Skyline

I went downtown with a friend the other weekend.  As we were marveling at the tall buildings I began to wonder where the US Bank building was.  After all, it’s the tallest building in LA, so how hard could it be to find it?  All afternoon I asked.  “Where is the US Bank building?”  She didn’t know, and was probably beginning to wonder if I had made up the building altogether.  Finally later in the day at the pillow fight I turned away from the action and found it.  I was validated!  Later that evening I looked at my pictures from the day, and noticed something.  There, in the first pictures I took downtown, was the US Bank building.  You can see it in this picture; in the top right corner.  In my defense, it’s partially hidden.  But still, there it was, right in front of me, early in the day.  What a nerd.

Oh and in case you were wondering.  The tallest building in Kansas City would only be the 13th tallest building in LA.  I know you were curious, because I was curious.  Apparently the rounded building in the bottom right of my picture is the third tallest building in Los Angeles.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:03:03 1:22 PM
Exposure time	1/800 sec
Focal length	10mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Pillow Fight

Happy Easter!  Here's a pillow fight!  It was in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, and was pretty dang cool to see.  There were feathers EVERYWHERE.  Also, there was just a 7.2 earthquake in Baja California, Mexico as I was writing this.  It shook LA for a long time!  Whoooaaa..

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:03 2:39PM
Exposure time	1/250 sec
Focal length	22mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

And another for good measure.  That's right, two for the price of one.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:03 2:37 PM
Exposure time	1/400 sec
Focal length	10mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	0

Downtown from 169

I think this will be my last downtown Kansas City picture for a while; I have processed all the ones I have taken that I like.  I feel this is a pretty unique angle of downtown.  It was taken from north of the city on Highway 169 as I was walking home from the Downtown Kansas City Airport Air Show.  I lived north of downtown, so this is similar to the view I got from my apartment. This is also pretty much the reverse view of my Highway 169 photograph.

I’m not sure what the name of the apartment complex is, but if you notice on the left side of this picture, there is a large parking garage somewhat visible.  It doesn’t look bad in this picture, but in real life, that parking garage and the associated apartment buildings look terrible.  Pretty much all of the other buildings in the River Market area of downtown are old brick buildings.  Many have been renovated and are very nice on the inside, but the historic exterior remains unchanged.  Anyway, these new apartment buildings are architecturally completely different from the rest of the River Market.  They’re poorly constructed, much like many of the suburban apartments in Overland Park (all wood construction, cheap materials, build quickly), and look generally like a suburban apartment complex.  Because these apartments were built surrounding my old gym, I got to see construction progress every day, so I feel that I’m pretty much an expert on the subject.  What I’m really trying to say here is that these apartments are ruining the River Market, and I’m glad I moved away when I did.  I always hoped during construction that the building would ‘accidentally’ burn down and the project would be scrapped.  If you ever get the opportunity, please stop by their office, and tell them to go to hell for me.

Getting back on point, this was taken during my HDR period, so it’s a 5 shot handheld HDR.  Check out the EXIF info below for a little more information.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:08:23 12:34
Exposure time	1/1000 sec
Focal length	18mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure	5 Photo HDR

Back in Kansas City

No, I’m not back in Kansas City, but I am starting to miss the place.  I took this the last full weekend I lived there.  I had actually gone to that area to take a specific picture I had in mind, but that didn’t turn out well because I didn’t like how it looked with the cloudy sky.  I did like this one though, and a few others from that day.  For those of you not from the area, that is downtown Kansas City’s skyline, with the back lawn of the Liberty Memorial in the foreground.

I’ve been steering away from the HDR photos recently, but I took this one at the beginning of my journey towards primarily single shot photos.  There is something about a cloudy sky though that makes an HDR work very well.  As long as it’s not overdone, I think it’s alright.  This is a 5 shot HDR.  I strengthened some of the more subtle colors in the sky during post-processing, and of course combined the 5 images for the original HDR.


I've got a number of pictures I really like lined up for you all, and many more just waiting for post-processing.  I'm also out and about in southern California pretty much every weekend shooting, so stay tuned for a lot of posts in 2010!

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2009:10:10 14:26
Exposure time	1/100 sec
F-Stop	10mm
Focal number	f/16
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure	5 Photo HDR

Downtown Kansas City

Two weekends ago my dad and two of my cousins came to Kansas City for a visit.  On Saturday we went to the Liberty Memorial, which is home to The National World War I Museum.  I like going to Liberty Memorial, and have been there many times, but I had never gone through the museum until that day.  It was a very interesting place and I suggest you go there if you ever have the opportunity.  In addition to the museum, you can also go up in the Liberty Memorial tower.  This photo was taken from the top of the tower, looking north into downtown Kansas City, Missouri (where I live; you can see my building if you know which to look for).

This photo is composed of 5 exposures, and was hand held.  I normally like to use a tripod if I'm going to make an HDR photograph, but hand held was the only way I could do it that day.