on it, and I was able to get a couple pictures of it. I found it interesting that they placed this very inviting plaything right next to some dangerous steps that led down to the river. As you can see, these steps are so dangerous someone was compelled to install a sign warning of their hazardous nature! Enough about these crazy steps; I think this is a pretty cool little statue to have on a bike path.
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.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
EAT EN
I finally got the ultra wide lens I've been wanting; the Canon 10-22mm. It came last week, so I ran home over lunch to play with it and got a couple of pictures I really like; this being one of them. I took this across the street from my apartment in an alley between an old brick building and a new modern building that houses an architectural firm that laid off a bunch of its employees last spring (how rude).
What does this say? I don't know. What does it mean? I don't know that either. What I do know is that I thought it looked cool; especially from this perspective.
I got to thinking about what it might say and I've got a couple of theories. My first theory is that it says EAT EN, and that's assuming this is supposed to be English. Perhaps the person who wrote this wanted to write 'EATEN' but ran out of room so had to extend his word to a second line.
My second theory is that it isn't English at all, but was intended to profess a favorable opinion of one's favorite fraternity and sorority. Now I don't speak Greek, but it is my understanding that the letters EAT and EN or the symbols E-Triangle-T and E-N translate into Sigma Delta Tau and Sigma Nu. This reminds me of my encounters with the EAT sorority while I was at the University of Kansas (which were limited to me simply observing them on campus). This EAT sorority was most unfortunately named, as every girl I saw wearing an EAT shirt was of the overweight variety. Hilariously unfortunate.
Any other ideas?
What does this say? I don't know. What does it mean? I don't know that either. What I do know is that I thought it looked cool; especially from this perspective.
I got to thinking about what it might say and I've got a couple of theories. My first theory is that it says EAT EN, and that's assuming this is supposed to be English. Perhaps the person who wrote this wanted to write 'EATEN' but ran out of room so had to extend his word to a second line.
My second theory is that it isn't English at all, but was intended to profess a favorable opinion of one's favorite fraternity and sorority. Now I don't speak Greek, but it is my understanding that the letters EAT and EN or the symbols E-Triangle-T and E-N translate into Sigma Delta Tau and Sigma Nu. This reminds me of my encounters with the EAT sorority while I was at the University of Kansas (which were limited to me simply observing them on campus). This EAT sorority was most unfortunately named, as every girl I saw wearing an EAT shirt was of the overweight variety. Hilariously unfortunate.
Any other ideas?
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Doing Some Excavating
Although nice to look at, I didn't want to only share a picture of me today. This is a photograph I took of an excavator that was sitting at the side of a big hole in the ground across the street from my apartment. Someone has been working on a seemingly small scale construction project in the public parking lot across the street for, what I would consider, an disproportionate amount of time.
It all started a few months ago when I came home and noticed a small portion of the parking lot partitioned with orange plastic construction fencing. About a year ago some developer had a sign up saying the parking lot was the future home of some new condos (terrible idea), so I wondered if they were finally breaking ground on these. I slowly began to wonder if they were breaking ground on anything, as the site sat idle for the next couple of months. Strangely, although the site was cordoned off by the plastic fence, there was still a place for cars to enter, so it was just an annoying mild inconvenience to anyone who wanted to park in that lot. During this time we had a pretty strong storm with strong winds which came along and blew almost all of the fence down. Until some guy came back by and put it back up a few days later, the inconvenience was even smaller, as people could now park directly on the fallen fence.
Finally a few weeks ago I woke up to see some construction equipment being moved in, and within a few days part of the parking lot was gone. These guys actually worked pretty quickly for the first two days of this phase, but left and didn't come back for another week or so. They finally came back and dug a bit deeper and cleaned up the hole, and left it in the state I found it in for this photograph. They've done some work since, but the scale of this project doesn't lead me to believe these are the stupid condos that were planned.
Technically, this photograph is a combination of nine photographs I took in succession to get this point of view. I then combined them using some panorama software, and did some post-processing in Photoshop. I like this picture because of the point of view and the subsequent distortion in the image. It makes me think of a super wide fisheye lens, but not quite as extreme.
Regardless of what these bozos are building, the best part was every morning when the driver would start the day out right with a quick 360.
It all started a few months ago when I came home and noticed a small portion of the parking lot partitioned with orange plastic construction fencing. About a year ago some developer had a sign up saying the parking lot was the future home of some new condos (terrible idea), so I wondered if they were finally breaking ground on these. I slowly began to wonder if they were breaking ground on anything, as the site sat idle for the next couple of months. Strangely, although the site was cordoned off by the plastic fence, there was still a place for cars to enter, so it was just an annoying mild inconvenience to anyone who wanted to park in that lot. During this time we had a pretty strong storm with strong winds which came along and blew almost all of the fence down. Until some guy came back by and put it back up a few days later, the inconvenience was even smaller, as people could now park directly on the fallen fence.
Finally a few weeks ago I woke up to see some construction equipment being moved in, and within a few days part of the parking lot was gone. These guys actually worked pretty quickly for the first two days of this phase, but left and didn't come back for another week or so. They finally came back and dug a bit deeper and cleaned up the hole, and left it in the state I found it in for this photograph. They've done some work since, but the scale of this project doesn't lead me to believe these are the stupid condos that were planned.
Technically, this photograph is a combination of nine photographs I took in succession to get this point of view. I then combined them using some panorama software, and did some post-processing in Photoshop. I like this picture because of the point of view and the subsequent distortion in the image. It makes me think of a super wide fisheye lens, but not quite as extreme.
Regardless of what these bozos are building, the best part was every morning when the driver would start the day out right with a quick 360.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Slender-Snouted Crocodile
Last night, instead of packing for my trip like I should have been, I was out playing with my camera and new accessory I got in the mail yesterday (more on that later). I got some photos I really like and was busy processing them all evening.
This photograph, I did not take last night. No, this photograph I took on my recent excursion to Africa. No, that's a lie; I took this a few years ago while in Africa. No, that's also a lie. In reality I took this in the Africa section of the Kansas City Zoo. I went there a few weeks ago with some friends. I had never been to the Kansas City Zoo before that day, and although it was a pretty muggy day, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been to many a zoo in my day, but this one was definitely the most recent. Seriously though, this zoo is pretty big; everything is very spread out, which means the animals have a lot of room to roam freely. I didn't even see all of the zoo; we walked around Africa mostly, which has an abundance of interesting animals. I definitely plan to go back though. I have a number of other pictures from that day that I'll share later, but this one is of a Slender-Snouted Crocodile.
Upon researching what this thing is (I couldn't remember, aside from assuming it was some sort of crocodile), I found out that this guy's name is either Frank or Jesse. Upon further research I learned that the Slender-Snouted Crocodile may not be a crocodile at all. Recent DNA tests have indicated that the Crocodylus cataphractus (that is its scientific name) has less in common with the crocidile than was previously though, and it has been suggested its name be changed to Mecistops cataphractus! I mean come on! Although the jury is still out on science, one thing is for sure: like the alligator, these Slender-Snouted Crocodiles are so aggressive 'cause they got all them teeth but no toothbrush.
This photograph, I did not take last night. No, this photograph I took on my recent excursion to Africa. No, that's a lie; I took this a few years ago while in Africa. No, that's also a lie. In reality I took this in the Africa section of the Kansas City Zoo. I went there a few weeks ago with some friends. I had never been to the Kansas City Zoo before that day, and although it was a pretty muggy day, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been to many a zoo in my day, but this one was definitely the most recent. Seriously though, this zoo is pretty big; everything is very spread out, which means the animals have a lot of room to roam freely. I didn't even see all of the zoo; we walked around Africa mostly, which has an abundance of interesting animals. I definitely plan to go back though. I have a number of other pictures from that day that I'll share later, but this one is of a Slender-Snouted Crocodile.
Upon researching what this thing is (I couldn't remember, aside from assuming it was some sort of crocodile), I found out that this guy's name is either Frank or Jesse. Upon further research I learned that the Slender-Snouted Crocodile may not be a crocodile at all. Recent DNA tests have indicated that the Crocodylus cataphractus (that is its scientific name) has less in common with the crocidile than was previously though, and it has been suggested its name be changed to Mecistops cataphractus! I mean come on! Although the jury is still out on science, one thing is for sure: like the alligator, these Slender-Snouted Crocodiles are so aggressive 'cause they got all them teeth but no toothbrush.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Downtown Kansas City
Two weekends ago my dad and two of my cousins came to Kansas City for a visit. On Saturday we went to the Liberty Memorial, which is home to The National World War I Museum. I like going to Liberty Memorial, and have been there many times, but I had never gone through the museum until that day. It was a very interesting place and I suggest you go there if you ever have the opportunity. In addition to the museum, you can also go up in the Liberty Memorial tower. This photo was taken from the top of the tower, looking north into downtown Kansas City, Missouri (where I live; you can see my building if you know which to look for).
This photo is composed of 5 exposures, and was hand held. I normally like to use a tripod if I'm going to make an HDR photograph, but hand held was the only way I could do it that day.
This photo is composed of 5 exposures, and was hand held. I normally like to use a tripod if I'm going to make an HDR photograph, but hand held was the only way I could do it that day.
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.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Average Tree
Here is an average tree. There is nothing particularly special about this tree, but this was the tree I was looking for. And it gave me a little story, which is half of the fun.
As I mentioned in Quick Turnaround, I decided last Saturday to head out to Shawnee Mission Park, which is a large park on the Kansas side of the border. After driving around inside the park for a little seeing what the place had to offer, I found a nice spot that was relatively less crowded than the rest of the park. I grabbed my camera and tripod and hiked off into a grassy area off the beaten path. I took a few pictures here and there and then sat down in the shadow of this tree to get my tripod and camera all set up. After taking the photographs for this picture I looked down to see a tick crawling up my jeans!
In case you don't know; I hate ticks with a passion. Although it's been found that a protein in deer tick saliva interferes with the ability of the AIDS virus to attach to immune cells, and the same protein may help treat immune disorders like asthma and multiple sclerosis, I still hate ticks; they just bug me (Haa! Sorry..).
Anyway, I quickly jumped up and brushed the little guy off, only to see one or two others making their way up my pants in similar fashion. Quickly brushing them off, I began searching my legs for any more of the little buggers. Finding a few more, and what appeared to be a baby tick, or some sort of underdeveloped tick, I brushed them off, grabbed my camera and retreated to the concrete path to regroup. I did my best to search the rest of my clothes for ticks, and luckily my jeans were light colored, and I had a white t-shirt on, so it wasn't too hard. Finding no more I headed back to my car with my next destination in mind.
I'm not afraid of ticks by any means, and I've had many bites, so I can remove and dispatch them with ease. This was an ambush though and I was caught off guard. I would like to go back though; there were some nice hiking trails into the woods that I'd like to explore sometime. I also saw a number of deer while I was out there, just wandering around.
Lesson learned: Use my industrial strength tick spray (the stuff I use for work when I do fieldwork) on my clothes before I go to the park again.
Even though this is just an average tree you could see just about anywhere, I like this photo, and it gives me something to show for my battle with the ticks that day.
In other news, I took 3rd place in my category in the art show at work. Should have placed higher, but I lost to another HDR photo that was physically bigger than mine, and simply overpowered mine. There were numerous technical problems with his, but they didn't matter because it was big (this has been a developing trend with this art show). The thing that was in second place is pretty indescribable. Seems to be something created in Photoshop, but I'm not really sure what it was other than that.
As I mentioned in Quick Turnaround, I decided last Saturday to head out to Shawnee Mission Park, which is a large park on the Kansas side of the border. After driving around inside the park for a little seeing what the place had to offer, I found a nice spot that was relatively less crowded than the rest of the park. I grabbed my camera and tripod and hiked off into a grassy area off the beaten path. I took a few pictures here and there and then sat down in the shadow of this tree to get my tripod and camera all set up. After taking the photographs for this picture I looked down to see a tick crawling up my jeans!
In case you don't know; I hate ticks with a passion. Although it's been found that a protein in deer tick saliva interferes with the ability of the AIDS virus to attach to immune cells, and the same protein may help treat immune disorders like asthma and multiple sclerosis, I still hate ticks; they just bug me (Haa! Sorry..).
Anyway, I quickly jumped up and brushed the little guy off, only to see one or two others making their way up my pants in similar fashion. Quickly brushing them off, I began searching my legs for any more of the little buggers. Finding a few more, and what appeared to be a baby tick, or some sort of underdeveloped tick, I brushed them off, grabbed my camera and retreated to the concrete path to regroup. I did my best to search the rest of my clothes for ticks, and luckily my jeans were light colored, and I had a white t-shirt on, so it wasn't too hard. Finding no more I headed back to my car with my next destination in mind.
I'm not afraid of ticks by any means, and I've had many bites, so I can remove and dispatch them with ease. This was an ambush though and I was caught off guard. I would like to go back though; there were some nice hiking trails into the woods that I'd like to explore sometime. I also saw a number of deer while I was out there, just wandering around.
Lesson learned: Use my industrial strength tick spray (the stuff I use for work when I do fieldwork) on my clothes before I go to the park again.
Even though this is just an average tree you could see just about anywhere, I like this photo, and it gives me something to show for my battle with the ticks that day.
In other news, I took 3rd place in my category in the art show at work. Should have placed higher, but I lost to another HDR photo that was physically bigger than mine, and simply overpowered mine. There were numerous technical problems with his, but they didn't matter because it was big (this has been a developing trend with this art show). The thing that was in second place is pretty indescribable. Seems to be something created in Photoshop, but I'm not really sure what it was other than that.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Quick Turnaround
I had been planning all week on getting out and taking some pictures this weekend and here is the first of a few that I like. I first went out to Shawnee Mission Park (more on this later), which is a pretty big place, and apparently the most visited park in Kansas. I found a spot I liked and got some pictures and then headed down south a bit further to a corporate park called Corporate Woods. I used to ride my bike through this area when I lived in Overland Park and knew it was a pretty area so I thought I'd see what I could come up with.
This was pretty much the fastest turnaround I've pulled off as far as taking photos, editing them, and considering them 'finished.' I guess that's the good thing about capturing what I was going for.. That and taking fundamentally good photos ;p
A quick note about this website: I changed the setting so that anyone can comment. Before you had to have a Google Account to comment, but I wanted to make it easier for everyone to comment (because I love to get comments!).
This was pretty much the fastest turnaround I've pulled off as far as taking photos, editing them, and considering them 'finished.' I guess that's the good thing about capturing what I was going for.. That and taking fundamentally good photos ;p
A quick note about this website: I changed the setting so that anyone can comment. Before you had to have a Google Account to comment, but I wanted to make it easier for everyone to comment (because I love to get comments!).
Monday, May 18, 2009
Substation
Well, it's been a while since my last update, but I've been busy lately, and I've been working on finishing up a few photos. I took this photo a couple of months ago somewhere north of Kansas City. I decided to just get in my car and drive up north until I found a good place to take some pictures. I had headed up there with a certain shot in mind, but stumbled upon this substation in a fairly deserted area, and decided to get some pictures of it instead.
I planned on trying out a post-processing method which would produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo. To do this I took a total of 5 exposures from the exact same location. One exposure -2 stops, -1, +1, +2, and one exposed normally at 0. These 5 exposures are combined in a computer program and tweaked using tone mapping, which basically adjusts how the exposures are combined. When done right, I think this produces extraordinary pictures; in the wrong hands though, it can create disturbingly distorted images. I set out to do it right, and tried not to over do the processing. After combining the 5 exposures, I opened the result in Photoshop and tweaked the image a bit more until I liked the results.
I've tried to create HDR photos in the past, but could never get one to look like I thought it should -- until now. Something clicked this time, and I was able to create this image. I like it quite a bit, and decided to enter it into the art show I mentioned in Bean Ball! Regardless of how it does in the show, I'm happy with it. I don't think that I overdid the post-processing, and everyone who I have shown it to has agreed.
For the show, I had this printed at an online shop. After reading reviews I decided to spend a few extra dollars and have it printed on a metallic paper which supposedly looked very good. I was definitely not disappointed. The colors seem to 'pop' more, and with a photo like this, I think that only enhances the picture. Looking at it now, I'm wondering if viewing it on a computer monitor does it justice.
I planned on trying out a post-processing method which would produce a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photo. To do this I took a total of 5 exposures from the exact same location. One exposure -2 stops, -1, +1, +2, and one exposed normally at 0. These 5 exposures are combined in a computer program and tweaked using tone mapping, which basically adjusts how the exposures are combined. When done right, I think this produces extraordinary pictures; in the wrong hands though, it can create disturbingly distorted images. I set out to do it right, and tried not to over do the processing. After combining the 5 exposures, I opened the result in Photoshop and tweaked the image a bit more until I liked the results.
I've tried to create HDR photos in the past, but could never get one to look like I thought it should -- until now. Something clicked this time, and I was able to create this image. I like it quite a bit, and decided to enter it into the art show I mentioned in Bean Ball! Regardless of how it does in the show, I'm happy with it. I don't think that I overdid the post-processing, and everyone who I have shown it to has agreed.
For the show, I had this printed at an online shop. After reading reviews I decided to spend a few extra dollars and have it printed on a metallic paper which supposedly looked very good. I was definitely not disappointed. The colors seem to 'pop' more, and with a photo like this, I think that only enhances the picture. Looking at it now, I'm wondering if viewing it on a computer monitor does it justice.
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