Posts
Along Roanoke, West Plaza.
Snowman.
Residential.
Deadly Intersection.
Residential & Plaza Vista
Ward Parkway & Roanoke.
Site of JJ’s, where a gas explosion destroyed the restaurant recently.
Prepping to go on air for Channel 9, Michael Mahoney and Lasaro Abalos (@heycameraman).
Staircase along Belleview.
Roanoke & Belleview.
Some shots of traffic motion through intersections on 47th Street on the Plaza, taken for my traffic signal and intersection photo project for Rhythm Engineering.
One final shot after I finished what I needed of the KCFD parked in front of Barnes and Noble. While I was getting my settings together a huge stream of people went in and out of the doors – and I wanted to get that captured with a motion blur of a couple second shutter opening, but didn’t manage to nab it by the time it happened, so this is what I was left with…
On Monday June 18th, the night I shot my downtown KC aerial photography in my previous post, I also requested of the helicopter pilot to circle us a couple of times around the former West Edge site, now to be called “Plaza Vista” I believe, where JE Dunn is constructing the new 4840 Roanoke building to serve as headquarters for the Polsinelli Shughart law firm.
Another protest this week on Sunday was held near Nichols Fountain on the Plaza against Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad and his government. People from the mideast living in Kansas City have done a good job of holding solidarity protests alongside the overthrow of mid-eastern dictators over the past year.
2-26-12
Saturday afternoon a small protest was held at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza in Kansas City against the fraudulent Russian elections that took place at the end of last year. The group was also joined by some members of the Occupy Kansas City movement for the protest at the corner of 47th and JC Nichols Parkway.
The last time I had shot photos of the West Edge project demolition progress was on Christmas Eve – Previous set here. Noticing the building has been getting less tall and that a month had gone by it seemed like I ought to get some more.
On the afternoon of Christmas Eve I snapped up some more deconstruction/demolition progress shots of the West Edge project on the Plaza.
Demolition progress photos on the ill-fated West Edge project by architect Moshe Safdie, who noted he’s had projects fail to make it to the construction phase, but until now never one that got 75% completed and then torn down. The initial developer got into financial trouble and the general contractor walked off the job for not being paid, followed by lawsuits and negotiations back and forth. Eventually it was decided the partially completed structure would be torn down and ultimately replaced with a new building that is yet to come.
Fall-ish October shots from just off the Plaza that detail somewhat the West Edge project being deconstructed before it was even finished. Get your pictures now while you still can. Friday 10/28/2011.
This weekend will be busy – there’s a protest/rally for the Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning at Ft. Leavenworth on Saturday and an Occupy KC event Sunday downtown both of which I’m going to try for shots of.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James visited the Country Club Plaza Saturday evening in an effort to address the problem of underage loitering and flash mobs that have started to take place in the past year on the Plaza. I followed Mayor Sly around for the evening and snapped some photos of him talking with people, including many of the underage kids who are being dropped off by their parents for hours at a time on the Plaza and left to their own devices.
In a terrible twist of timing, three young people were shot and wounded on the Plaza very near the Mayor after I had departed and gone home. Word has it that the Mayor was taken to the ground by his security contingent for his own protection as the shots rang out. Click here for the article at the Kansas City Star. All nine of the following photos were taken before the night turned ugly.
The Mayor addressing the media near Nichols Fountain prior to walking through the Plaza.
Former Councilman and activist Alvin Brooks at left with Mayor Sly James at right.
Mayor Sly and a KCPD Mounted Patrol horse.
Last night at dusk I went up the hill from Ward Parkway to Rockwell Lane and Sunset Drive and used my telephoto lens to get a look at the West Edge project as it’s been for at least a couple of years now – unfinished. I thought I heard something about it again in the news again but I can’t quite remember what.
-May 4, 2011
On Sunday afternoon at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza in Kansas City, a rally was organized encouraging the protesters in Syria currently being fired upon by government forces of Bashar al-Assad.
Press releases were sent to the local KC news stations, but none showed up, backing up my own ongoing question of “what exactly would ya say the news stations do?”
Following up on the revolution in Egypt that resulted in a couple of photoblog postings on my part covering rallies here in Kansas City (One and Two), there is now a great deal of protesting and unrest in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, enough to bring out the local Libyan community and broader Arab American community in Kansas City for a rally at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza on Saturday. I met a man on Saturday who was actually the focal point in one of my Egypt photos who I learned was imprisoned by Gaddafi for nearly twenty years. The situation in Libya is not receiving the amount of press it should due to the tight reins Gaddafi’s regime keeps on journalists and the news media in Libya.
There aren’t a lot of ways to get information in and out of the country except through Internet social networking, and Gaddafi has been busy shutting off the Internet across Libya during the protests and clashes with Libyan citizenry. And I’m told a great deal of the world remains unaware of the killings of dozens or hundreds of protesters in Libya in recent days by Gaddafi’s military forces. There were some demonstrators present at this rally here in Kansas City living in exile from Libya who cannot return and see close family while Gaddafi is in power, so it is not hard to understand why Libyans would love to see Gaddafi gone.
1) Libyan and American flags flying on the Plaza
2) Gaddafi Sux
3) Libya's Turn - Fisheye Lens photo
4) Mubarak Awaiting Gaddafi
5) Streetscape on The Plaza during the rally.
6) Black and White with the Fisheye lens.
7) Holding a child.
8) Gaddafi's Atrocities - and this list only had room to cover the early part of his career as dictator.
A large group of demonstrators came to the Nichols Fountain area on the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday afternoon at 4 PM to demonstrate against the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt currently being protested in various forms back in Egypt itself. I am informed many of the group were Egyptian Americans, with good attendance by many other Arab Americans in general as well. As of drafting this post I’ve also heard that Internet access is widely shut down in Egypt at present. The demonstration and protest of Mubarak was organized by the Muslim American Society of KC with support from groups such as Citizens for Justice in the Middle East.
Here are seven photos from the event on the afternoon of Saturday January 29th, 2011. Because I used three different lenses for these seven photos I’m including pertinent lens info underneath each photo, shot with my Canon 5D Mark II camera. A tip of the hat to Heycameraman on twitter for informing me this demonstration/protest was taking place, serving as reminder to check my Facebook Events listings more often.
Demonstrations for Egypt #1, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #2, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #3, Canon EF 100-400 L f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens at 330 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #4, Canon EF 100-400 L f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens at 285 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #5, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #6, Canon EF 85 mm prime lens at f/1.8
Demonstrations for Egypt #7, Canon EF 85 mm prime lens at f/1.8
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.