So this past weekend, my girlfriend and I spent Saturday at Thunder over Louisville, which was held on the Ohio river.  We had planned this trip a couple of months ago, but couldn't get a hotel room anywhere near Louisville due to them all being booked up for this festival.

I did some searching around on Flickr and on the web for information and pictures of Thunder and while I found a lot of air show and fireworks pictures, I couldn't a whole of useful information about the event.  I searched many times through the official Thunder website, but I couldn't find a map of the event.  I think it would have been helpful if a map of the festival area was available for download.  We were able to find the lawn viewing and food areas by following the crowds, but it would have been very helpful if we could have downloaded something before driving down to Louisville.

And now a few words about properly packing for the weather.  We checked the weather when we left and didn't see a problem with temps in the mid 50's in Louisville.  So, I brought a windbreaker and wore a short sleeved shirt. When we arrived in Louisville, it felt a lot chiller than the mid 50's.  We had totally overlooked the   wind coming off of the river.  Yes, it was probably about 10 degrees colder where we picked our spots close to the river.  Let me put it this way, the wind was brutal and kept us cold throughout the day.

The overcast skies also prevented the air show from being a normal air show.  The planes were unable to do any stunts and could only do slow speed passes.  The other downside to the overcast and cloudy skies also meant that the modern planes blended in very well with the dark clouds.  It made photographing them very difficult as they all appeared as silhouettes in the sky.  I think I have some decent pictures of the jets and WW2 warbirds, but I'm just not certain. All in alll, it was great seeing an F-15, F-16, F22, C-130, C-5,
 C-17, A-10, B-2, a few Corsairs, P-38 and so much more.  The coolest part of the air show was seeing the F-22 and P-51 perform several formation flybys.

The fun part of the evening started for me after the sun went down.  I was anxiously awaiting the start of the fireworks show.  Before the start of the fireworks, I moved closer to the water to get better pictures of the fireworks.  Did I mention I was cold sitting on the lawn?  I was much colder down by the river and was seriously questioning my sanity in moving down the river's edge.  After looking at my pictures, yeah the cold was worth it !

Looking through all of the pictures online led us to believe there would only be fireworks shot off from the bridge and from the barges in the middle of the road. What we didn't see were the barges near the Indiana side of the river.  Both barge locations and the bridge set their fireworks off at the same time.  When I started shooting and seeing the results, I just couldn't believe what I was seeing in the screen.  This was by far the best fireworks display I have ever seen.

Despite the crummy weather, I think we had a good time and are already looking forward to a possible return visit next year.  The wonderful fair food (loved the tacos!) played a part in making a cold day much better.  How about some pictures?

I took about 150 shots of the fireworks and of the planes that were lit up and flying in formations (and one plane was dropping fireworks) prior to the start of the fireworks show.  I was able to make some good light trail photographs thanks to the well lit up planes.  I'll have to process and post those pics soon.  All of the fireworks pictures were shot in manual mode and I used the Bulb mode on the Canon 30d for the shutter speed, the aperture was set to f11 and the ISO was set to 100.

Here are a few pics:

Blue Memorial

Blue Memorial
Originally uploaded by indykaleu


This is a shot of the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial along the canal in Indianapolis. I have made several shots of this memorial in the past and haven't done much to those pictures in terms of processing.

This time I wanted to do something different and while editing the RAW image, I decided to tweek the white balance and see what I could get with the image.

The above image is the result of changing the white balance to Tungsten and further 'cooling' the picture by also changing the temperature of the image.

I'm very pleased with the photo and the experimentation in processing the image.

After a long layoff I dragged my rear end out last night with a coworker and my camera for some night photography.  My coworker was new to night photography and had only recently bought a dSLR.  He wasn't happy with his previous attempts at night and long exposure photography and wanted to learn more about both.    
Last night was also his first time shooting in manual mode.

We started out on the canal in downtown Indianapolis for some basic shots of the city skyline and of the canal itself.  My friend was hesitant at first to shoot in manual mode but after a few shots and then seeing the difference in his pictures, he was hooked.  We later moved down to the canal and made several shots of the Congressional Medal of Honor memorial and from there we walked over to Monument Circle.

At the Circle, I showed him the basics of how to shoot car trails. Unfortunately the traffic wasn't moving quick enough for good light trails, but he was very happy with his results.  At this point we were both getting tired and my feet were starting to protest (we had done a lot of walking) so we started to head back his car.

We stopped along Virginia avenue to shoot some additional light trails.  This is a good location to due several intersections meeting in this spot.  I made a few long exposure photographs including a 64 second exposure that really made me happy.  After looking at it, I do wish I had went up a floor or two in the parking garage that was above us and shot from that angle.  I've made several shots of the city skyline from the top floor of that garage but haven't done any light trail shooting yet.  It is a good location so I know I will be making a return visit sometime soon.

Anyway, on to the photos,

The first picture is of the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial along the canal in downtown Indianapolis.  I've made several pictures of this memorial in the past, but for this photograph, I made some changes in post processing.  The memorial is green in color but I wanted something a little different.  In processing the image, I changed the RAW white balance to Tungsten to achieve the blue color.  I'm very happy with the composition of the picture and the difference in the color and white balance.  Being able to tweak the white balance is a major reason why I only shoot in RAW.  It just gives better results.

This second picture was made at the tip of Virginia avenue and was also made in downtown Indianapolis.  I was at the location hoping for some bus traffic to pass by, but they weren't running so late on the weekends. I'll have to visit this location again during the week for some bus trails.  This shot was done with a 64 second exposure and at ISO 100.

In the end, it was a good time getting out last night with my coworker to do some night time shooting in Indianapolis.  He had a good time and learned a lot about manual mode and about shooting long exposures. He is definitely eager to learn more and wants to go out again and soon.  The next step for him is to get a better pc and to acquire Photoshop Elements or Lightroom 4.  I have both programs and would be lost without them in processing my pictures.

Happy Easter everyone!

I wonder what the teacher is gonna look like this year?

So this week, my girlfriend and I, along with other friends went to the Van Halen concert in Indianapolis on Tuesday.  Given that this was their first tour with David Lee Roth in a long time, and given that neither of us had seen VH with Roth ever, we were both excited about seeing them at the fieldhouse.

Our first surprise after buying the tickets was hearing that the opening act would be Kool and the Gang.  Really? At first we didn't believe the rumors, but they were later confirmed as the opening act.  Now, I do like a couple of their songs and have seen them in smaller venues and on live television, but it seems like an odd pairing with a hard rock act.  In retrospect, they did put on a better show.

So, our night began with dinner at Hot Box pizza and was followed by drinks next door at The Pub.  After getting our bellies full with pizza and beer (love the Sun King Osiris!), we headed to Conseco Fieldhouse. I just can't call it Bankers Life fieldhouse...ugh.

We lingered for awhile at the souvenir stand, (is it just me or are t-shirts, sweatshirts and other concert paraphernalia over priced and not as good as it once was?).  We arrived just in time to hear the end of the Kool and the Gang show and meet up with other friends who skipped dinner and watched the opening act.  They were very happy with the opening act and spoke highly of how good they sounded.

Give or take a half hour, the lights went down and Van Halen came out. Their stage was rather sparse, but they had a huge video screen.  After seeing a large video screen put to good use during the Guns and Roses concert in December, I was looking forward to what VH would do at this show.

Well, that screen would turn out to be disappointing.  They mostly showed the same pictures of the band over and over again, along with some odd videos that didn't mesh well with the songs.  In my opinion, the only time the video screen was put to good use was during DLR's acoustic rendition of 'Ice Cream Man', during which he showed home movies of his dogs (who were herding sheep) and talked about growing up Bloomington and New Castle.

On to the music, which was the biggest let down of the night.  The band itself played well and Eddie has lost none of his mastery of the guitar. Alex was great on the drums, but I'm surprised he used recorded music during his drum solo, I don't think I've ever heard or seen that at previous rock concerts.  Even though I wanted to see Michael Anthony on bass, Wolfgang sounded very good on the bass.  Although his background vocals didn't mesh well, he seemed a little too loud.

However, the biggest disappointment of the night turned out to be David Lee Roth's vocals.  His voice isn't as strong anymore and it showed. Frequently throughout the concert he was simply drowned out by the music and also forgot the lyrics to the song, even admitting in one song that he forgot the lyrics.  He was also using a headset mic instead of a mic stand and he seemed lost without the mic stand.  Here's a suggestion guys, get DLR a mic stand, he is better with it.

 The music also seemed to have a lot of problems with distortion and it seemed like the band should have had more rehearsal time as they just didn't seem to mesh well together. I definitely think DLR needs a lot more work and maybe a lyric sheet to look at from time to time.  Also, when a song need a keyboard (think 'Jump'), no keyboardist was present. Instead they used recorded music during the songs, which is too much like lip syncing.  A big disappointment guys, put somebody out there with a keyboard.  People go to rock concerts to hear live music, not recorded tracks.

So, all in all, it was a disappointing show.  I tried to resist the temptation to compare it to GNR, who also returned to Indy after a long layoff, but I just couldn't do it.  The Guns and Roses show was so much better in all aspects. Say what you will about Axl Rose, but he had his band prepared, the show was tight and they didn't miss a beat on anything.  I can only hope that Van Halen will get better as their tour goes forward.  I'm tempted to want to see them again, but not if they are coming off a long layoff.  The fans deserved better than what we heard on Tuesday and judging by the comments in the mens restroom, I would say a lot of people were disappointed.  Better luck next time maybe?

Related articles

• Van Halen Kicks-Off 2012 Tour [Video] (wncx.radio.com)
• Van Halen 'A Different Kind of Truth' tour: Kool and Gang get ready (video) (examiner.com)

Weight loss and a new T-72 to build

Recently while looking through reference pictures from Ft. Knox for a future Iraqi T-72 build, I came across pictures of myself from several years ago.  I was quite surprised at what I saw of myself in the pictures. During the past year and a half I have been dieting and exercising.  When I looked at the pictures, I was shocked at how heavy I was just a few years ago.  My face was so much rounder and I looked like the marshmallow man.

Seeing those pictures made me realize how lazy I had been and how much I had overeaten.  I'm very thankful that I changed my eating habits (at least for breakfast and lunch) and started walking during lunch instead of eating.  These changes have resulted in a significant weight loss and the need to buy smaller clothes, which has made me very happy.

I'm looking forward to the spring and return of warm weather so I continue my walks outside instead of in the stairs of the Farm Bureau building where I work. The stairs have been good to me, but I miss being outdoors and the people watching that comes with walking downtown in Indianapolis.  I am hopeful that this time next year I will be posting again about my successful diet and being in better shape.  It has been a long fight, but I am feeling much better about myself.

So, back to the idea of an Iraqi T-72.  I plan on building a derelict and captured T-72 as were seen in the storage areas of Ft. Knox.  Since the base realignment commission forced the movement of most of the armor at the Ft. Knox museum and in the storage areas, I don't think this particular T-72 is still on the base.  Despite this, I do have plenty of good reference pictures of this T-72 that I want to build.

The T-72 in the storage area was captured in either Iraq or Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.  This particular tank still has U.S. Army unit markings and is missing most of its exterior equipment.  I have wanted base a model on this particular tank for a number of years and have never really been motivated to correct the errors in the glacis plate of the Tamiya upper hull.  Thankfully, both Miniarm and SP Designs have released resin update sets that will correct the errors in the Tamiya kit.   I plan on also using the Tamiya or Eduard photo etch engine deck screens and possibly an aftermarket barrel.

I need to simulate an asphalt or concrete base for the finished model.  There was an aftermarket base available a few years ago, I just don't remember the manufacturer.  I think it was Verlinden or maybe Trakz. If I can't find it, I'll have to look into building it.  It's going to be a derelict model and a lot of fun.  I can't wait to get it started.

Super Bowl 46 update

 It's been a busy several days since my last update and I finally have some time to sit down and write a new post. It is only a few days until Super Bowl 46 here in Indianapolis and I have been enjoying as much of the festivities as possible.  Adding to the fun has been the incredibly good weather.  We've had a few cold days, but nothing remotely resembling our usual February weather.  I hope it holds out until after the Super Bowl.

Last week I went on a tour of Lucas Oil stadium with my girlfriend. We visited the press box, the Quarterback suite, both team locker rooms and we also visited the stadium field.  It was a very enjoyable tour and the tour guide was very helpful and knowledgeable.  This was my second visit to the stadium and it was very strange to see the field scrubbed bare of any Colts logos.  The workers were srubbing away the last of the endzone logos as we entered the field.  I'll post a a few pictures below this post.

Last week was also the start of my volunteer shifts at the NFL Experience at the convention center.  I wasn't sure what to expect with regards to people and the work I would be doing.   Friiday night was my first shift and thousands of people turned out for opening night on Super Bowl village and for opening night of the Experience.  We had so many volunteers turn out that they had to find places for us to work.  I ended up pointing people to the coat check room and to the exit on the second floor. Glamorous it wasn't, but I had a good time. 

My next shift was on Saturday and I was put in the Rush zone, aka, the children's play area.  Ugh, I had to chase footballs, try to avoid getting hit (I wasn't successful) and spent the evening running and bending over to pick up Nerf footballs.  Needless to say my lower back was killing me by the end of the night and I vowed not to do that on Sunday. On Sunday my girlfriend and I worked together in the autograph zone and we basically worked as line control while the Colts cheerleaders signed autographs.  This was by far my best and shortest shift.  I was glad for the easy shift after the exhaustive night in the childrens zone.

After our shift was over we wondered around the Experience and eventually found ourselves downtown in the Super Bowl village.  While waiting for the Dierks Bentley concert to start, we went to Monument Circle and saw the Super Bowl 46 Roman numerals and the Indy Cars painted with all NFL team logos.  I was able to make a few good pictures, but it was tough setting up my tripod.  I ended up ditching the tripod and just cranked up the ISO. 

After leaving the circle, we went to the concert and stayed for a few songs, but due to the large number of obnoxious drunks and jerks, we left for home. Getting pushed around by people trying to get into a bar or trying to find a better spot was very trying on our patience.  The sound of the show was good and we could see the stage, but it just wasn't worth putting up with the jerks on Saturday.

Today was Media Day at Lucas Oil and that will fill up another post.  Let's just say I nearly filled up my CF card with pictures.  The NFL really did a great job of supporting the fans attending the event today.  Gotta love freebies (and good ones at that!)

How about a few pictures?

A view from the south end zone.  Strange to see all of the Colts logos gone from the field

The Colts team locker room.  This is where the Patriots will be staying.

The Super Bowl 46 Roman numerals on Monument Circle.  Each numeral is 35 feet tall.  The NFL also broadcasts a video of Super Bowl highlights on the numerals.

The Indy cars with each NFL teams logo on them.  Quite impressive view at night.

All in all it has been a fun and exciting week so far.   Still remaining to post are the photos from Media Day.  Care to lend a hand?  Haha 

Let the Super Bowl fun begin!

So, by the end of this day, we will know which teams will be headed to Indianapolis for Super Bowl 46 in Indianapolis.  I'm not sure whom to root for, I just know that I plan on having as much fun as possible during the next two weeks.  Between volunteering at the NFL Experience and attending some of the free concerts, the Super Bowl Village and some of the other events downtown and around the city, I feel like I'm going to have a good time. 

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I went to a rally for Super Bowl 46 volunteers at Lucas Oil stadium in Indianapolis.  Discounted souvenirs were available for sale, the Mayor made an appearance as did an NFL VP, Frank Supovitz and a local media personality, Jimmy 'Mad Dog' Matis emceed the event.  In addition, the Indianapolis Colts cheerleaders signed autographs and performed a couple of routines before the rally started.

Before attending the rally, we went to lunch at 'Tavern on South', which is located a couple of blocks west of the football stadium on South street. The food was very good as was the service. The cheeseburger and the bison burger get two enthusiastic recommendations from us.   I am looking forward to a return  trip, but only after the Super Bowl is over.  Otherwise, it will be a very crowded place to eat.

It was not the best of days to have to walk several blocks from the parking lot to the stadium.  The sidewalks weren't completely cleared and the lot itself was very muddy and nasty.  We both regretted not wearing boots on Saturday, sneakers were definitely a bad decision.  To top it off, the weather was very windy and very cold.  More than one time that morning I wished I had worn a long sleeve shirt and brought a hat or scarf. Brrr....Later that day I found the temperature was in the single digits and below zero with the wind chill.  After a late start, winter has finally arrived in Indianapolis. 

I did manage to make a few pictures while at the rally and will post a few here.  The field is still being prepared for the Super Bowl and maybe later this week on our tour of the facility, I will be able to get a better picture, hopefully with the team and NFL logos on the field.  I'm also wanting to get a wide angle shot from the above the south end zone looking towards the city skyline.  I have an idea of what I want, I just hope I get the opportunity to shoot it on Wednesday.

How about a few pictures?  Some cheerleaders and interior shots of the stadium:

 
Well, that is all for now.  More posts to come as the festivities get here!