Combat Air Museum

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/100, f/6.3, ISO 500

Yesterday Ken and I went to the Combat Air Museum in Topeka. The location supplied no end of great photo ops. Though the airplanes are packed in a little too tight to get good wide shots of most of them, the museum abounds in fascinating details.

Nikon 810, 8mm, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 1600

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/80, f/14, ISO 3200

Nikon 810, 8mm, 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 400

Nikon 810, 8mm, 1/80, f/13, ISO 2000

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/80, f/13, ISO 64

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/80, f/10, ISO 64

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/320, f/4.5, ISO 1600

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/80, f/5.6, ISO 1600

Yarn bombs

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/500, f/4.0, ISO 100

On our recent trip to Arkansas I opted to forego my usual habit of running all over the place like a crazy person trying to get photos. Instead, I drove into Eureka Springs one morning and spent some calm time taking pictures in a small park full of yarn-bombed trees.

The experience gave me the chance to keep an eye on the histograms of the photos I was taking, resulting in some good exposures and clear color reproduction.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/11, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/60, f/8, ISO 250

Caboose

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/18, ISO 200

Amy and I recently took a trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where we stayed in a caboose. It was the real thing (tracks and everything), renovated to serve as a vacation rental. With no TV and little internet, the occasion proved ideal for photographing this fascinating location.

iPhone 7

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 800

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/5, ISO 800

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/3.5, ISO 800

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/9, ISO 400

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), f/5, ISO 400

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.0, ISO 400

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.0, ISO 5000

Nikon 810, 62mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.2, ISO 5000

The Big Well

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), HDR

The second full day of the Pratt trip found us in Greensburg in pursuit of good photos of the World’s Deepest Hand Dug Well. Several years ago the whole town was destroyed by a tornado. The new Big Well building looks much different from the original.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/250, f/4.0, ISO 640

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/160, f/16, ISO 200

Nikon 810, 35mm (18-35), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 640

Pratt County Historical Museum

During spring break Amy and I took a brief trip to Pratt, Kan. My family is from Pratt, and many visits over the years clued me in to some good spots to take photos. One of which was the Pratt County Historical Museum.

In keeping with museums in general and smaller museums in particular, the lighting was terrible. However, I managed to get most of the photos I wanted.

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 800

The one shot I absolutely wouldn’t have left without was Wayne Konkel’s collection of toasters and waffle irons. I actually got to meet the benefactor years ago. He seemed like a nice guy who just happened to have an affection for small kitchen appliances.

Nikon 810, 35mm (18-35), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 2500

This refugee from a hair salon looked like a robot jellyfish out of a 50s-era sci fi movie.

Nikon 810, 35mm (18-35), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 4000

Oddly, this turned out to be the “portfolio piece” of the lot. It reminded me of walking to the post office with my grandmother so we could pick up the mail. I think these boxes predated the ones in use when I was a kid, but it was a nice memory nonetheless.

Nikon 810, 75mm? (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 800

Not sure exactly what this does, but it looked interesting.

Nikon 810, 35mm (18-35), 1/80, f/4.5, ISO 1000

And of course what local history museum would be complete without an antique cash register?

The Monster Mart

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/400, f/10, ISO 400

Normally I don’t like to blog stuff too long after the photos were taken. But I couldn’t let the Arkansas trip go without photos from Fouke.

I’ve been a big fan of the Fouke Monster ever since I saw The Legend of Boggy Creek when I was a kid. Though it was a bit of a distance out of our way, we had to check out the Monster Mart.

Once again I found myself glad I had a camera that was good with tricky lighting.

Nikon D810, 56mm (28-105), 1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400

Nikon D810, 48mm (28-105), 1/50, f/4.0, ISO 1600

Nikon D810, 50mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.0, ISO 1600

Nikon D810, 32mm (28-105), 1/100, f/3.5, ISO 3200

Josephine Tussaud’s Wax Museum

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/100, f/3.5, ISO 1600

Last weekend my wife and I took a brief getaway trip to Arkansas. One afternoon to get out of her hair for a little while I drove in to Hot Springs and visited Josephine Tussaud’s Wax Museum. The experience supplied no end of photo ops. I was particularly thankful for the D810’s ability to cope with bad lighting.

Give or take a shot or two, this set is the same as the gallery I posted to Facebook with the question, “If all the wax figures in the museum came to life, which one would be most likely to eat your children?”

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/200, f/3.5, ISO 1600

 Steve McQueen. Because who would want to be greeted at the museum entrance by Billy Bob Thornton on a motorcycle?

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 0.5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 2500

Most of the stuff from the House of Horrors section was too gross for a family blog like this. I included this shot in part because I liked the light and in part because I wanted folks to have an easy out on the kid-eating question.

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/40, f/3.5, ISO 2500

The real Kennedys, with Teddy sitting off to the side. I liked the ghostly reflection of Hillary Clinton in the window.

Nikon D810, 66mm (28-105), 1/320, f/4.2, ISO 2500

A better view of the popular vote winner of the 2016 election.

Nikon D810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 2500

“You had a bad day / The camera don’t lie.” Whoever made this one appears to have no fondness for Queen Elizabeth II.

Nikon D810, 52mm (28-105), 1/160, f/4.2, ISO 2500

I’m pretty sure there’s a federal regulation requiring every wax museum in the country to have at least one Elvis.

Bell Mountain HDR

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, HDR composite

My first-ever solo backpacking trip was to the top of Bell Mountain, the second highest point in Missouri. My campsite provided a particularly good view of the sunrise, so I decided to get a picture of myself watching the day start.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a single shot that was properly exposed for the sky, the ground and me all at once. Fortunately, I brought along a small, lightweight tripod that allowed me to shoot a series of pictures at different exposure levels, including one in which I sat on a rock and triggered the shutter using a remote.

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/2, f/2.8, ISO 100

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/2, f/2.8, ISO 100, taken a little later

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1.3 sec., f/2.8, ISO 100

Then when I got back home I used Photoshop’s High Dynamic Range option to combine the three pictures. As I was in only one of them, I copied myself from the original photo and pasted myself into the HDR combo, making a few adjustments to make me match the rest of the image.

As is common with HDR-generated images, the result isn’t precisely faithful to how the world actually looked at the time. Normally I’m not fond of the “are you just high all the time?” look, but here it works for me. The sunrise looks somewhat like the first seconds of a hydrogen bomb detonating, which for some reason strikes me as so out of keeping with the moment that it seems paradoxically appropriate.