Jackie's Mountains

Location: Stillwater

Rather than taking a destination trip for spring break, I was confined to an apartment where I basically watched movies and watched my friend's cat. Here are the beautiful Tower Park Apartments.

I like this picture because of all the lines, and it took me a while to get the color to look normal and for the sky to look blue instead of white. It also shows that there were barely any cars in the parking lot.

 With this picture I tried to focus more on the E and keep the others out of sight or focus, because I stayed in apartment E the entire week.

A look inside the apartment with my only friend for SB 2013. Pretty sad.

 I tried to get a new angle of the apartment complex and frame the other building with the bars leading up the stairs, it looked better on my camera and it's too washed out and it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to composition wise.

Mat Hunt: Stillwater Skatepark

Location Essay- Construction Site

Visited a construction site over the break and snap a bunch of great photos of men working on a new apartment complex that is being built in Stillwater. 

Location Essay- Wrestling Hall of Fame

This week I went to the Wrestling Hall of Fame here in Stillwater. I have always been a huge sports fan but I had never really knew anything about wrestling. I definitely struggled with the lighting and with y own reflection off of the show cases. I learned a lot about wrestling and the history of the sport. It was fun and interesting. 

Location Essay: The Mohawk - Austin, Texas

I focused on a venue in downtown Austin during SXSW for this assignment.

It took about an hour of waiting outside of Mohawk to actually make it inside. In this photo someone nearing the front of the line looks for a friend.

I noticed the framing here and couldn't resist using it.

Patrons stand on one of the overlooks of the stage.

I'm sure the bartenders were exhausted from the constant stream of people all week, but they were still enjoying themselves.

Here's a rare sight at SXSW: children. These are probably the first kids I saw all weekend and they were really enjoying the music. It was actually pretty cool - someone who was standing near the middle let these kids and their parents trade places with them so the kids could be further away from the speaker.

Rather than including mediocre shots I got of the band from  this far back in the crowd, I thought this photo of a fan enjoying their music tells more about the location than just the band would anyway.

Location Essay: Bandelier National Monument.

Location Essay-Krull

So, for my spring break I was in Kansas and Missouri. I spent three days doing volunteer/mission work with my sister in Lamonte, Missouri at a Christian Foster Community and was unable to take photos while I was there because of legal issues involving pictures of the foster kids. I heard from several people that the Arboretum was a great place in Overland Park so that is where these pictures were taken. Unfortunately, although there were cars and people when I arrived each day, it would start snowing before I found them on the 300+ acre grounds. Needless to say they left.

Down a dirt footpath into the woods, there is a clearing with about seven bird houses. Patrons can come here and observe the birds eating and listen to their singing.

The Arboretum boasts several gardens and requires support from donors.These purple flowers were in the garden sponsored by Kansas State University.

For the art enthusiast, the Arboretum displays art from around the world either worked into the landscape like this fox or along the paved path of the International Art Garden.

The Arboretum provides education and entertainment for all ages with its children's garden, which was added in 2000. This train set has electronic trains that wind through the miniature landscape. 

 The Erikson Water Garden is home to fish, ducks, turtles, wild grass, trees, and other plants.

 With several lakes and ponds and over five miles of trails, bridges are a necessity. The designers; however, selected styles that compliment the habitat.

Location: Gage, Oklahoma Airport (GAG)

My brother is currently working on getting his pilot license.  On our way home from grocery shopping in a nearby town, he took me by the Gage, Oklahoma airport to see his new plane.  I live relatively close to this airport and have never been there before.  I did not expect this to be a photo opportunity, however, it was actually an interesting sight to see. 

I was shocked when I saw the inside of his plane.  All of the planes in this hangar had "experimental" stickers on them.  I took this picture to show the small size of the cockpit and how it would feel to actually be flying this plane. 

Thanks to the Oklahoma wind, many days at the Gage airport are spent inside the barn, drinking some beer and working on their planes.  These are some of the plane owners as they sit around telling stories and watching others repair parts of the plane. 

Ron Cox and son, Jason Cox worked together to build this plane.  I liked this picture because it shows the father son pair repairing the tire on the plane that they built together.  They told me that they spent 3 years building this particular plane from scratch. 

This was a Harley Davidson motorcycle that one of the pilots often drives to the airport on nice days.  I like how the younger boys in the picture look as if they are admiring the motorcycle because that is exactly what they were doing. 

I love this picture because it really shows the location of the airport.   You can immediately recognize the location from the city name on the roof of the airport and the stone Oklahoma statue.  This is the view pilots see as they land and approach the airport.