08.09.11
I recently visited The Fort Thomas Military and Community Museum and decided it would be a great place to shoot some 360º panoramic photographs. The image above is a shot of the Military History Room. Click on the link below to be taken “into” the room through an interactive 360º tour of Fort Thomas’ rich military history. Be aware this is a large file, but worth the wait. Also, be sure to click on the “full screen” icon once the page loads to get the whole experience.
I will be returning to the museum soon to shoot a couple of rooms from the recently opened Beverly Hills Supper Club display.
If you’re from Northern Kentucky or Southern Ohio and remember the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the new exhibit prepared by students of Northern Kentucky University.
City of Fort Thomas Museum
940 Cochran
Fort Thomas, KY 41075-2314
(859) 815-8481
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08.05.11
Shots of Great American Ballpark during the Paul McCartney show.
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07.24.11
NASCAR fans in Kentucky have been waiting for NASCAR since the Kentucky Speedway opened. With the inaugural running of the Quaker State 400 their dreams finally came true.
I did not have a ticket to the race but thought I’d go down for the day and just hang out and shoot the pre-race festivities. If you’ve ever been to a NASCAR race, which I hadn’t, you’d know about the craziness before the races. Think NFL game tailgating times 100.
Typical of my bluegrass festival photos, I wanted to capture the event so that after you’ve seen the photos you feel like you were actually there. That’s very difficult to do, but I sure had a great time trying. I did end up going to the race, although these photos are not really about the race. They’re about the fans of NASCAR, and the pre-race party.
Thanks to all the great fans that let me capture their moment. Again, like the bluegrass festival crowd, the fans were friendly, down to earth and love anyone with a camera!
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05.26.11
Ok, so that’s a goofy reference to a Willie Nelson song. But since it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to BluegrassPhotography.Net I thought I’d start this post out goofy.
It’s been a while because the weather here in the Cinicinnati Tri-State area has been horrible. Although we know it could be worse. All we’ve had to deal with is rain every day. If we think that’s bad, we need to think about the people in the mid-west that have had everything taken away from them by Mother Nature’s furry. As a matter of fact, this post is dedicated to them!
Back to the photograph….. For some unknown reason, I find myself shooting the “Big Mac” bridge quite often. I have no idea why. It’s not like I have a thing for McDonald’s. As a matter of fact, unless I’m desperate I won’t even eat there. I do however drive past, or over the “Big Mac” every morning so I guess it catches my attention. On this particular morning I approached the river and saw the fog, so I decided to head towards the riverfront in Bellevue and see if there was a good shot to be had. I ended up on Don Pablo’s deck at 7:30 in the morning to grab this image.
For those “photo geeks” out there, this image is comprised of 20 vertical shots stitched together to create a 13000 x 4000 pixel image at 72 dpi! For those non-photo geeks, it’s big enough to make a 200″ x 60″ photograph!
Again, as we complain about our weather…. it could be worse! Please keep the mid-west tornado victims in your prayers and if you find it in your heart to help financially you can do so here.
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05.04.11
I never win anything! Except… John Prine tickets in Ashland, Kentucky.
A FaceBook friend turned me on to a radio contest in Morehead, Kentucky to win tickets to the John Prine show in Ashland so I signed up thinking, “Here’s just another way of someone getting my contact information, to be used to fill my spam box for the next 10 years”. But no, I actually won. As I said, I never win anything like this so I was really excited. I mean, John Prine, and I won something.
So the debate started. Who should I take? My wife, who knows not one John Prine song? My son, who loves John Prine? My buddy Ken, who is such a fan he’s seen John Prine before most of us knew who John Prine was? Ken’s seen his share, Michael has had his share of free shows with dad, so once I made Betsy a “best of John Prine” CD and she thought it was “good”, the wife was the choice!
Unfortunately, since I was honest and asked about bringing in my camera, and turned down, you don’t get to see any shots of the actual show. But if you’ve been here before and read any of my posts, you know I shot images along the way. Since I’ve driven the AA highway dozens of times most of the shots are from right around and in Ashland. I really didn’t have a ton of shooting time but thought I’d share what I did end up shooting. Of course there’s a Mail Pouch Barn. But there’s also some shots of the Paramount Theater, the venue the show was at. The Paramount was an awesome theater that I would have loved to shoot interior shots of, but again, they wouldn’t allow me to take my “professional” camera in even though there were hundreds of people shooting during the show, with “amateur” cameras. There’s also a few shots of downtown Ashland as well.
Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!
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02.12.11
I’ve been wanting to make a run to West Virginia for quite a while. If you’re a regular on my blog you read in my last post that I headed that way a few weeks back but missed it by a few counties. Finally I decided to go for it on the last Saturday in January. Whenever I go out on one of my photo trips I try my best think about the cost of gas and plan the trip accordingly. This was not one of those well thought out trips! The first three hours were spent driving out route 32, which I had done just the weekend before.
Although I planned this trip to shoot six Mail Pouch barns I had located, as usual I found some other great shots along the way. I ran across the scene above on this old dirt road I probably shouldn’t have been on to begin with. After all I drove through a creek to get to it. I also ran across the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio. When I saw the sign along Route 32 I thought about a Bob Evans menu I had seen of the Bob Evans logo painted on the side of an old barn so I figured I’d drive the few miles off the main path to check it out. Unfortunately I was let down. Either the barn I had seen on the menu was somewhere else or Photoshop trickery.
Even though I’m glad I finally made my West Virginia trip and had some good captures I have a feeling the “Mountain State” is still on my short list for the next trip. I think it will end up a weekender.
Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!
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01.31.11
I’ve been wanting to take a trip to shoot West Virginia’s Mail Pouch barns ever since one of my boys gave me a book of Mail Pouch barns in West Virginia shot by Steve Shaluta for Christmas. Last Saturday I was packing up to venture off to “Almost Heaven… West Virginia” when Betsy reminded me we had a “date” at 7:00 that night! So much for West Virginia. Since I already had long johns, 3 shirts, 2 pair of socks and my hiking boots on I decided to head out, with no destination.
I thought I had shot every Mail Pouch barn within a hundred or so miles from home but soon learned not so! I decided to head out Ohio Route 32 east since I hadn’t been out that way. I ended up hitting Highland, Pike, Jackson, Scioto and Adams counties, shooting 6 Mail Pouch barns including re-shooting one that I had shot way back in 2000. That was my first Mail Pouch photo, long before I became obsessed.
Although my goal is to shoot Mail Pouch barns, I usually end up running across so many other great scenes that catch my eye. Those usually end up being the better shots of the day. Like the shot above. I discovered this barn and bails of hay driving up a steep hill in Adams County. It’s one of those shots that just appear. It’s scenes like this that keep me going out on my day-long drives.
By the way, one week later, yesterday, I made my trip to West Virginia. But since I only hit 2 counties I plan a return weekend long trip soon.
Take a look at the whole gallery here. Enjoy!
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