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!

December in review and a look forward

Well, it's been over a month since I last posted here and a lot has happened, especially in the month of December.  Beyond the obvious (Christmas), I went zip lining with my girlfriend at Rawhide Ranch in Brown County, Indiana.  The zip line operator was Team Effect and it was a blast!  It was our first time zip lining and we did 7 hops across the ranch.  Later that night we spent some walking around the small town of Nashville, Indiana where I made this picture:

The above picture was taken along State Road 135 and shows some of the local shops, their Christmas lights and going through the picture was a large pickup with a lot of lights.  A different take on Christmas lights I think.  I almost forgot to mention all of this was my birthday weekend.  We also stayed overnight at the Brown County Inn.  It was a great weekend and I had a lot of fun.  After coming back to Indy, we went to the Pacers Fan Jam where this picture was made:

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2011 Indiana Pacers Pacemates!  After the fan jam was over, we went to Monument Circle for a meetup of the Indy Flickr meetup group. Unfortunately only two additional members showed up for the meetup.  However, I did get some great shots of the Monument Circle lights and some very different photographs than my previous attempts of the lights.  Here is an example:

So, it was a busy weekend and was by far the best birthday weekend I have had.  No complaints here. In addition to the weekend in Brown County, we saw the Guns n Roses concert at Conseco.  I was a little concerned about how the music would sound with the new lineup ('new' even though most of the 'new' members have been in the lineup for several years), but they delivered in a big way. Close your eyes and all of the classic GNR songs sounded great.  I didn't know much about their Chinese Democracy album and wouldn't have recognized the songs if my girlfriend hadn't told me when they were playing. I may post more about the concert later, but suffice to say, a fantastic 2 hour + show!   Speaking of Rene, how about a great picture of her?:

We ended up the month with a fun NYE party at her friend's house and thankfully we made it home in one piece!

2012 is shaping up to be a very busy year.  Later this month, Rene and I will be volunteering at the NFL Experience for Super Bowl 46 here in Indiana.  We also plan on attending as many of the related events as possible, weather and traffic permitting.  February brings us Valentines Day (our first one together!) and the Van Halen concert and then in March we will be volunteering at the Big 10 basketball tournament and I will working the Div 3 NCAA swimming championships.  Whew, what a way to start the year!

More to come....

Hooters Greenwood

Hooters Greenwood
Originally uploaded by indykaleu
Time for a little change up from the night time and long exposure pictures? How about some pictures from Hooters? I was at the Greenwood Indiana location on December 1st for their 2012 calendar signing event. These three beautiful women are all in the autographed calendar now hanging on my wall. I made these photographs with my Canon 30d and the Vivitar DF-383 flash.

Here is a full body shot of the women...why oh why didn't I ask them to stand in front of the table?  Arrgh.  Oh well, they will be at the downtown Indy Hooters next week.  Perhaps a better picture will come out of that date. 

 

I normally don't like to be in front of the camera, but I think I made a good exception on this night. 

Via Flickr:
I was at the Greenwood Indiana Hooters on Thursday for their 2012 calendar signing event.

Indianapolis night time view

Indianapolis night time view
Originally uploaded by indykaleu
After another few hours of going through the digital pile of undeveloped RAW files on my computer, I found this wonderful picture of downtown Indianapolis from the west end of the canal.

This shot was made under the bridge next to the Indiana State Museum. I think this might be a good location to get a sunrise picture of the skyline. Of course, that means I have to get up early to make it to this spot. At least the sun rises later in the winter, so that might be a possibility for me! Haha

This area of the canal is probably my favorite area to shoot in Indianapolis and along the canal. The lights along the canal and their reflections in the water make for terrific photographs.  It's too bad the rest of the canal isn't as well lit or lacking in more eye candy.

The settings for this picture are: 10 second shutter speed, f11 and ISO 200.

Freak out!

Freak out
Originally uploaded by indykaleu
I've been going through all of my photos over the past year and processing a lot of pictures. This shot was done at the 2011 Indiana State Fair and is a photograph of one of my favorite rides to shoot.

Almost 10,000 photos since late spring of last year. I've probably only processed about a thousand. I think I may start deleting some of the obviously bad pictures. No sense in keeping junk on my computer.

This was an 11 second exposure, aperture set to f11 and the ISO was 100.

Review: World without end

So far this year I have read many books, both fiction and nonfiction.  The books range from George Washington and the American Revolution to Marine units in Vietnam.  I have enjoyed them all and will add more books to my collection before the year is over.

One of the more enjoyable books I've read this year is "World Without End" by Ken Follet, which could be considered a sequel to his earlier masterpiece "Pillars of the Earth".  The new book is set approximately 200 years in the future and is still set in the town and priory of Kingsbridge.   The story centers around the lives of four children, Merthin, Gwenda, Ralph and Caris and how one event early in their youth events profoundly shapes their lives and that of the town for many years to come.

One of the elements that I have always enjoyed when reading Ken Follet's books are the rich character developments and how well he describes the people, events and their surroundings.  Compared to other books and authors, I find it very easy to picture the people and their surroundings.  This is not something that happens with most fiction books.

In the book, the characters of Merthin and Caris are the best developed and as such, they are prominently featured throughout the book.  Initially, the character of Gwenda was interesting and I enjoyed reading the portions of the book devoted to her, but as I read deeper into the book, I had the feeling that her development was secondary and I began to lose interest in her.  The story of Ralph was well done, but his rise to the Earl of Shiring seemed a bit far fetched at first, but after thinking about the events leading up him gaining the title of Earl, it makes a lot more sense to me now.

Throughout the story, the book takes us from Kingsbridge, to the Earldom of Shiring, London and the Kings court, Florence Italy and to the opening stages of the 100 years war in France and back to Kingsbridge.  During this time we see the four children grow into successful adults and see the rise and fall of several prominent characters through accidents,  scheming plans, betrayals and ultimately, the Black Plague.

All in all, this is an excellent book and although it could be considered a sequel to 'Pillars of the Earth',  it is not necessary to read the first book.  However, I do recommend reading the earlier book as it is an excellent read and some of the people in 'Pillars' are referenced in the book.

If you have been a fan of Follet's more contemporary spy and espionage novels and are hesitant about reading a historical novel set in the early and middle parts of the 14th century, don't be alarmed.  This book delivers an excellent story and will have you turning page after page just to see what will happen next. Go and read it now!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mummies, birthdays and Burlesque!

So, after the forgettable dinner at Cadillac Ranch, the next part of my birthday gift to my girlfriend was tickets to see Here Come the Mummies at the Vogue in Broad Ripple.  I saw the band earlier this year at IMS and despite it being a cold and rainy day, they put on a fantastic show.  I knew I wanted to see them again in a better venue.

My girlfriend had never seen the mummies and was happy to see the tickets in her birthday card.  She was convinced I was taking her to a haunted house (that was all I had talked about during the weeks leading up to her birthday...complete surprise was accomplished!).

The Vogue was getting packed by the time we arrived and we were lucky enough to find places down near the stage.  While our spots at first looked great, we didn't realize that Lurch and his twin brother would soon be in the way and would make watching the warm up act very difficult.

The opening act was performed by Show-Me Burlesque and they were very good.  It was my first time watching a live burlesque act, I guess strippers at the Brass Flamingo don't really count as burlesque, do they?

Their first performer was Lola Van Ella, who performed and sang...quite the decent singing voice I must add. She was followed by Faith McQueen, who, uh, filled out her costume quite nicely.  No complaints from me at all by this point.  If only I was allowed to bring in my dSLR, the pictures I could post here.  After Faith, I believe Foxy laFeelion came on next and also put on a good routine.  She was followed by Sammich the Clown, who put on a very good Charlie Chaplin impression.  She was followed by Allura Fette (I'm not completely certain that she was the next performer, her name and picture on the website seems very familiar).  After Allura was gone, the previous performers came out (minus Sammich) and the three of them put on a balloon popping routine.  They came out one at a time, pretended to be upset with their cast mates and proceeded to pop each others balloons until little remained of their costumes. All in all, I was very happy with the show.  The only disappointing part of the show was the aforementioned Lurch and his brother.  They made it difficult to see parts of the routines, especially when the performers laid down on the stage

Despite the monoliths standing in front of us, the burlesque show was very good and I think they were the perfect act for Here Come the Mummies.  It was certainly better than having an unknown band open the show.  The performers for Show-Me Burlesque are mostly based out of the St. Louis area, however they do have a large contingent of performers from around the Midwest.  I would like to see them again in a bigger show and my only recommendation is that they could use the services of a photographer to help, um, promote their troupe.  I believe I am just the man for the job...:-) Bottom line, if you have ever wanted to see a burlesque show and they are in the area, go and see them!

On to the main act.  I won't even get into the details of the rather bland costume contest before the Mummies took stage...Ugh...

When the Mummies first take the stage, they come through the audience, playing some drums and chanting.  It is an entrance like no other that I have seen in concerts.  Let me say this, for two hours, the Mummies were on top of their game.  I have seen too many shows when the performers were either not interested in playing (and it showed) or they wore down midway through the show.  But not on this night.  I don't know if they took an energy drink or ate their Wheaties that morning, but their show was the most energetic I have ever seen a band play.

They played a lot of their familiar songs, Ra-ra-ra, Pants, booty, Attack of the Wiener Man, Freak Flag, Creepin, jailbait and so many more great songs.  I just wish I had written this blog entry sooner so I could have remembered more of their set.  I also wish I had properly used the video camera on my phone and I could have posted some videos here of their performance.

Thankfully the middle of the performance, the Lurch brothers moved and my girlfriend and I had a much better view of the stage.  Bottom line, it was an excellent concert and I can't wait to see them again!

How about a video from their appearance on Fox and Friends the Monday after their shows at the Vogue?

Here come the Mummies video