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This Saturday 1-28-2012 a small protest took place at 39th and Southwest Trafficway in Kansas City MO. A recent study came out by the Kansas City Police Department indicating that the cameras do nothing for traffic safety except perhaps making it even worse at the intersections where they are installed. Tracy Ward, a local activist was on hand and organized the event. I noticed a couple of news station reporters on the scene as well.
I was coming back from a local bar on foot and saw some stuff I figured I’d try getting with the ISO cranked to 4000 and the aperture wide to 3.5 or so – still having to hold still. I stopped in and grabbed my camera and put on its wide angle lens. For the lulz you know. These days with these modern DSLRs you can get away with handheld night street photography without a tripod since the ISO (sensor light sensitivity) can be cranked up so high. I could have run these through my noise reduction filter due to the high ISO and noise viewable at high resolutions but didn’t bother since I’ll probably never use these for anything but posting to the photoblog this one time.
Lollygagging around this area the other afternoon…
Protip to one or two dopes in the comments sections of my favorite Kansas City blogger Tony’s Kansas City that there’s no special “star filter” for when the sun shines like this, it’s shooting with a narrow aperture (this was at f/16). When it’s that narrow the lens aperture blades refract the light in the same shape of the aperture onto the sensor (or film). You’re my community service for the day.
Next…
This was an f/10 aperture; you’ll notice the “starburst” look isn’t as pronounced now with a wider aperture and more protons flying through the wider aperture and onto the sensor.
^Did a symmetrical photoshop hoo-haa with it.
A couple more shots from my visit to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts construction site on Tuesday –
Above – looking southeast with the fisheye lens giving a view toward the Crossroads and Crown Center.
Below – facing the front of the building with a view inside the grand lobby, Brandmeyer Great Hall.
February 27, 2011, Theis Park, Kansas City MO
On Sunday Feb. 27 – the day with all the snow, fog, and thunderstorms, I caught this strange snow formation at Theis Park across from the Nelson Atkins Museum along the banks of Brush Creek. Correct me if I’m wrong but in the time I spent there with the camera on the tripod, it looked like I could see the tides of Brush Creek receding back in to where the water is actually supposed to be contained. Prior to that it was overflowing into a low-lying portion of the park by the creek. I thought the snow arrangement here yielded a bit of visual shape.
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.
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.
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.
A little after 4 pm on Monday, Sept. 27
The fountain on the south end of Liberty Memorial right by the entrance to the World War I Museum. Actually I had wanted to go to the top of the memorial for skyline photos but was unaware that it’s closed on Monday, so I decided the best I’d do for the day is a fountain/sunshine photo.
Cloudiness with Union Station in the Afternoon
A nice, cool September day of cloud cover and a bit of free time in the afternoon, I thought it would be fun to go grab a couple shots. For this one I actually had in mind something black/white and high contrast along with the clouds before leaving my apartment. Sometimes that’ll happen.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at about 3:30 pm.