Madnessmatrix | Eric Bowers Photography

Three tripod mounted RAWs // HDR // Shutter: varied // Aperture: f/13 // Focal Length: 100 mm // ISO 320

I took this photo Friday night from Brooklyn looking toward Manhattan, right as Halloween revelry was heating up all over the city.

I’m home in Kansas City now, and am physically and mentally drained after all the work I’ve done this week. But New York is a great place to be for grown-ups on Halloween. There was a parade through Greenwich Village which brought out the crowds - and there was such a palpable sense of jubilant insanity in the streets that it felt great to be taking up this thing known as travel photography - if that’s what I’m really doing.

The New York photos will be coming regularly on this site for quite some time…

One tripod mounted RAW // HDR // Shutter: 30 sec. // Aperture: f/22 // Focal Length: 17 mm // ISO 800

…a look at the forlorn ruins of of the West Bottoms district of Kansas City; photo taken a week or two back.

Today will be my final day in New York City - returning home Saturday.

One tripod mounted RAW // HDR // Shutter: 4 sec. // Aperture: f/10 // Focal Length: 17 mm // ISO 400

From Waterfire last Saturday… a long exposure with the fire twirling on the right, and a totally still photog to the left.

As I’ve noted earlier, I’m in New York for the week - a couple of the shots I’ve gotten so far might be blog-worthy, but I am in extreme physical discomfort throughout it all.

Three handheld RAWs // HDR // Shutter: varied // Aperture: f/40 // Focal Length: 17 mm // ISO 640

This is one from walking around downtown Kansas City last week.

Currently I’m in New York City, and am two-fifths of the way through my time here but already have blisters on both feet. I’ll be getting to posting a few of the NYC photos after I get home on Saturday.

Three tripod mounted RAWs // HDR // Shutter: varied // Aperture: f/8.0 // Focal Length: 24 mm // ISO 400

Saturday evening’s Waterfire on the Plaza.

One handheld RAW // HDR // Shutter: 1/250 // Aperture: f/13 // Focal Length: 400 mm // ISO 320

A scene featuring Kansas City police officers with our fantastic skyline as the backdrop, on the day last week when Barack Obama was in town.

One tripod mounted RAW // HDR // Shutter: 2 sec. // Aperture: f/5.0 // Focal Length: 15 mm // ISO 640

Here’s a fisheye-almost-under-the-bridge shot, as I kneeled down low to the sidewalk. One of the canoes was passing by during the five seconds the shutter was open here.

One tripod mounted RAW // HDR // Shutter: 5 sec. // Aperture: f/8.0 // Focal Length: 17 mm // ISO 400

The Waterfire event was last night - lighting up wood burning torches in the creek, set to eclectic music and dance performances, and some fire-twirling thrown in too. Trying to photograph it kept me busy for awhile anyway. I will be posting more photos from the event in the coming days.

My camera and wide angle lens fell hard on the pavement along the creek before the event started - I was on an incline and didn’t have the tripod legs stretching far enough, so the whole apparatus tumbled - the tripod, my Canon 5D  which I sold one of my kidneys for, and my wide angle lens that was attached.

I’ll be leaving for New York today, but the site should keep up to date throughout the week, though no new photos from New York until I get back to Kansas City next Saturday.

Three handheld RAWs // HDR // Shutter: varied // Aperture: f/22 // Focal Length: 15 mm // ISO 500

The waning sun and the clouds caused some fairly interesting lighting yesterday evening, so I went out for a few minutes of photo taking. This is the little “Antique District” at 45th near State Line.

Three handheld RAWs // HDR // Shutter: varied // Aperture: f/5.0 // Focal Length: 15 mm // ISO 640

Long may we lament the demise of summer.

Right now I’m listening to some songs by The Bravery… which works well since the sun hasn’t come up yet.

We had a consistent and thick cloud cover over Kansas City yesterday, and since I ended up going downtown anyway, I walked around for an hour snapping new photos - using just my fisheye lens and my normal wide angle lens - refraining from climbing to the top of the superfluous parking garages for elevated photos and the like - I’ve done that so often before.

For times when one wants to combine a day of total cloudiness with handholding multiple source images for HDR processing, a pretty wide aperture helps out in getting the quick shutter speeds to reduce movement and shake between shutter firings when collecting the source images handheld and unencumbered by a tripod. Bracketing and burst mode are a must for this scenario, of course.

Conversely, when there’s sunshine - I usually hope for at least partial cloudiness and then use a narrow aperture to accentuate the sunrays poking through the clouds - always fun.

Anyway, another reminder that Waterfire Kansas City is tomorrow night at Brush Creek - then I’m off to NYC for a week - but this site should remain up to date throughout the week.