Blue "Light Channels" on Commerce Street

This is the first, in what is sure to be several shots, of the Public Art San Antonio display "Light Channels" (created by Bil FitzGibbons) on the IH-37 underpass on Commerce Street. The underpass is lit with many multi-colored LED lights, creating a very surreal experience as you drive or walk by the underpass. This shot was taken when the lights were blue and I managed to capture some tail light streaks of a passing car to help accentuate the color scheme. I took about 20 shots of various colors, but I liked how this one came out the best, thus I processed this shot first. In the distance you can see the base of the Marriott Hotel tower.

Approximately two blocks to the right of this shot is the new haunted house in San Antonio "13th Floor Haunted House". I tried to get some interesting shots of that, but couldn't find any angles and lighting that I liked, so I instead tried to capture as many different appearances of the overpass that I could.

Blue "Light Channels" on Commerce Street

Komodo Dragon

This shot was taken at the San Antonio Zoo of the Komodo Dragon that is on display there. The Komodo Dragon is the largest living species of lizard in the world, with the average size being between 6 and 8 feet. The Komodo Dragon can be quite vicious and although they are very large, there have not been many cases of human attacks (however, a fisherman was killed by two Komodo Dragons in 2009 and a small child was killed by one in 2007).

It is a very interesting animal to see (and the picture really doesn't do the Komodo Dragon justice for how large it really is). I included the National Geographic website in the photo description if you would like to read more about this impressive creature!

Komodo Dragon at the San Antonio Zoo

Mars Pathfinder Lander and Sojourner Rover

This shot is of the full-size Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner Rover model, built by JPL, that is on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. (Since they are on Mars, it would be pretty difficult to get a shot of the real one!)

I recently had the chance to watch the film "Roving Mars" which discusses in great detail the complexity of landing rovers on Mars and how they performed much better than anticipated. The film covered the two subsequent rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, although they were very similar to Sojourner.

Sojourner made a successful landing on Mars on 4 July 1997, marking the first landing on Mars since the Viking landers in 1976. Unfortunately, communication with Sojourner was lost on 27 September 1997 and was never regained. It is pretty amazing to look at everything that had to be done for these missions and how well the Mars rover missions have performed to date. I hope you enjoy the photo!

Mars Rover

Overlooking San Antonio (with a wide angle lens)

As I mentioned in my posts from my trip to DC, I purchased a wide angle lens that allows me to capture much more of everything in photos compared to what I was using at the time, the stock 18-55mm lens that came with my T1i. This shot has all three hotel towers, plus part of the Hilton, as well as the Alamodome and Tower of Americas, whereas in the previous shot the Marriott was the only tower that was fully visible.

This is another shot, from the same perspective, as what is currently my most popular photo, which I included for comparison purposes. This was taken early on a Saturday morning just before a thunderstorm came through, I am planning on revisiting this weekend to get some shots with more traffic, pedestrians, and tourists (and maybe manage to get a few other shots that I've been hoping for).

I also have had another month or so to get used to refining the process, and I think this photo overall came out much better (it doesn't have the overwhelming colors that my previous effort contained)(I don't think it makes the original look bad, I just like the more realistic look much more). I hope you enjoy this shot!

San Antonio in the early morning

Original San Antonio downtown shot

James S. McDonnell Space Hangar

I took this shot within the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center just before I was informed by security of the "no tripod" stance at the Smithsonian. I asked one of the tour guides the day before this photo if we were indeed allowed to have tripods, and I was informed while that was the policy, as long as I visited on a weekday with a small tripod and paid extra attention so I did not hamper the experience of any of the other guests, they wouldn't say anything to me. The security guards apparently sometimes enforce the no tripods rule and sometimes they do not, I believe it is based purely on the amount of visitors and being courteous (I think the security guard that told me no tripods was just having a bad day, as there were about 50 other people total in the center while I was taking photos). The information below is from the write-up in the picture itself, but I think it captures the highlights of the Hangar.

The Steven S. McDonnell Space Hangar the the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, near Dulles International Airport. The Hangar is home to more than 500 artifacts, including the Space Shuttle Enterprise, Mars Rover, the model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as the following items:

- the manned maneuvering unit used for the first-ever untethered spacewalk

- a film return capsule from the last Corona satellite spy mission over the U.S.S.R.

- the flotation collar and bags used for the Apollo 11 splashdown

- a Gemini paraglider research vehicle used to train for potential ground landings

- Pegasus, the first aircraft-launched rocket booster to carry satellites into space

- a form-fitting centrifuge seat made exclusively for Mercury astronaut John Glenn

- a full-scale engineering prototype of the Mars Pathfinder Lander

- a human-sized, NASA-built android used for 1960s spacesuit testing

- the Spartan 201 satellite, deployed for solar research during five shuttle missions

- "Anita," a spider carried on Skylab for web formation experiments

- advanced spacesuit prototypes

- research crystals formed in orbit

- space-themed toys from the 1950s and 1960s

- borscht in tubes, prepared for Soviet cosmonauts

You can read more about the hangar and items on display at: http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/articles/space_opening.cfm

James S. McDonnell Space Hangar