After the Storm, 8/13/11
We had a bitchin’ thunderstorm tonight. 125,000 people are without electricity. Here’s what it looked like on Bardstown Road in Louisville: (Click on pictures for larger view)
Play Ball! Louisville vs. West Virginia, 4/2/11
Louisville won this one 8-2 against an excellent West Virginia team at Jim Patterson Field in Louisville. The weather was perfect, if a bit windy. The crowd that gathered to watch the game was relaxed and friendly. One of the things I love about baseball is the mood that usually prevails at the ball parks. The attitude of frenzied combat that often characterizes basketball and football games is missing (unless it’s a Yankees-Red Sox game). Maybe baseball is a bit more cerebral. Perhaps the pace of the game allows people to catch their breath and remember that it is a sport, and it’s supposed to be fun.
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Close Encounters
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A kid has a mind meld with an orangutan at the Louisville Zoo. And yes, there is some real sadness in this photo. The great ape just sat at the glass looking into the viewing area in the zoo. Marian said, “He’s at the zoo. He’s watching us.” His eyes were full of intelligence. The scene raised questions in my mind about why one species is behind the glass and another is not. I particularly like the way the boy’s reflection works in the photograph. To me it suggests that we need to do a better job of seeing ourselves in other species, especially the more intelligent ones like the orangutan.
Photo was done with the Nikon D7000 using the Nikkor 70-300mm VR lens.
Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, Kentucky
The Muhammad Ali Center is a monument to and celebration of Louisville’s most famous citizen. There isn’t much that can be said about the great Ali that hasn’t already been said. The center is not as well known as its illustrious namesake, but it’s a treasure in its own right. Architecturally, it is one of the most interesting buildings I have visited in a very long time. The design and decor immediately draws you in to the dynamic story of the Great One’s life and meaning. It is full of multimedia presentations of Ali’s life and times. Everywhere you turn, there are delights for the eyes and senses. Yet, the Ali Center is not just a museum. It has several banquet and meeting halls, with all of the supporting facilities, making it a terrific venue for conferences and meetings. It is a very cool place. I am sure that the Great One digs it. I was there to photograph a business meeting, and it was hard to concentrate on the task at hand because, once I got there, all I wanted to do was to photograph the extraordinary building. I’ll go back again when I can spend the whole afternoon prowling around the center and watching the videos.
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The official Ali Center Site: http://www.alicenter.org/Pages/default.aspx
Click Here for the Google Map of the Ali Center
Old Louisville Holiday House Tour
Every year about this time, The Old Louisville Neighborhood Council does the “Holiday House Tour.” On the tour are seven Victorian mansions built between 1875 and 1895. Some are private residences and some are “Bed and Breakfast” joints. I don’t know of another area in the whole country which has Victorian-era homes in this state of preservation. It’s one of my favorite parts of town. Here’s some photos (Click on photos for larger view):
Louisville Waterfront
Water and photography are a natural pairing. The openness and reflective properties of water make for interesting textures and the activities of people on and around water provide us with great subject matter. I have been exploring the waterfront in Louisville – the park, the docks and trails. I never seem to fail to fill up my memory cards and expose all the film I carry when I go down to the river. (Click on images for larger view).
This lady was definitely getting her inner Zen going. She was just reading at the end of the dock. I think her serene vibes helped to make the picture. I wanted to know what book she was reading, but I decided not to disturb her. It was probably The Diamond Sutra or something like that.
I was carrying my Yashica 635 TLR (a 120 film camera) when we walked past this guy. He yelled, “I got something!” and I turned and shot the picture without focusing or even aiming the camera because I thought a big fish was about to explode out of the water. It turned out to be an unfortunate box turtle. The fisherman cut the hook with some wire cutters so it could slip out of the turtle’s mouth and let him go. He said, “I’m strictly ‘catch and release.’ I don’t like killing things.” (The vignette is a Photoshop effect, not the lens.)
The Belle of Louisville is the oldest operating steam ship in the United States. She’s coming in to dock after a cruise up the river. I love this boat.
Another guy fishing with bridges in the background. This is looking upstream on the Ohio River toward Cincinnati. We talked to this guy and he wasn’t catching anything. He said he’d never fished the river before and didn’t know what he was doing wrong. My hunch is that it was so hot that the fish were deep in the channel, out past where you could cast a line.
Gotta’ luv the ducks. I think ducks are natural comedians.
Here’s the crew tying up the Belle at the Third Street dock. That foggy stuff is real live steam from the engine. I particularly enjoyed catching the rope in mid air (and yes, this was done with a digital DSLR).
This is the southern end of the Kennedy Bridge where Interstate 65 crosses the Ohio. The massive expressway makes a perfect canopy for a cookout when the sun is beating down.
See also “Cooling Off in Waterfront Park”