Sunset In The Link Pt. 2

Looking South In The Link

From my Sunday evening around sunset inside The Link tunnel between Crown Center and Union Station at Pershing and Main. This shot was rather unintentional, as after I finished taking tomorrow’s photo posting, I went on my way to get situated to take the one I posted back on Tuesday. But in between those two I stopped for this one and was lucky enough to do it at a time with low enough foot traffic through there so as not to mess it up, as I was gathering several manually bracketed source images from the camera for eventual HDR/tone-mapping on the computer.

I thought it odd what’s seen in the left windows, which doesn’t at all look like what is actually out there, I see now because of the floor reflecting in that left hand glass. I had kind of thought the result was sort of similar to THIS PHOTO, although in that one from last summer the whole intent was for there to be a light duplication on one side from the other. Here it’s more a particle physics issue with how the photons behave, I guess. It was accidental and I didn’t even notice it until I was processing the photo on my computer. What you’d normally see out of the left window is the Westin Crown Center Hotel building.

Plus I thought this shot makes it kind of look like you’re in a tunnel and they’re coming to get you.

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Snowed Over Plaza

Snow with the Flags

After leaving work on the southern part of the Plaza on Monday afternoon I trudged vehicularly in the snow past the pedestrian bridge with all the national flags of Kansas City’s designated sister cities. When I got home I eventually grabbed the camera bag and went back just for a type of shot like how this kind of came out. I had something fairly close in mind anyway. It seems like every winter or snowstorm I end up taking a pic or two on or around this pedestrian bridge over Brush Creek.

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Sunset in The Link Pt. 1

Inside The Link

On Sunday I had a good time in the afternoon and evening getting some new shots just for fun. I started in the West Bottoms and ended inside The Link, the windowed above-street tunnel between Union Station and Crown Center. I’m actually posting my photos in backwards order, as this one was my final for the evening. I get a little excited in photographic terms when dealing with all kinds of shapes in front of me combined with the potential for fun light reflections and so on. I ended up using my fisheye lens for my three shots I took inside The Link (this and two forthcoming). Most fun I’d had taking pictures of something in awhile.

Note: I’ve updated my portfolio site’s home page with an updated slideshow of my stuff from August through end of December 2010. Click Here

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Holy Name Church Pre-Demolition

Holy Name Church at 23rd and Benton, Pre-Demolition

We have the Holy Name Church at 23rd and Benton Boulevard on Kansas City’s east side, now facing imminent demolition with the owner of the old church building telling a judge he will indeed foot the bill for its demolition instead of the city.

Construction on this old church began in 1911 but wasn’t completed until the late 20s. The historical significance of the church as it aligns with Kansas City’s place in American history (MLK’s assassination and the Kansas City riots of 1968) can be detailed at this blog posting, and also a good write up of the situation as this pertains to Kansas City’s present situation in preservation of the built environment can be seen at a forum I used to visit, in the first post of this thread (click here). Hat tip to a contact there who got in touch with me over getting this shot before they knock down this old Gothic-style building. Also seen at Tony’s Kansas City and The Kansas City Star.

You could say there’s a slight bit of irony in the old church sitting across the street now from residential infill houses that when viewed out of context, would make you think you were in one of the suburbs like Lenexa or Blue Springs – as evidenced by the late-80s looking split-level house to the far right in the background of the photo.

Photo from evening of Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 23rd and Benton Boulevard, Kansas City, Missouri.

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Plaza Lights and High Rise Residential

The Plaza Medical Building with high-rise residential behind.

While getting shots Sunday evening I nabbed this view from the top of the garage on 47th looking southeast toward the Plaza Medical Building in the lower foreground and the old high-rise condo and apartment buildings along Ward Parkway towering behind.

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December at the Board of Trade

Scene from the Kansas City Board of Trade in December 2010.

While one of my coworkers at the Board of Trade neared her due date, I took a couple photos of her, highly pregnant in the staff jacket on the trading floor, and also had a bit of extra time for some random photos on the trading floor a little bit before Christmas. There’s not much happening in the market for hard red winter wheat in December of most years as the crop is only busy lying in the ground waiting to sprout in the spring, as it is now.

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Plaza Lights on 47th

Plaza Lights from 47th St.

Something from Sunday evening, January 2nd along 47th on the Plaza. I haven’t done any Plaza lights photography this season at all, or much other photography for that matter – due to a lot of things I’ve been having to take care of lately. But I’d been meaning to try and get a view from this particular spot in this garage looking toward the intersection. Of course the reality of it is always different than how you envision beforehand in your head, then you just try and compose around what you’ve got in front of you.

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Under a Bush in Stafford Kansas

Under a Cemetery Bush

Back from a Christmas-time trip to central Kansas. This was under a bush at the Stafford Kansas cemetery the morning after Christmas. Some of my family members continue on the craziness spiral and some of the towns keep disintegrating in slow, steady ways.

9:45 AM, Sunday Dec. 26, 2010.

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West Bottoms Sunrise – No Photo Show

Trains at the 12th Street Bridge

Something almost random I took at the 12th Street Bridge in the West Bottoms at sunrise back in October that I never got around to posting. There’s some long-exposure train motion in there which was why I ran over to compose as quickly as I could and try and get a shot.

NO PHOTO SHOW tonight Friday Dec. 10th as had previously been announced. Event cancelled. I could belabor all the moronic things leading up to the cancellation but then it might not seem very professional. SO DON’T SHOW UP!

See ‘ya round.

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Tilted and incomplete Kauffman Center

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Construction on the evening of Dec. 1, 2010.

I’ve had a paying client or two here and there request up-to-date images of the Kauffman Center’s current progress, which is why I have so many shots of the grand structure rising as of late, this being yet another. I don’t know about you but I’m in the mood for another good old fashioned protest and march to go photo-journal accompanied with news vans or protestors getting willfully arrested . Eh, eh? Sound good?

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Symmetrical Theme

A few times before I’ve had a good time making some symmetrical architectural doo-dads with the computer. For this one I used a photo I took a few days ago nearing the evening as workers were putting some touches on the Kauffman Center’s ongoing construction.

Photoshop-imposed symmetrical look upon the city's skyline and its construction.

And the photo it derived from, edited and made B&W for my whims prior to having the idea to do the symmetrical thing above.

Kauffman Center Construction, November 29, 2010.

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Picketing of Jerusalem Cafe

Picketing Jersusalem Cafe on Saturday, Dec 4, 2010

On Friday I saw word of a picketing over allegations of labor violations at a local restaurant just a short trip away from my apartment in midtown Kansas City. Credit to articles on  Tony’s Kansas City and The Pitch. The Pitch article mentions a civil suit filed against current and former owners of the restaurant over the alleged mistreatment and non-payment to native Guatemalan workers.

On these kinds of issues, we’re dealing with both the livelihood of a local business as well as workers’ civil and labor rights, and I am of course far from being a bona fide journalist. But for the record, I go get shots of events and dissent like this around Kansas City (or anywhere I can, for that matter) because it’s interesting to me and informative of what’s going on.

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Photo Show Put Off One Week

Downtown KC at Sunset, November '10

Photo is from something I was gathering a week or two back in some work detailing the Kauffman Center construction.

Due to someone’s scheduling foul-up the photo show I’ve been posting about is put back to Friday, December 10 instead of this coming Friday. So, don’t come this Friday. (facebook)

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Commercial Work at the Nelson

Earlier in November I worked on a commercial photo shoot at dusk at the Nelson Atkins Museum for some produced shots featuring the Bloch Building addition at the Nelson Atkins Museum for tourism uses.

REMINDER – Gallery show of my photography at The Hook Gallery in Westport this coming Friday evening has been moved to Friday December 10 due to a scheduling foul-up. See the Facebook and Yelp pages listed for the event. Don’t go this Friday.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sunset Part 2

Sunset view from Downtown Kansas City

One more shot from the top of the City Hall parking garage looking west right after sunset. It was good and colorful last Saturday evening when I took this. Unfortunately so much of the urban parts of Kansas City have been gobbled up by parking, it can be hard getting a good shot of things that aren’t parking structures or lots – all the more ironic since it’s convenient to go to the top of garages to get elevated views. But only to a point apparently – too many garages everywhere and there’s nothing left worth looking at.

Since the City Hall garage is rather new, it has very high guard rails making it about impossible to take a picture through the camera’s viewfinder. For this one I had to activate the Live View mode so I could see the visual on the camera’s LCD and prop it up high with my tripod, and manually bracket my shots looking at the light meter display on the LCD. So that’s one other advantage of my Canon 5D Mark II – as much as I loved my old original 5D I couldn’t have gotten this shot with it.

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KCMO at Sunset


Kansas City Skyline from City Hall Garage

On Saturday evening I went to the top of the City Hall garage trying for a couple shots of the skyline as the sun went down.

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The 12th Street Bridge From My Back Seat

View of the 12th Street Bridge from inside the car.

Like I noted on Monday, it can be fun to take pictures of outdoor things from inside something. I got the idea to take an HDR photo of something from inside my car after seeing this fun photo from Times Square. In my case it was the 12th Street Bridge in KCMO at sunrise on Saturday… rest doesn’t always come on schedule. I tried to go as wide as my wide angle lens allowed but I decided to crop off the sides and make the dash of the car level a bit, as in the original it was tilted a little by accident due to how cumbersome it was setting up a Manfrotto tripod in the backseat of a Ford Focus. The view here terminates up ahead with the One Kansas City Place skyscraper to the east in the downtown loop.

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Inside The Link – Pt. 2

Taken a few minutes after yesterday’s photo, looking east kind of northeast at sunset, inside The Link skywalk between Crown Center and Union Station.

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Inside The Link

Union Station from Inside The Link

Because a lot of times, photos of the outside taken from the inside of something – are fun to take. This was inside “The Link” skywalk between the Westin Hotel and Union Station, although the best part of it over Main for views is closed off right now as I saw.

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Crown Center Art Installation

Crown Center Art Installation

A look up at the public art installation and high-rise office buildings in Kansas City where Main and Grand Blvd intersect right where midtown ends and downtown begins.

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Kauffman Center Construction – Sunset

Kauffman Center Construction at Sunset

A look at the Kauffman Center construction site after sunset on October 6th, taken from McGee near Crown Center.

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Garment District Architecture

On Saturday night/Sunday morning I was moving about already with my fisheye lens affixed after taking yesterday’s fountain photo, and thought this ornate entryway on 9th Street in the Garment District area was begging to also be shown via fisheye and HDR to get the evened-out light exposure between interior and exterior.

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One of Many Fountains

Fountain at 8th and Main

At a questionable hour on Saturday night, I perched in the median with my camera and tripod rigged toward this fountain in the middle of the street, amid several of the Commerce Bank properties on Main between 8th and 9th in the north loop. I used my fisheye lens here and cropped the photo somewhat on the computer afterwards.

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“Descent of Civilization” Part Two

Descent of Civilization, a public art implement.

A second photo of the bison skeleton statue, a new art implement at 9th and Broadway in downtown Kansas City MO named the “Descent of Civilization,” by Brooklyn artist Marc Swanson. In case you missed, here is Part One, which was this past Thursday’s post.

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Tracy Ward’s Campaign

Tracy Ward - Candidate for the KCMO Sixth District At-Large Council Seat

Last week I took a few photos for Tracy Ward to use in her campaign for the Sixth District At Large City Council seat. I’ve come to know Tracy over the course of this year from taking photos at protests of the red light traffic cameras in KCMO, as well as the full-body scanners up at KCI Airport. Tracy is the Kansas City Area Director of the Liberty Restoration Project, which organized the protests.

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Kauffman Center at Sunrise

Kauffman Center Construction at Sunrise

Here we have a look at the Kauffman Center construction site at sunrise on the morning of Wednesday, October 6th. I was mostly hoping for a shot like this, except when I got to the site at Summit Street in the West Side I couldn’t help but think that the billboard and Denny’s restaurant sign between my lens and the Kauffman building seriously messed things up. Whatever… I can’t chop them down.

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“Descent of Civilization”

The new public art implement at 9th and Broadway

A new art installation was unveiled yesterday at Ninth and Broadway downtown at one of DST’s buildings – “Descent of Civilization,” depicting the skeleton of a bison, by Brooklyn artist Marc Swanson for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. The statue is to serve as a reminder of the nearly total eradication of the species from North America during westward expansion. Some free time on Thursday evening allowed me to grab a couple photos.

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Kauffman Center Interior – Pt. 4

The fourth and final installment of pictures from my tour of the interior of the Kauffman Center construction site on September 20th, as a year until the grand opening approached.

In the Muriel Kauffman Theatre

Looking west in the afternoon on the construction site.

Wine and cheese were provided by the Kauffman Foundation and Cellar Rat on Baltimore the for the group touring the Kauffman Center.

In case you missed Parts One through Three from inside the Kauffman Center, CLICK HERE.

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Crown Center and Liberty Memorial

Sunset scene from downtown Kansas City in October 2010.

While gathering yet more shots of the Kauffman Center construction, I turned my telephoto lens a bit to the southwest while standing on McGee at sunset on Wednesday October 6th. This is a shot of the Assurant Building, the Westin Crown Center Hotel, Liberty Memorial, and One Park Place back in the distance. I’ve been using five or six manually bracketed RAW files at varying light exposures and merging to HDR with Photomatix recently for these shots with extremely gradual changes in color and tone that come about so often when you’re shooting photos right after sunset.

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The Zombie Walk

On Saturday afternoon the Zombie Walk For Hunger made way through the Plaza with participants dressed as the walking dead, collecting canned goods and cash donations for homelessness in Kansas City. The participants who dressed as zombies also contributed donations as well.

At 3pm the walk began, and afterwards a small bit of filming took place in Mill Creek Park for the post-apocalyptic web series Dead Wait, of which I am taking still photos of the production this season.

"The Little Mermaid" after BP has their way with her habitat.

After the rot has set in.

Two of them.

The cameras were rolling for this scene to be used in the series Dead Wait.

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Missouri Senate Candidate Jonathan Dine

Jonathan Dine - US Senate Candidate

A protest took place on Friday in front of KCPT on behalf of libertarian Senate candidate Jonathan Dine, who was unfortunately excluded from an upcoming televised debate at KCPT prior to the November elections due to potentially inaccurate voter polling. Dine will be in the race for the Senate seat against Robin Carnahan and Roy Blunt.

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Jason Kander for Missouri 44th

Jason Kander canvassing a neighborhood in Missouri District 44

On Thursday evening I took a few shots for Jason Kander to utilize in his campaign for re-election as State Representative for the 44th District in Missouri, which falls in the boundaries of a good section of KCMO. Jason and I were 1999 graduates of Bishop Miege High School. November elections are less than a month away now, so Jason and all others seeking higher office are keeping busy these days.

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