Working Hard on the Kauffman Center

Kauffman Center Under Construction

Monday afternoon I was scouting good angles for some shots of the front of the Kauffman Center. I took this telephoto close-up shot around 4:15 in the afternoon (Mon. Nov. 29, 2010), but the light was so bland and uninteresting I figured the only thing I’ll be doing with the shots I did take will be some abstract black/whites, and I’ll go back around the dusk civil twilight hour again for better lighting of where I’m thinking of shooting next.

In this photo we of course have one of the members of the construction crew at the Kauffman Center, seen zoomed in at a focal length of 400 mm as I stood quite a bit away across 17th. I also cropped in tight quite a bit even after the zooming in with the lens, made possible with the very high resolution of my Canon 5D Mark II I was fortunate to acquire back in September.

REMINDER! Gallery show of my photography at The Hook Gallery in Westport this coming Friday evening. See the Facebook and Yelp pages listed for the event.

/0 Comments/by

Kauffman Center at Sunset

Sunday night on top of the City Hall garage with the Kauffman Center.

The caption is right. That’s how I live life.

/0 Comments/by

National Opt Out Day in Kansas City

The busiest travel day of the year was designated National Opt Out Day at airports around the US, encouraging travelers to forego going through the full body scanning devices implemented by the TSA. The body scanning devices reveal in full detail all of one’s bodily nooks and crannies, but unfortunately the only other alternative in airports is a pat-down that many are describing as intrusive and insulting, given that it gives workers the authority to feel virtually every part of the body, genitalia included.

I went up to Kansas City International Airport earlier today to get some shots of the local opt-out advocates handing out fliers and information at one of the terminals – Wednesday, November 24, 2010.

Reminder: Photography show at The Hook Gallery in Westport on Friday December 3rd. Here are the Facebook and Yelp listings.

/0 Comments/by

Cityscape at Sunset

Kansas City on a November Saturday Night

In my travels to the top of the City Hall garage for photography recently, this was one of the colorful sights on Saturday night – 5:30 pm Nov. 20, downtown Kansas City, MO.

Reminder: Photography show at The Hook Gallery in Westport on Friday December 3rd. Here are the Facebook and Yelp listings.

/1 Comment/by

City Hall Garage Looking West at Dusk

Downtown KC Sunset, Nov. 2010

A quick project I’m working on briefly has taken me back to the top of the city hall garage for a couple of recent sunsets. This shot of the old Power and Light Building with the H&R Block Headquarters and the Bartle Hall pylons (technically called Skystations I believe) was something additional I noticed while up there, and thought it would be fun to shoot at the end. Just for laughs I took an iPhone photo of my big camera rigged after I took this one. Because of the very high guard rails on newer garages like the city hall garage, I had to raise the tripod about a foot higher than my head and compose the shot looking up at the live view function on my camera’s LCD.

I took five exposures at one stop apart each bracketed manually for eventual HDR work on the photo to get the evened out colors and tones in the sky.

Here’s that iPhone shot –

Getting the photo in the lovely City Hall Garage.

Reminder: Photography show at The Hook Gallery in Westport on Friday December 3rd. Here are the Facebook and Yelp listings.

/0 Comments/by

Nelson Atkins Fall Foliage

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art at Sunset in the fall of 2010.

Photo at the Nelson Atkins Museum in Kansas City on Tuesday, Nov. 16. Two or three times I’ve ambled around trying to get one or two decent fall shots this year, finally settling on this one. As I’ve noted, I’ll be having a gallery show and sale coming up Friday, December 3rd, and my gallery dude over at The Hook in Westport said I should make a point to get a fall foliage photo to include with the other stuff on the wall – which will be an assortment of Kansas City skyline scenes, Kauffman Center progression, and Plaza Lights shots in keeping with the time of year. Basically a big replenishing my outdated stock at The Hook.

Like I noted in my Tuesday posting, come by the show if you’re looking for something to see or some shots to buy. The Hook Gallery is located in Westport near Californos and Murray’s, in the “Horseshoe” area of retail shops at 4120 Pennsylvania, KCMO (map).

/0 Comments/by

Friday Dec. 3 Photography Show

Nelson Atkins Museum with reflections in the Bloch addition glass.

Two things for this post:

Announcing a photography art show on the evening of Friday December 3rd at The Hook Gallery and Framing event space (map, website) in the Westport “Horseshoe” near Californos and Murray’s. We’re replenishing the outdated stock of my wares therein and will be showing some Plaza Lights photos in the spirit of the season, as well as sights like the Kauffman Center’s progress and its change on the Kansas City skyline so far this year. There will be lots of new matted and framed prints, and custom orders for specific sizes and matte/frame combinations will be taken as well. Please, everyone feel welcome to come by and bring your friends too. With digital photography there are a lot of online/Facebook/Twitter buddies out there too so it would be a fun meeting face to face.

On this photo above – On Monday evening at the Nelson Atkins Museum I was working with the Visitor’s Association to help them get some customized shots on the grounds centering on the new Bloch addition. While preparing and while we were waiting for just the right light, I thought it would be fun to slip on the wide-angle lens again and do another glass/architectural reflection type of thing I’ve come to enjoy doing recently. Here we can kind of see both parts of the interior and exterior of the Bloch addition, with a nice sunlit reflection of the original 1930s building in the glass.

/0 Comments/by

Dream Act Galvanizing

Discussing the Dream Act heading into the lame duck congressional session.

There was a meeting for the Dream Act and supporters Sunday evening at St. Mark’s Methodist Church in Overland Park. I photographed a couple Dream Act rallies on the Plaza this past summer and have kept in touch with a few of the activists via Facebook. The Dream Act is legislation to provide a path to documented citizenship for children brought to this country under the age of fifteen, and who commit to two years of college work or enlist in the military.

Right now with the lame duck congressional session, Senator Harry Reid in Nevada has defeated his opponent Sharron Angle, and has also made prior statements supporting the Dream Act legislation.

The Dream Act was drafted because there is now a whole demographic in America that is culturally American but legally not. In my own opinion passing the Dream Act would be a positive, pragmatic step in immigration reform, and they always say how pragmatism was an American invention. Problem is though everything seems based on demagoguery these days, so we’ll see.

/0 Comments/by

Elmwood Cemetery Sunset Scene

Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City shortly before sunset.

Another from Elmwood Cemetery taken a week ago right around sunset with the fall foliage. Some of the streetscape of Truman Road is visible beyond the cemetery fence.

/0 Comments/by

Kauffman Center Skeletal

From the Grand Lobby in the Kauffman Center under construction, looking south.

One of my shots from the Kauffman Center’s Grand Lobby, seen from the top level outside of the under-construction Muriel Kauffman Theatre. This is the skeletal frame at the south of the building coming together to show a pattern here for me while inside for construction progress photos about three weeks ago.

/0 Comments/by

Downtown Skywalk Pt. 4

Skywalk at 12th and Wyandotte

Ending my set of pics I took Saturday night from the downtown skywalk. Getting situated to show angles and lines in this kind of way is one of the most fun things in photography for me. The US Bank building is through the windows at the left, with the south exterior glass of the skywalk visible from where I was standing in an “outcrop” of the structure, with Wyandotte Street and the Muehlebach Hotel viewable on the right.

– Downtown Kansas City, MO, at about 12 am Saturday night/Sunday morning.

/0 Comments/by

Downtown Skywalk Pt. 3

In a skywalk looking east down 12th Street.

Part three of four of my set of shots from Saturday night, with a view out the skywalk at 12th and Wyandotte. The US Bank Building is on the left, with a terminal view looking east along 12th Street.

/0 Comments/by

Downtown Skywalk Pt. 2

Downtown Kansas City at 12th and Wyandotte

From the skywalk between the Muehlebach and Marriott Hotels at 12th and Wyandotte, looking southward we have a view of the Allis Plaza park (or whatever it’s called) and some reflections in the glass. I’m kind of a sucker for shots with a lot of “visual chaos.”

/0 Comments/by

Downtown Skywalk Pt. 1

12th & Wyandotte KCMO Street Scene

I was out Saturday night and happened to have my photo gear with me. When I drove under the skywalk between the Muehlebach and Marriott Hotels, I noticed it had special lights running intermittently on the edges. Since I took a daytime photo in the same place back in September, I kept thinking it would be fun to get some night shots in there as well, and with those lights running on the sides, I couldn’t help but stop in for some shots. These will go through Thursday.

In this photo we’re looking in the northeast direction inside the skywalk at 12th and Wyandotte, toward the US Bank Building.

/0 Comments/by

Elmwood Cemetery

Elmwood Cemetery

Here we have the sun going down from Elmwood Cemetery on Truman Road, KCMO, Saturday 11/6. On Saturday I took a few shots here and then later after dark, photos from inside a downtown skywalk, which I’ll be posting over the course of Monday through Friday.

/0 Comments/by

Helzberg Hall

Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center

I nabbed a shot of the Helzberg Hall ceiling and details while going through the Kauffman Center for construction progress photos last week.

/1 Comment/by

Jason Kander Victory Speech

Jason Kander - Missouri 44th District State House Representative

On election night I took a few shots at Jason Kander’s watch party for his race in the Missouri 44th District House seat. Here Jason gives his victory speech at the watch party at the Brooksider at about 9:45.

/0 Comments/by

Kauffman Center’s Grand Lobby

Kauffman Center Interior Construction

Last week I had the opportunity to go back inside the under-construction Kauffman Center in downtown Kansas City for some more shots.

/0 Comments/by