While visiting Charlotte in DC last week, I was able to spend some time walking around the city. I have always been amazed at the beautiful architecture we have in our nation’s Capital. This is the style of architecture you normally see in Europe, but many of the buildings rival those in much older parts of the world. These are a few of my favorites.
Looking up while exiting the Metro station at Judiciary Square
Can you guess which building this is from? It may surprise you!
My recent trip to Phoenix included a visit to Luke Air Force Base. Visit any military base and what initially captures your attention is the spirit and enthusiasm of its inhabitants. Next are the slogans. Luke’s water tower greets you with “Welcome to Fighter Town”.
A prominent building encourages: “Aim High Fly Fight & Win”.
The focus on physical fitness suggests athletes preparing for competitions. Football, soccer, basketball?
None of the above. Luke Air Force Base is all about jet planes and the pilots who fly them. Jets are constantly taking off and landing as the pilots constantly hone their skills. They are supported by ground and air crews without whose capabilities the pilots could not fly. The F-16 is being phased out at Luke but it has been designated as a pilot-training site for the new F-35.
Luke is as clean, crisp and appealing as Mayberry. Families here live their lives both intimately entwined with the lives of their military fathers and mothers and filled with the daily activities of families outside military bases.
The legacy of the base is ever-present through the displays of generations of jet aircraft that have been housed at, and flown out of the base.
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The jets themselves are covered with the symbols of their power and purpose:
Hate war, love peace? So do they.
Kansas City is known for jazz. While not the birthplace of the music, it would be fair to say that jazz “grew up” here, and has become a part of Kansas City’s cultural identity. It is not surprising, then, that it is performed in bars, nightclubs and the local parks.
Kansas City Parks and Recreation’s free jazz concert at the Rose Garden late last summer was just my cup of tea. Mike White, former Jackson County Executive and a prominent Kansas City attorney, is also a jazz musician. When Mike wants to play, there is always a crowd anxious to hear him! People brought chairs, blankets and picnics to the concert and made a night of it. Listening to the sounds of jazz while hanging out with neighbors and friends on a perfect summer night is just hard to beat.
Did you miss the concert in 2012? Maybe you should get it on your calendar for 2013. It is a great way to spend an evening.
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iPhone camera. The reflections were unintended, but I think they enhance the mood of the photograph.
After months with iPhoto on my computer, I visited Apple last weekend for a 30 minute appointment to find out how it actually works. Okay, I should have figured it out myself. But with just that brief tutorial behind me, I thought it would be fun to show you what a rank amateur can do to change a photograph to make it better than the original.
Here is my original photograph taken on a drive to Harrisonville:
It isn’t rocket science that I should never take a photograph through my car window. But the roads were really muddy and there was a car coming up behind me. So I just stopped the car, quickly took this shot, and moved my car before the driver behind me reached the bridge.
With “quick fixes”, I was able to crop the photograph to eliminate the hood of my car from the photograph:
After reframing the snapshot, I moved to “adjust” to enhance the color and sharpen the photograph. Here is the result of tweaking with the “adjust” options:
Nothing magical about the changes, but every step toward better photographs is a step in the right direction.
The rock group by the name of the Rascals recorded “People Got To Be Free”, their most enduring hit, in the tumultuous summer of 1968. [1] Martin Luther King died that spring, at age 39. Barak Obama was just turning 7.
The words of this song ring true today as they did in the 1960’s. They were, no doubt, influenced by the life and death of King. They easily influenced our future President, Barack Obama, as they influenced so many of his generation. These are the words.
[2]
As stated so eloquently in the song, “Peace in the valley people got to be free.” Happy second term, Mr. President.
[1] Written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigate, members of the Rascals.
[2] The statue was inspired by the slave revolts in Cuba in the early 1800s.
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The opinions in this blog do not represent the opinions of our families, our friends or our employers.
Casey visits a farm outside Harrisonville when Terry and I travel. He has the run of two acres and the company of strays the owners have accumulated through the years as well as city dogs whose owners pay for the privileges of country living for their pets. Along the way I became “displaced”. I wasn’t lost, but country roads aren’t like city roads! They wind and weave and seem to disappear into mud and gravel.
It was a great misadventure, inconvenient only by the fact it extended my trip. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to memorialize my country adventure with a few photographs. An upcoming post will show you the fun I had processing one of the pictures I took.
Through the woods:
A grain silo:
A stereotypical red barn:
Hay for the cattle:
Have a great week.
It’s going to be a beautiful day.
These are the trees in my backyard. The sun always peeks out behind them in the morning. What a beautiful sight.
A friend told me he likes our posts that feature Kansas City. I love my city, and love taking pictures of wonderful places throughout the metro area. Here are three photographs of the downtown Kansas City skyline.
From the Liberty Memorial:
From the Jackson County Courthouse Parking Lot:
From Truman Road:
Have a great weekend.
What do you believe in? What do you care about? What upsets you? What do you believe matters to you enough to determine to make a difference?
Join a club. Run for office. Commit your time, money and/or creativity to making the world a better place. How? That is for you to decide. Figure out what you are passionate about and strive to make a difference.
What do you want your footprint in life to be?
Shifting the Balance 