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.

Flag Man

I thought about holding on to this photograph and posting it on either the Fourth of July or Memorial Day, but those are both too far away, and I don’t want to hold back any content.  Uncle Sam has been sitting on our front porch every summer since I was in High School.  He has seen better days, but is still looking pretty good.  He used to have an American Flag in his hand, but that’s gone, and although you can’t see it in this photograph, he has an accompanying firecracker the size of his head.  I actually took this when I was at home this last Fourth of July, but by the time I got it on my computer and processed, the holiday was well over.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to share it on that Fourth of July, and what’s wrong with a little patriotism in the beginning of October?

I took this picture at this angle to symbolize the proverbial Uncle Sam’s power over all of us, and his imposing size in America today…  No, just kidding; none of that is true.  I took it at this angle, because in my head, this is what I saw.  That and I thought it looked cool.  The outcome is pretty much exactly what I was going for.