Baltimore Inner Harbor
Baltimore Docks
I’m starting to really love night photography. Nothing excites me more when I am on the road then to take a walk to get some great night skyline photos. Downtown Baltimore has so many places to go to get great pics. Every corner you turn is another great shot. Like Boston, the water and beautiful boats just make the scenery that much more amazing. I grabbed the below shot of the docks next to the Rusty Scupper over looking the harbor. The tall building in the back is the World Trade Center and the indoor rain-forest and Baltimore Aquarium sit to the right. I tried to do some HDR here. I took my first shot at f/3.5 2.5 s ISO 100 18mm and then -2, and +2. 3 merged photographs. I think it turned out pretty good.
The Power Plant
The Power Plant is what it says it is. Its an old power plant that was restored and turned into a shopping & dining strip. Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, nights clubs, bars, and Barnes & Noble have found this old place home. The B&N has the coolest part of the building. The old smoke stacks are still inside and have been hollowed out to make a cozy reading area inside. It’s a very unique B&N. I must say the coolest I have been in yet.
The Power Plant
After walking around down here all night long I went back to my room and turned on the TV to watch some news before calling it a night to see that a Baltimore city police officer was shot and killed here just the night before. The more I learn about Baltimore the more I hear the crime here is just overwhelming. I dont think I will be walking around town tomorrow night.
InterContinental Harbor Court
This hotel is located right on the Baltimore Harbor. The rooms are large and spacious but I do have one complaint: My bed feels like it needs a new mattress. Both sides of the bed have been so worn that it sinks near the floor when I lay down. The middle is a huge hump! I made it through the night. Let’s see if I stay in this room until Wednesday. I have a feeling one more night might be the last, and then I might have to go switch it up.
Don’t worry about the A/C in this place either! As usual, the first thing I do when I arrive to my room is turn the A/C all the way down in order to keep things nice and cool. More times than not, turning it down is never enough, but my room was an ice box after returning from my routine CVS stock the mini bar run. Marques told me this morning, his A/C isn’t working at all and that he is sweating it out in his room. So opinions may vary, but all in all, I’m happy with my home for the next 3 nights.
Tonight will be a Barnes & Noble night. There is a huge B&N light shining four stories high from the other side of the harbor just calling my name. I’m looking forward to a Starbuckles and a photography book for a couple hours.
Baltimore, MD
Baltimore is my first stop since starting the Glass Perspective blog. We had a short flight from RDU. It lasted all of about 50 minutes. I’m starting to give Southwest kudos lately…… the last three times I have flown them I have had very comfortable seating and non crowded flights. I must say, its been nice. I’m racking in to Rapid Rewards points towards another free flight too! But it doesn’t even come close to my current 60k miles on AA. Ok, enough Southwest love. So the Ravens had their season opener today and they won! We are staying at The Intercontinental Harbor Court Hotel located right on the Harbor in downtown Baltimore. Beautiful spot! The hotel is very old and has a ancient “granny house” feel to it.
Intercontinental Harbor Court - Baltimore, MD
Marques, Frances, and I walked the harbor walk this afternoon and ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe for some lunch. If you are looking for a good burger, hit this place up. $14 burgers are not common on my menu but this one was one of the best burgers I have had in a while.
We kick it off at 8am tomorrow. So that means I’ll be up at 5am. I’m using my trusty crew LSAV who is based out of Chicago. I heard they opened an office in DC so I got them on for the ride. So far, so good.
Shattered iPhone?
Yes, there comes a time when our most precious gadgets do break. I was told not to say this out loud anymore but my iPhone changed my life. As whack as it sounds, it really did. Once I got that phone, things changed. When I shattered the screen on my iPhone, I was pretty heartbroken. Then I became extremely upset. I guess you are wondering how I broke it huh? Yes, every broken phone story always has some humor to it. I mean I have ruined phones in many ways; I’ve dropped them in the toilet, dropped them in my beer, I have even dropped it out my car window and then drove over it trying to back up to get it! I was in San Antonio, TX down by the Riverwalk with some colleagues when we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant that served 60 oz margaritas which were $30! Only in TX will an Italian restaurant serve margaritas. You know what? Do I really have to keep going? Let’s just say the RiverWalk was the RiverSwim that night instead. Somewhere in the mix, I shattered my phone.
I called Apple. In order to fix the screen I had to send my phone off to have it replaced and it was going to cost me $250! Let’s do the math. A new iPhone with a service agreement is going to run me $299. That is more than 50% of the cost just to replace a peice of glass. So I thought I was done for. I was just getting ready to tuff it out and admit to myself this was going to be my phone for the next 4 months until I could get an updgrade when I found it…. Craigslist had an ad for fixing iPhone glass. I checked out the post and found out there is a place in the Triangle Towne Center in Raleigh on Capitol Blvd that fixes this stuff for $75. The piece itself cost $25. If you want to fix it yourself, thats all you pay. Or you can have the guy fix it for you for another $50. Again, still expensive but worth it. It beats Apple’s price of $250. Try to avoid the Apple Store unless its your last resort. The name of the store is PRO WIRELESS inside the Towne Center Mall. These guys know what they are doing! Unless you feel confident, I wouldnt do it yourself. As soon as that broken piece of glass comes off, that warranty is done!
After Effects Training
I’m a firm beleiver of doing it yourself. In college, I did a lot of reading into different types of software. Granted, I did major in Production Technology so I did learn a lot in class about video editing and documentry film but the most important thing you can do for yourself is go out there and do it on your own. Final Cut Pro is where it all started for me. After mastering FCPS2, another world opened up to me. Adobe After Effects. This is some really powerful software. People who dont really know what this is completely under estimate its potential. That being said, the brand new CS4 suite w/o an academic discount is going to run you around $1k. Or you can do what I like to call… never-mind.
Point of the story is this… I’m no pro at AE but if you want to learn some basics you have to check out the Video Copilot website. A guy named Andrew Kramer runs this site and you wont believe the crap he comes up with. It’s pretty impressive. He offers tutorials that will teach you AE from the ground up. I’ve done a few of these tutorials and after completeing one or two of them you start to get a good understanding at how AE works and you begin to pick up on tricks that you can use in other projects. When I was in college, this site was on my top five, and he is still dropping tutorials like every month. Give it a whirl at www.videocopilot.net
The Duke University Chapel
If you haven’t been here you need to go. This place is amazing. The detail in the architecture is unreal. The best time to go is around 7pm on a weekday. The sun is going down and casts a great light over the church. You can count on a wedding just about every weekend in the spring and fall. Be sure to bring your camera and a wide angled lens for some awesome photos! To see more, visit my Flickr page
did you say free?
Let’s face it, everything is better when it’s free right? CreativeTechs are offering webinars online that are teaching some pretty decent software. You can sign up and take a 10-week course on Dreamweaver. If 1000 people sign up to attend the webinar, it will air free. Thank you CreativeTechs! Other classes are also offered for things like Photoshop, Lightroom, photography, and Flash. http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-photoshop-photography-web-classes/ Sign up!
I welcome myself… from a new perspective…
Today I will start a blog. It stands for an important day in my life.
Today is my anniversary for working with my company for a full year.
My 6 year old daughter had her first day of 1st grade!!! Wow. I’m 25. Cherish it people. They grow up fast.
Hopefully this can turn out to be successful and I can help some people along the way. The goal of this blog is to entertain, educate, and help people stay in touch with where I am and what I am doing. I need a way to share my daily travels with my family and I need a central location to share my photography (the glass perspective). So without further adieu…. enjoy and link this into your network.
Some of this may seem out of order. I have merged several blogs into one. I have posted older submissions I made earlier in the year into this blog. However, ”Glass Perspectives” was born on this day.
Hyatt Harborside – Boston, MA
This hotel caused some issues for me. First, the hotel double booked all of our rooms. We wont get into all the details but just know that you need to pay close attention to your folio while staying here. I was charged an extra $175 for a room upgrade by the front desk. My room wasnt ready when I arrived so I said I would take the first available then switch into my harbor view room when it was ready, which I did. Come to find out when I checked out, they charged me as an upgrade! No thanks! I had that one reversed and got everything kicked back down to zero dollars….. even my internet charges were comp’d. Nice! But make sure you get the harbor view room if you stay here because this view is priceless. Amazing photos of the skyline right form your hotel room window. Check ‘em out on my Flickr page. The food was pretty good. I recommend the Pepper crusted Filet in the Harbor side restaurant. The rooms were very nice and comfortable. Here are some pictures.
Shout outs!