KC Disc Dog Photo Experiments

So the only camera I had when we stumbled across the Kansas City Disc Dogs demo in Southpark Last week, was the ancient 3 megapixel - which is enough a camera to outpace my talents as a photographer. So this is more of an experiment is image editing.



These dogs got serious air. The KC disc dogs group has a Facebook page, and they do free shows all over the Kansas City area.

Alcove Spring

There isn't too much on Alcove Springs online yet, except where it's mentioned in just about every account of the ill-fated Donner party. I'm collecting resources, so let me know if you have anything. I'm helping a niece with a research project and started to get interested. It has an undiscovered feel to it, though it was one of the first and most popular stops along the Oregon Trail.

When I was growing up nearby, the spring was private property, and so not many people actually saw it. That helped preserve the site. The associations with cannibalism and doom likewise didn't appeal to many (not to mention band of agnostic vigilantes rumored to protect the site), but as several pioneers noted in their logs, it might be one of the most romantic spots in the country, and it feels unspoiled.




Don't know why blogger want's to rotate the ancient graffiti. Ironic that preserving graffiti is important to maintaining the spot, but the name was carved by one of America's most famous cannibals.


Been thinking about the bittersweet my niece found on the trail. There was no vine in sight and I looked, and the stuff brings a good price at farmer's markets... so I'm thinking somebody inappropriately harvested it and dropped a twig on the way out.

I love this place, but don't want it to get more famous.

Writing and Power

Grabbed the above image from a boingboing post on Woody Guthrie, an old artist activist who wrote a couple of my favorite songs (the motorcycle song and alice's restaurant).

I like it because it highlights a point I try to make with my classes - that language, and writing specifically, is all about power.

Sunflowers - photo essay

It's sunflower season. Field 5 .1 miles north east of Lawrence on Hi-way 24/40 - about halfway to Tonganoxie from Larryville on west side of road. I put the roadsigns below - but the field of yellow is hard to miss.

You can pay a dollar and cut your own to take home. It's the honor system and I hope they make $. I donated a buck out of appreciation. My wife took the best pictures in the morning around 9am. Earlier might be better. Because the field is west of the road and runs up a hill, late afternoon isn't as good - and the moths, bees and butterflies are better in the morning.






Can anyone name this moth?

Persied meteor shower?

Last night Perseid Meteor shower reached its peak, and we bundled up the family on a picture quest. My wife captured the moon over KU campus with 3 planets aligned - Mars, Venus and Saturn - over the top. We also experimented with sparklers while we waited for the meteor shower to start, but clouds moved in by 11, when the action was due to start. The lingering heat, persistent bugs and dust from the infrequent traffic on the old country road contributed to our heading home before midnight, without having gotten a pic of a shooting star, but I may try again later.

Teabonics

I'm hijacking images from a post from Boing Boing ( since I use links - it's legal).

How do these images apply to our discussion of students' right to their own language?

word

AT-AT's from Star Wars invade Overland Park

Kevin Burg, a local now living in New York and working in technology, created this using Photoshop. He explains that his mom:

has been sending me pictures of wintry fog in Overland Park, Kansas — and to me it always looks like the ice planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back. So, I took it a step further and added some AT-ATs. That’s my high school football stadium in the background.

See his original post.

happy new year

image found at BoingBoing.net

Big decade. In aught 1 bought a house, got married in aught 2, had a kid in aught 7 and hired on at JCCC in aught 9.