Birthday in the River Market

Last year for my Birthday I gathered a few of my closest friends in the River Market area of Kansas City for dinner and an evening out in our old neighborhood. I decided to go down there a bit early and spend some time alone with my Olympus. As I write this almost a year later, I can't help but think about how badly I need to do this more often. Equipped with what I think is one of my favorite films, I shot the better part of a roll while slowly roaming. It was so nice, and so relaxing, which was one of the reasons I took up photography in the first place.

To be completely honest, I've been eagerly anticipating posting these photos for a while. I can't entirely explain why I waited this long, but I have a habit of sort of hoarding photos. It isn't that I want to keep them for myself, it's more that I'm just not very good about sharing sometimes. I love all of these photos so much though, that I have to share them all. Not only did I want to share them all, but I think they deserved to be shared together... And I don't blog enough. Really, I don't take enough pictures anymore. I need to fix that, and fast. I don't go on enough walks, instead I run. I need more creativity in my life, and these photos are a reminder to myself of this fact.

Sorry there's no humor in this post. I almost always try to keep it light and toss in a few jokes here and there (even if I'm maybe the only one who finds me funny sometimes). For some reason I just started writing tonight and this is where it went. And I'm OK with that; as long as I keep my promise to myself to start shooting more photos.

Mooring

I'm fascinated with all things nautical; I really should make a career of it somehow. I love learning about all the different kinds of ships out there. From your freighters and tankers to mega-luxury cruise ships, I want to know all about them. I sort of wished that I was awake and out of my room each morning when I awoke to see us in port already so I could see us docking. I did get to see some workers pulling up the mooring lines one afternoon as we returned to the ship much closer to our departure time. Even though I didn't get to see all the workings of the ship, I did manage to take a few pictures of the moorings and whatnot. I thought the lines made for nice pictures!
 
Some of these lines were so huge I can't imagine it was easy to even move them!

 
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, but there were a couple ports where the front was moored to a concrete pillar out away from the dock. I thought that was pretty cool too.

 
I liked this graffiti because I just imagined the taggers rowing up in a rowboat or kayak and tagging the pier.

 

Barbados Slim

Lately I have been posting multiple pictures in the comments on my Flickr, instead of using my blog to display extras. Today I thought I'd stop over here and give this blog a little attention with my last few pictures from Barbados. These three were taken at a beach on the Atlantic coast side after our monkey encounter in the jungles. I really liked the rocks sticking up out of the water. It was so cool how they were extremely worn down around the base where the waves hit, and still huge on the top; like a mushroom. I wonder how long that took? And I wonder how long it will take until one tips over.

Sasquatch!

You all know that classic Sasquatch film right? Where it's walking by some trees and turns to look at the camera for a second and then keeps walking. It's really blurry and grainy, and shaky. I think last June I spotted him again. This time he was in my parents' driveway, and he was riding a unicycle around me in circles. Yep, it was either the Sasquatch, or it was my brother caught on old, degraded film. One of the two.

North Hollywood Shootout

These pictures are mainly for me. They aren’t particularily interesting without the back story, and the back story might be a little weird. When I was younger I often stumbled upon subjects that I would end up learning a lot about. For example, for some reason, I learned a ton about D.B. Cooper when I was younger. I probably saw a half dozen documentaries or other TV shows about him and his heist. I couldn’t be called an actual expert, but maybe a “casual expert.”

Another topic that I happened to learn a lot about was the North Hollywood shootout. In 1997 two people armed with assault rifles and full body armor robbed a bank in North Hollywood. When they exited the bank, dozens of LAPD officers were waiting and a shootout ensued. The police were severely outgunned and even resorted to going to a local gun shop to commandeer heavier artillery. Eventually the robbers were stopped, but not before a huge gunfight in the streets. It was really quite an exciting story, and much was caught on camera from helicopters.

I had seen a number of documentaries about this in the late 90’s so one morning when I decided to go to visit Hollywood, I realized that I really needed to stop by that bank. It took just a little googling on my phone, but I found it and stopped by to snap a few pictures.

Anymore anyone can be a casual expert on anything, thanks to the internet and websites like Wikipedia. I feel like it was more of an accomplishment in the old days.

Hold Still!

This is the first of two mini-posts I have coming. I’m working on posting all of my remaining pictures from 2010 and I always kind of liked the one of the cat, but never really enough to post it on Flickr; the eyes freaked me out a little. Last year I snapped a picture of my cousin Matthew, and wouldn’t you know, he turned his head precisely as I was pressing the shutter. I don’t have any other pictures like this, so a full post isn’t warranted, but I did want to post what I had. Why did Matthew turn his head? I have no idea. Why did Lucky turn her head? The shutter startled her (she’s kind of a spaz).

Farmers Market

I decided late last year that I needed to post all of the film from 2010 that I wanted to share, because why have such old film just sitting there? I took a number of pictures in 2010 in various farmers markets across the country; Hollywood, Portland, Kansas City, Wichita, to name a few.

I really like a good farmers market. I've mentioned before that I used to live in the River Market in Kansas City, which is where the City Market is located; Kansas City's biggest farmers market. Back then, I would just wander down to the market on a Saturday morning and people watch for a while.

I haven't always liked farmers markets though. I remember being dragged to farmers markets in St. Louis when I was younger. I didn't care much for them back then, but my aunt sure did. All I remember was it was hot and boring, and I just wanted to go to a baseball game, or another St. Louis area attraction with a little more pizazz than the farmers market. These days though, I'll go to a farmers market. And I'll take my camera.

Hollywood

I’ll be honest with you (when am I not?), I wasn’t impressed with Hollywood. I went there a couple times, once at night and once during the day. The day was much more manageable, but still nothing too exciting. At night it was a zoo, an absolute zoo; weirdos and partiers everywhere. During the day it was homeless people and tourists; better than at night, but still pretty crowded.

I went down there because I felt like I had to see it and give it a chance. I also used it as an opportunity to see a movie at the ArcLight Theater, which boasts having a very loud sound system (which it definitely does) in each of their theaters; specs that beat THX standards. That was kind of cool, but since I’m already being honest, I’ll tell you that it just sounded like it was turned up a little too loud. It didn’t help that I saw Iron Man 2, which had some big explosions.

I found it interesting and frustrating that it was so hard to get a good view of the Hollywood sign. For such an iconic sign, there sure weren't a lot of good views. Most of the views are just off of residential streets, and you’re pretty far away. Earlier in the year my Mom and Brother were out visiting and we couldn’t get a good view of it. My brother wanted pictures but we never really found a good spot, so I came back and got a few for him.

Honestly, I didn’t mean to make this a negative blog post. Everyone should make their own decisions about Hollywood. And if you want a good view of the Hollywood sign, bring a zoom lens. You could also trespass, but I wouldn’t recommend that.

Old Timey Fortress

As I mentioned in my last post, we got to tour an old fortress in San Juan. It was a cool place, and probably would have been more interesting if we had taken a real tour. What we did do was wander around and look at stuff, which was fairly interesting on its own. Below are the results of my self-guided tour, in picture form.




Proof that Puerto Rico is indeed part of the United States!


Want to initiate a siege against Puerto Rico? This might be a good place to start.


See? A great view of a capital looking building. I wouldn't do it though, because as I established, Puerto Rico is part of the US.




There were lots of dark corridors all over the place. Maybe you could blindly shoot some arrows out of this? I don't think that's a great idea though.


This might be a better place to shoot an arrow.. or a gun since that's a more effective weapon in modern times.


There's a pretty good view of the ocean, I promise.


I'd wager that this is the only kind of shooting that goes on in this fortress anymore. It's a good kind of shooting for sure.


They do have a little heavier artillery, although it's all cemented together.


On the inside of the fortress there were all sorts of buildings and barracks.


This one held cots and some pretty sharp looking military uniforms.




There was religious shrine in there too.


I hope you've enjoyed this fairly odd tour. ¡Adios! (They speak Spanish there, you see)