Evan's Expo

Happy Aussie Day!

2012-01-26T21:46:00.000-06:00

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy!!! Today is "Australia's official national day and is celebrated on the 26th of January. It commemorates the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove on that day in 1788." You can read more about Aussie Day here.

As usual, I'm a little late to the party. A year and a day late. You see, I took the photo below on Aussie Day last year in Whistler, BC, CA. And, since Aussie Day is over by now in Australia, I'm a year and a day late. Oh well, better late than never. Anyway, on Aussie Day last year at Whistler, these guys were lined up outside of some club ready to have a nice quiet evening as you can imagine. Lots of Australian college students come to Whistler for work about half of the year, so half of the people working there have that great Aussie accent. It's pretty cool! They are a very subdued lot. Well, maybe subdued is not the word, but they do love to have fun!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photo and thanks for stopping by.

Mouse over the shot to see what it looked like straight from the camera. Click here for a larger version.

Been a long time...

2012-01-25T16:25:00.000-06:00

I know it's been quite a while since I have posted anything. I've had lots of things going on lately, most of which has to do with studying for a certification for work that I have gotten. I still have to study for one more test so I won't be able to dedicate as much time to this blog as I'd like.

That being said, I thought I would pass along a shot I took on a recent ski trip that Eileen and I took to Durango, CO. It was a nice trip but too short as most trips always are. This one especially because we really only had two full days there. But it was worth it. There was no snow when we arrived, but the next morning the snow gods dumped about 4-5 inches in town and about a foot in the mountains so skiing was excellent! No complaints! Plus, since the snow wasn't great prior to when we got there, hardly anyone was on the mountain. Very small lift lines make for maximum fun!

So, the picture below is a view of the mountains across from Purgatory/Durango Mountain Resort ski area. I took this one with my Sony DSC-HX9V since I wasn't up to lugging the Nikon monster with me this time around. I took liberties with it as well because I think mountain shots sometimes look better in black and white. I hope you agree. You can mouse over it to see the original. Click here for a larger version...

Enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping by.

Nine Ladies Dancing

2011-12-22T21:59:00.000-06:00

Well, for lack of anything else, I thought another ornament shot was due. You can mouse over this one as well to see the difference straight from the camera and the final product if you take the cursor off the pic. I just wish there was a way to bring out the letter "ve" on the word "love". Otherwise I'm OK with this shot. Tell me what you think and thanks for dropping by! Click here for a larger version of this shot.

Also, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Christmas Mouse

2011-12-21T21:26:00.000-06:00

I was hoping to get more shots of Christmas this year, but for a few reasons, it hasn't quite worked out. I did however try to get a few shots of some of the ornaments and packages around our tree. This one here is about the only one that turned out fairly OK. I tried using my 50mm 1.4 to get a really shallow depth of field, but I guess I went a little too shallow. I wanted the lights to be blurry and I certainly achieved that, but some of the mouse turned out a little blurry as well. At least his eyes are sharp! That's what they say you should try to do when shooting animals or something resembling an animal, yes? Lastly, this is a non-HDR.. Trying to expand a little you know. Anyway, mouse-over it to see how it looked straight from the camera and let me know which one you like better. Click here to see a bigger shot of the finished product.

Thanks for dropping by and if I don't post anything beforehand, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Winner of the Apple AirPort Express!

2011-12-06T09:30:00.000-06:00

Congratulations goes out to Tod Grubs of Spicewood, Texas! Thanks for your comments and you should be receiving the AirPort Express in the mail very soon! And thanks to the others who participated!

Zilker Swan

Here's a shot I took while out waiting for the light to get right while shooting Austin from Lou Neff Point at Zilker Park with Van Sutherland. We were shooting right by the water and there were lots of ducks and other waterfowl around. Right in front of us came this big ole swan. He kind of shooed some of the other ducks out of there for a bit. Kind of cool to see.

Also as an extra, I'm trying something that David Nightingale does on his blog... David's blog shows the beautiful photos that he creates and at the bottom right of each, he has a link that states, "Show the original." From there you can see the pre-processed shot straight from the camera. On this page, if you mouse-over the picture, you will see the original shot as it was straight from my camera. The shot that you see when not mousing over the shot is my final version after some tweaks in Photoshop CS5 with the Nik Software Package. I would love to hear your thoughts on which shot you like better!

You can also click here to see a larger version.

I hope you enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping by.

Announcing Apple AirPort Express Winner Tomorrow!

2011-12-04T14:07:00.001-06:00

Tomorrow I will announce the winner of the Apple AirPort Express. It's a $100 value! If you are interested, comment on my previous post and you will be eligible. You'll have to sign up with a profile so I can contact you if you are the winner. Good luck

Win An Apple Airport Express!

2011-12-01T11:27:00.001-06:00

AirPort Express Contest

Comment on my shot below and I will randomly pick one of you to receive a free Apple AirPort Express. Contest only pertains to those inside the continental United States. Thanks for visiting and good luck! I will announce the winner next week!

Iconic Austin Buildings

Here is another shot I took while out with Van Sutherland a couple of weeks ago. As with my previous post, this shot was taken from Lou Neff Point at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. It shows three of the most iconic buildings in Austin. They are from left to right, the Frost Bank Building, the W Hotel and the Austonian. They are quite new. The Austonian and and the W have only been around for a year or two whereas the Frost Bank building is creeping up around 6 - 8 years. Maybe longer, I'm not too sure.

The Frost Bank Building is mainly an office building, but it has a cool art deco look to it. Some people, including myself, think it looks like a giant nose hair trimmer. Other say it looks like an owl if you look at it directly from one corner. The Frost Bank circular symbol is on every side and resemble eyes. The portion on the top looks like an owl's comb and each corner has what can be seen as a beak just how it would look on an owl. If you use your imagination on this shot, you might see it. If not, go here. So there you have it.

The W Hotel - or as we say in Texas, the "Dubya" - or as they say in the part of town where the W is located (while sounding like Thurston Howell III) "the Double-U, lovey" - is a high-end luxury hotel with apartments/condominiums. It's also home to Austin City Limits. During this past summer, the glass between the railings and the floor of some of the balconies began to mysteriously shatter and fall to the ground below. It happened on three different occasions. After the third time, management decided to evacuate the building and replace all of the glass panels on each balcony. Apparently the glass was not tempered and the heating caused by the midday summer sun caused them to shatter. Luckily no one was seriously hurt or killed, but it did cause quite a commotion.

Lastly, the Austonian is full of upscale condominiums. From what I understand it is the tallest residential property building west of the Mississippi, or something like that. Someday I would like to walk through one of the condos there to see how the other half lives.

That's about it for now. I hope you enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping by!

Austin Skyline and Contest

2011-11-25T20:37:00.001-06:00

Contest

In a few days I will be announcing details to give away an Apple Airport Express! Anyone out there in need of one?

Austin Skyline

Last Tuesday, my good friend and co-worker Van Sutherland and I ventured out to one the of the better places in Austin to get a good shot of the skyline. This was from a part of Zilker Park called "Lou Neff Point". As you can see, one can get an awesome view. As we were shooting, lots of other people with point and shoot cameras and smartphones were shooting from the same vantage. I hope their shots didn't come out as good as ours because that would mean I don't really need this big-ass camera. Actually, that might be a good thing! They can get pretty heavy after a while! ;-) Anyway, Van and I shot here before a couple of years ago and we thought it was a good time to do it again. Last time the skyline was still changing a bit. Now, it's pretty much done for a little while. There are more hotels slated to be built so it will change again soon. When that happens, it will be time for new shots!

That's about it. Check out Van's site to see his shot as well! I think it's better than this one!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T19:55:00.001-06:00

Well, my most recent posts have been from our latest trip to the east coast and the shots here are no exception. The bonus is that they really coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday which is here! It's a theme I've tried to stick with until the holiday passes. When Christmas comes, I'm not sure what I'll do because I don't have anything for then. But, I digress... Anyway, these three shots are from Plymouth, MA and they have to do with the Pilgrims. The first shot below is of a recreation of the Mayflower called the "Mayflower II" and is an accurate representation of the original ship. Hard to believe that a roughly 150 passengers or so sailed on this vessel for about 2 months to get here. Can you imagine the smell? And, the second shot is of the actual Plymouth Rock! It's now about the size of an average desk that you would use today, maybe a little smaller. However, our tour guide Leo (seen in the last shot overlooking "the Rock") told us that it's probably about half the size of what it was back in the day. Leo was great by the way. He's dressed in the almost typical Pilgrim attire there. He said that the Pilgrims didn't wear the hats with the buckles on them and all that other stuff. What he wore for this shot was typical back in the day, except for the shoes, I think. ;-) I don't think they had bottled water either.

I guess that's about it. I hope everyone that visits this blog, all one of you - hehe - have a great Thanksgiving holiday! Be thankful for what you have and for the many blessings received. That's what it's really all about.

Thanks for dropping by.

Mayflower Gun

2011-11-20T15:19:00.001-06:00

Plymouth MA has a museum where an almost exact replica of the Mayflower sits. It's called the Mayflower II and it "was built in Devon, England and crossed the Atlantic in 1957." It's supposed to be a very accurate remake of the ship that brought the first settlers from Europe to America. In the back of the ship rests this gun ready to fire on any pirates or other ne'erdowells while sailing the seas.

I tried to make it look a little old with a sort of bleach bypass look. I hope it worked.

Enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping by!

Wampanoag Kitchen

2011-11-20T14:32:00.001-06:00

At least that's what I'm calling it... a Wampanoag Kitchen. The Wampanoag are the Indians that the first settlers met when they arrived at Plymouth, MA. The Plimouth Plantation has a Wampanoag camp set up so you can see how they lived back at that time. This is a shot of what I call their "kitchen". I'm not sure that's what they called it, but this is the spot where the Wampanoag made and cooked food. They skinned animals here, cooked over a fire and made other things. For instance, in the foreground on the left you can see a wooden stick popping out of what looks like a tree trunk. This is where they made cornmeal. And, in the pot over the fire, they were cooking bean soup. It actually looked pretty good when we were there. I think everyone ate well back in the day and with Thanksgiving coming up, I'm sure all now will eat well! At least that's what we hope!

William Brewster

2011-11-17T21:01:00.001-06:00

Now that Thanksgiving is only a week away, I thought I would post couple of shots in the next few days that pertained to the very first Thanksgiving feast.

This shot is from the Plimouth Plantation in Plymouth, MA. Yes, I did spell the first Plimouth correctly. Not sure why the spelling is different, but that's the way it is. Anyway, Plimouth Plantation - where I also took this shot - has a replica of the first settlement of the Pilgrims after they arrived at Plymouth Rock along with a replica of a Wampanoag Indian settlement - the Indians that the Pilgrims had the first Thanksgiving meal with. It's a fascinating place if you ever get there. The Pilgrim portion has people dressed in period costume and act and speak as they did back in the 1620s. Some even play a few of the key figures from those that arrived on the Mayflower.

This particular person was playing the part of William Brewster who was a main figure of the Separatist Church back in Europe. The Separatists were persecuted and so they left on the Mayflower to setup their own colony, basically, and escape the persecution. He was one of the leaders of the group when they arrived at Plymouth.

Here is William basically sitting at his dining/kitchen table in his residence. This gentleman played the part quite well with a good English accent, saying things like the year 1621 as "sixteen hundred one and twenty" instead of saying "sixteen hundred twenty one" or "sixteen twenty one". Pretty fun! The houses everyone stayed in here were basically one room shacks for the most part. Some had two rooms, but those were for two families. They had fireplaces, sometimes just on the floor as seen here. There was also a bed in the room to sleep on. That was it. Nothing else to it. I can only imagine what it must've been like in the winters there, but at least this place gave you some idea. Very interesting.

I hope you enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping by.

Bok Tower

2011-11-15T21:18:00.001-06:00

Here are a couple of shots I took on a trip to Florida back in April. I think the story about the subject of the pictures is more interesting than the shots so I wanted to pass it along. Bok Tower is a tower created by a man named Edward Bok who immigrated to the US with basically nothing and went on to become a well-known publisher starting the Ladies Home Journal. He had many other successful endeavors, but I think that's his most famous. He decided to build this tower as a thank you to the country that gave him such opportunity. The tower is located on the highest point in Florida - which is not saying much since Fl is pretty flat - outside of the Orlando area at a place called Lake Wales. It's a very picturesque place for those with better skills than me, hehe. Hey, I was there in the middle of the day, what can I say? Anyway, the following about Edward Bok is from boktowergardens.org:

"Edward William Bok (1863-1930), American editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was born in Den Helder, Netherlands, on October 9, 1863. He came to the United States at the age of six. Educated in the Brooklyn Public Schools, he became an office boy with the Western Union Telegraph Company in 1876.

Continuing his education at a night school, he began working for Henry Holt and Company, publishers, in 1882. Two years later he became associated with Charles Scribner’s Sons, publishers, eventually becoming advertising manager. He was the editor of The Brooklyn Magazine from 1884 to 1887. In 1886, he founded The Bok Syndicate Press, which led to the offer of the editorship of The Ladies’ Home Journal in 1889.

Under his management, The Ladies’ Home Journal became one of the most successful and influential publications in America and the first magazine in the world to have one million subscribers. Bok was a champion of social causes, a pioneer in the field of public sex education, prenatal education and childcare, and an environmental activist in public health and the saving of Niagara Falls.

Bok also had a great influence on American architecture. He was a leader of the Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the century and was the first to call Victorian parlors “living rooms.” Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. was one of the new architects Bok promoted by making his house plans available to the public in the Journal.

After 30 years as editor he retired in 1919. A year later he published The Americanization of Edward Bok, which won the Gold Medal of the Academy of Political and Social Science and the Joseph Pulitzer Prize for best autobiography."

You can also read more about the tower here: http://boktowergardens.org/the-tower

Thanks for dropping by!

Veterans Day

2011-11-10T19:56:00.001-06:00

I thought this shot might be appropriate for Veterans Day this year. This is the eternal flame that stands in front of the Tomb Of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier in Washington Square Park in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. The park is located just behind Independence Hall. The tomb has a statue of George Washington and this flame. Basically there are hundreds of unknown dead from the Revolutionary War buried there. Very interesting place and a place I didn't even know existed until we visited Independence Hall. If you ever get there, try to make a stop and check it out.

And, with Veterans Day, take a moment to reflect on the sacrifices our veterans make for our freedom, especially nowadays because the wars we are engaged in are the longest lasting ones the US has ever been in. That has to take a toll on our vets and their families If you see a veteran, say thanks for a job well done. Plus, it doesn't have to be on Veterans Day, you can thank them anytime and I think they will appreciate it!

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoy the photo!

Another Nantucket Galleries Shot

2011-11-02T14:57:00.001-05:00

This shot is sort of a companion to my other galleries post taken during our recent east coast trip. I think I like this one a little bit better. I like how this one turned out where you can actually see a little bit inside of the closest shop. Too bad there isn't something more interesting going on in there. ;-) If you click on the picture, you should get a bigger version. Thanks for dropping by!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T17:43:00.000-05:00

I think I may have posted this one before... In honor of the upcoming Halloween festivities, I thought it might be appropriate to show off one of my previous carving attempts from a few years ago. This is one of Gene Simmons from the band KISS that I took from his solo album cover. I got the idea for this from those pumpkin carving kits you can buy in any grocery store. The technique really works! I just made my own template and this is the result!!!

Tiffany Mosaic

2011-10-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

Not too far from Independence Hall in Philadelphia lies the Curtis Publishing Building, just off of Washington Square. It houses a huge atrium that I have shot in a previous post. One portion of the building holds what is known as the Dream Garden produced by Tiffany Studios. It's quite a site to see. Here's more about it from USHistory.org:

"Dream Garden is an enormous glass mosaic designed by artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966), and executed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, for the lobby of the Curtis Publishing Building in Philadelphia — home of the successful magazines The Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post. The work was commissioned by Edward Bok, Senior Editor of the Curtis Publishing Company. Over a one-month period, prior to being installed in the Curtis Building, the work was exhibited at Tiffany Studios in New York City, attracting more than 7,000 admirers and garnering widespread critical acclaim. The Dream Garden took six months to install into its home in Philadelphia.

Multi-talented Maxfield Parrish was known as a "master of make-believe," charming readers with illustrations for children's books and magazine covers. Parrish's method of alternating transparent oil paints with varnish added the illusion of light to his landscapes.

Measuring 15 by 49 feet, Dream Garden was produced by the Tiffany Studios in 1916, using over 100,000 pieces of favrile glass, each hand-fired to achieve perfection in each of the 260 colors. The partnership of Tiffany and Parrish had been called "one of the major artistic collaborations in early 20th Century America."
In truth, the relationship between Maxfield Parrish and Louis Comfort Tiffany was tumultuous, based on a rueful assessment of each other's artistic merit. While Parrish complained that Tiffany's translation of his design lacked subtlety and "painterliness," Tiffany countered that the design sketches were technically vague.
In June of 1998, Dream Garden was sold to casino owner Steve Wynn, who planned to move it to Las Vegas. Philadelphia historians, artists, activitists (notably the Arts Defense League), and press protested the proposed move — and the Pew Charitable Trusts agreed to provide $3.5 million to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in order to purchase the important work. The work is now owned by the Pennsylvania Academy, and is permanently installed in its rightful home in the Curtis Center lobby."

Another "Big Dig" Bridge Shot

2011-10-27T20:37:00.000-05:00

This is another shot I took of the bridge made famous by Boston's "Big Dig" project. I'm too lazy to find out what the actual name of it is, so if anyone knows, please let me know in the comments. Anyway, the "Big Dig" is pretty infamous for it's massive size as well as the massive amount of money it went over-budget. It is a project Boston took on to make a series of underground tunnels and above ground bridges to help ease traffic congestion in downtown Boston. Apparently, according to one of our tour guides, the contractor used for the concrete on the project knowingly used bad concrete during the initial build. Then, it was "discovered" that the contractor got bad concrete and tried to bring in proper concrete, thus making more money for the concrete company. Well, the authorities got wind of this and apparently the head of that company as well as others associated with this plot are now in jail and the taxpayers are out millions. I guess the mob is still alive and well.

Hope you like the picture and thanks for dropping by.

Catamaran

2011-10-26T14:17:00.003-05:00

I took this shot on the way back to Hyannis on the ferry from Nantucket Island. I like looking at sailboats and catamarans. Maybe it's because my Uncle Bill used to sail them competitively and my Dad also liked them. Plus, there a lot of them at Nantucket. Unfortunately when we were there, the season was pretty much over.

I hope you enjoy this shot and thanks for dropping by. (click on the picture for a larger view)

Birth of a Government

2011-10-25T18:28:00.001-05:00

While in Philadelphia, we visited Independence Hall. It served as the US capitol for a few years when the US first formed and it's where our constitution was born. One side of Independence Hall was the supreme courtroom. On the other side sat the room where our founding fathers got together and hashed out the US Constitution. The room you see here is the actual room, but almost everything in it is a replica of the furniture that was there. There are a couple of things that are authentic and used during the time. Two of those things were walking sticks that were used by a couple of the representatives and I wish I could remember who they were, but I'm not sure. I think one of them was from Thomas Jefferson. However, the thing that I DO remember is that the chair in the center of the room in the very back was the actual one used by George Washington during the Continental Congress and the drafting of the Constitution. Pretty cool, eh?

Wampanoag Long House

2011-10-19T21:32:00.000-05:00

I wanted to save this shot for Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't wait. In Plymouth, MA, there's a recreation of the Pilgrims initial settlement as well as a depiction of how the Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe that the Pilgrims befriended back in the early 1620s. This is all shown at the Plimouth Plantation. Why the spelling is different from the town's name of "Plymouth" is beyond me, but that's a discussion for another day. In both the Wampanoag and Pilgrim areas of the plantation, there are people actually depicting how they dressed and acted back then. Of course it was little more pronounced on the Pilgrim side because the language was the King's English. It would be a little hard for the Wampanoag to explain things in their native tongue to us. So they spoke normally, but dressed in authentic attire. Unfortunately, the man here in the wheelchair was unable to get too dressed up, but that did not diminish his explanations or his authenticity in my eyes.

This picture shows the inside of what the Wampanoags call a "long house". It was made exactly how the Wampanoags of the 1600s made them. It's made of cedar posts to hold the structure up and elm bark for the walls and siding. It's sealed using a combination of pine tar and ash. That would help keep the rain out. These structures are so strong that they can withstand a small hurricane. As a matter of fact, this very structure survived the recent Hurricane Irene with no damage.

The gentleman in the wheelchair in this shot told us all about that. He also said that these long houses are basically the winter homes of the Wampanoag. One set of families will build several of them, up to nine, that are approximately a football field long lining up next to each other. Then families would occupy their own little portions of these. It was very fun to listen to him speak.

The plantation is a fascinating place and if you ever get to visit, please do. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I hope you enjoy the shot and thanks for dropping in!

Moon Over Philadelphia

2011-10-19T09:24:00.000-05:00

Whenever we travel somewhere, I like to get a shot of the view from where we are staying if there something interesting to see. When we went to Philadelphia, we stayed at the Embassy Suites on Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It's a very nice hotel and the room was a good size. Plus its location was good as we were only a few blocks from City Hall. Unfortunately, the lobby was under renovation, so that wasn't so good. Anyway, I thought the view was nice and luckily the night we stayed there, we had a full moon. I guess I should've tried to get a tighter shot with the moon, but I don't have a good enough lens for that. I took a few other shots from our balcony, but I think this was the best of the bunch. Is that saying much? I don't know, but It sems to be OK.

Also, the funny thing was when we got there, I had a deja vu moment. I had stayed in this same exact hotel back in the late '80s when I was in the military while on business to the city. I had no idea when we booked it. So that made it even that much cooler! Brought back some memories.

Anyway, I hope you like the shot and thanks for dropping by. (Click on the picture to see a larger version)

Nantucket Galleries

2011-10-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

Along the docks in one of the harbors in Nantucket, MA are all of these cool little art galleries. I just love how they all flew these maritime flags as well as the US flags. I also love that Cape Cod style architecture they have there. According to one of the tour guides we had, you can't build a place on Nantucket that does not have this look with the cedar siding and the white trim. Lots of hoops to jump through if you want to build and apparently it ain't cheap. But it's a very pretty place, as you can see...

Curtis Publishing Building Atrium

2011-10-14T21:12:00.000-05:00

While we were in Philadelphia, we were told about this building that held a mosaic by the Tiffany people. I'm guessing that's the same Tiffany people as the jewelers, but I wouldn't swear to it. Anyway, the mosaic is located in a building not too far from Washington Square Park and Independence Hall in a building named after the Curtis Publishing Company. This is the atrium inside that building. I thought it lent itself to a good HDR shot. It's beautiful building and I am jealous of the people who get to work there everyday. If every office building could be this nice, the world would be a better place. The mosaic is a pretty nice thing to see as well and I will post a shot of that sometime soon.

Reading Terminal Market Blooms

2011-10-13T21:22:00.001-05:00

One of the places we went to during our recent trip out east was to Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market. Basically it's a giant indoor warehouse-looking place that is filled with all sorts of little walk-up food stands where you can buy seafood, pastries and food-stuffs from other countries. I'm not sure my description does it justice, but if you can imagine it, it's probably sold there. They even sell flowers as you can see in the shot here. I thought this made a nice shot and would be something a little bit different than what I normally post here. I don't have too many flower pictures, I don't think. OK, maybe it looks like everything else I post here, but it's still slightly different, isn't it?