A Midwest FarmThere's a Beauty around Every Corner I hear it from people all the time. What's there? There's nothing, why there? It's just a drive through land ... When do these come up? Every time I mention a road trip through the Midwest that includes stops along the way to turn the whole driving part into an integral part of the trip, a part of the experience.

I wholeheartedly disagree. I actually like Midwest. Beautiful places, whether rolling hills, prairies, farm land, or places full of history like Route 66 or the Lincoln Highway.

It hurts even more then to see some of the places we've visited on our travels destroyed by tornadoes. Having been there makes the news reports so much more personal. I had that experience during and after our 2013 road trip and now again just as we wrapped fhe 2014 one. We passed through Hot Springs and Little Rock, Arkansas just two days before the tornado hit nearby. We also stopped at Galena, Kansas this and past year, and drove Route 66 via Baxter Springs last year. Another place a tornado found its way to in the past weekend's violent outbreak.

When news channels interview residents of these areas, they all say they love their homes and get used to living with the constant tornado threat. I understand the love part, I can't comprehend the getting used to part. It's tough for me to watch the news only having visited the places. Living there? How can it not be nerve wrecking?

Anyway, if there's a connection you have with the Midwest, whatever the reason for it, or even if you don't, please, be generous and find some charities that you are comfortable with and make someone's day during difficult times.

Some charities involved in relief work:

• American Red Cross
• The Salvation Army
• Convoy of Hope

References:

• What is Midwest?: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, ... Midwestern United States on Wikipedia
• Tornado Alley on Wikipedia
• April 27–29, 2014 Tornado Outbreak on Wikipedia

White SandsWhite Sands by iPhone I have only made it to Day 7 in my posts from the 2013 Road Trip, or about 1/3 of the way, and am finding myself on the 2014 Road Trip. Yes, I am a little behind one could say.

A few years back I used to be totally paranoid about photo backup when traveling. i'd download the photos to either a laptop or later the iPad every evening and then also upload them to online photo storage when around wifi. That changed when I got the D600 with dual SD slots. I configured the second one for a backup and no longer download every day, not until I get home for that matter. Maybe a false sense of safety?

That also meant another change. I no longer have access to my DSLR captured photographs while still on the road. For better and worse it puts me one step backwards towards the film days. Only at home on the large screen do I see what I really got. Yes, I can still check the camera LCD and histograms and at least know the exposure is not completely off but it is only on the large monitor when things become either happily or painfully obvious.

It also means I cannot post the photos while on the road. Each day I try to take a few photos specifically for that purpose with my iPhone. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. And here and there I end up liking my iPhone photos more than what my DSLR reveals upon my return home. There's something about composing with the light weight screen in front of you, and also about the wide aspect ratio.

This whole post is done on the phone. The photo, its upload, and this text. Not the most comfy way but not too bad either. One problem sometimes is that things that look good on the small iPhone screen don't look that great on the computer later.

So anyway, I wanted to give you all a tiny preview of what you may see here in my blog at some point. White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico is one of the places I could spend hours on 9 square feet. It becomes captivating when you first spot it from tens of miles away and never stops. Each point of view offers something else in each direction. And you can take a low angle or high, and use an infinity of focal lengths. And as the day goes on the light changes so no two photos will truly be the same. There are areas with some adapted desert vegetation and others with no plant life. You can find pristine sand ripples with no footprints or areas heavily walked. The opportunities are endless!

So stay tuned, someday there will be more about this gorgeous place! Have fun on your trips.

This photography outing was motivated by several things coming together.

I've long been on a quest to learn more about the beautiful architecture of Buffalo, read bits and pieces in couple books, strolled through the city and its suburbs, yet, I feel I am barely scratching the surface.

I've also looked ahead in the Buffalo Niagara 2014 calendar and saw Terry Cervi's photograph of the Kleinhans Music Hall, further feeding my architectural curiosity.

So out I went ready to scout around the music hall. I suspected the conditions would not be the best. There was not enough snow any more for a nice winter scene, neither was it warm enough for the pool around the hall to be full of water. But I went anyway to explore future possibilities. I arrived about an hour before sunset and enjoyed walking around and looking for different angles.

Grover Cleveland SchoolColonial / Georgian Architecture Revival

After I was done at the Kleinhans, I moved a block north to the Grover Cleveland School lot. That idea came to me as I was exploring the Kleinhans Music Hall location on Internet maps, looking at 3D models, and looking around. I got to Grover as the dusk was settling in and the sky was darkening, better balancing the brightness of the sky and the illuminated building below. I waited another 15 minutes before putting the camera back on the tripod. The clouds that were rolling over the building worked for me nicely setting the building off from the sky above and adding a dose of drama.

For architectural photographs like this I really like to get the perspective right, with verticals remaining vertical and not making the buildings look like they're going to fall over. I stayed all across the yard to fit as much in as possible. With the camera pointed straight at the face of the building I was getting way too much of the uninteresting post-winter lawn and not enough of the beautiful sky above. I backed off my ideals and turned the camera ever so slightly upwards to get more of the clouds knowing that if I left enough space on the sides and did not tilt the camera too much I could fix the perspective later on the computer. And I am happy to say that it worked out because this is a gorgeous building and I am glad to have it in my collection now.

After photo shoots like this one I always like to read a bit more about the architecture of the buildings, about their history, and share some of that on my site along with references to the materials I found useful. While Internet is a wonderful thing, when it comes to local architecture, it seems to be flawed significantly though. Copy & paste is way too easy and information seems to propagate from one site to another, leaving doubt about accuracy due to lack of independent sources. At times, different Internet sources provide different version of history. I have started leaning more and more on old-fashioned sources like books. It would seem that publishing a book is challenging enough to make it worth while to cross check sources. No, I will not claim that books are always right, especially when it comes to subjective opinions of their authors, but they seem to have a better chance than the Internet, or at least many of the free resources.

Have fun learning more about your back yard!

Equipment used:

Nikon D600, Nikon 24-85mm Nikkor Lens, Manfrotto tripod (055MF3; replaced by 055CXPRO3 with the convenient Q90 column) and Manfrotto Ball Head (496RC2), Think Tank Speed Demon Waist Pack, Petzl Zipka Plus 2 Headlamp (always in the bag just in case), Jackery Bar 5600mAh (usually o hand to keep the smart phone going), SanDisk Extreme 32GB SD Cards, Nikon Capture NX2.

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