JackKozik.com » 2012

Walk Jackson Capitol area – State House, Governor’s Mansion, War Memorial

Jack Kozik — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 21:58:41 +0000

I was in Jackson on business. This was my first visit to the state of Mississippi, and I was looking forward to walk Jackson Capitol area.

I parked at the State Capitol, I walked around the grounds, I then made my way over to the Old State Capitol, now a museum, then walked a little further to the Governor’s Mansion, then headed back. The Jackson Capitol Area is a nice compact area in the historic downtown section of Jackson.

Jackson Capitol Area Sites

On my walk, I saw the following: USS Mississippi. Figurehead of Battleship, Sillers Building, Carroll Gartin Justice Building (Supreme Court), Mississippi Veterans Monument, State of Mississippi Medal of Honor Recipients, Veterans Monument, Secretary of State Office, …

And, the Liberty Bell replica, Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy, Lamar Life Building, War Memorial Building, Old Capitol Museum, Confederate Monument, St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral, Mississippi Governor’s Mansion, Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle, and more.

At this time of day, the downtown area appeared to be pretty empty. There were cars at the capitol area and near some law offices, but for the most part, restaurants, shopping, and other tourist type activities were found in other parts of town. This area is historic and architecturally interesting and I recommend a short visit.

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McCormick Place parking. Pack Expo + 4G World means hunting for parking. Lot A to Lot C

Jack Kozik — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 03:28:23 +0000

My McCormick Place parking adventure took me 45 minutes. Big hassle. Next time, I’ll go there with a backup plan in case things are really crowded. Here’ some background.

I am delighted to be attending the 4G World conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. I have been to conferences here for years and I was in for a surprise this year. The new West building is completed and the conference was sharing space with the PACK EXPO.

The Packaging Expo is freakin huge! It takes up the North, South and East buildings. This is like the size of the Consumer Electronics show. The most worthy 4G World conference takes up one floor of the new West building — lots of heart, but not alot of floor space. That’s ok, until it comes time to find parking!

As usual, I drive to the convention center and park at the usual parking lot, Lot A. Well it was full. I drive up and into the parking lot and the attendant said sorry full, please drive out and take 3 rights and a left to find the other parking lot. Well I couldn’t find any parking at all. The hotel parking was full. The private parking was full. So I stopped and asked someone else for parking. It was a long list of directions; I wrote them down.

I needed to drive to Lot C on the other side of Lake Shore Drive. One catch, you cannot get to Lot C from Lot A. But I found a route. Here it is for others:

(Starting from marker A on the map above) You need to find your way to South Michigan Ave, head down to 31st Street, cross LSD, and head North and look hard to find the Lot C sign. (near marker B on the map)

If you are programming your GPS, program Lot A (that’s the one you want to park at), but also program Lot C into your GPS for backup.

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Sanibel-Captiva and my new Nikon 500mm f4 Lens

Jack Kozik — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 14:01:16 +0000

The trigger for me buying the Nikon 500mm f4 Lens started when I tried to take pictures of the beautiful birds in Florida. With my more normal 18-200mm f3.5-5.8 lens, the picture of the birds were ok, but I wanted better. For this posting, I wanted to share some of the photos from my new telephoto lens from our recent vacation in Captiva Island, Florida.

Birds from Redfish Pass with my Nikon 500mm f4 Lens

Here’s two favorite examples with the depth of field set to f/6.3 On the left, the focus is on the Osprey and the foreground palm tree is blurred out. The focus on the right is sharply on the Pelican, with the background mangrove trees nicely blured out. You should see the full resolution pictures!

Above are a few more birds in flight photos. Using the 500mm f4 lens, these pictures were both shot at f/6.3 1/1250 with nice sharp focus with slightly blurred backgrounds. Very nice.

The two pictures above were both taken at f/4 1/2000. The Osprey were frequently seen flying overhead carrying a fish. Much more frequently, we saw Pelicans diving into the water to grab a mountfull of fish. Both soared beautifully overhead, nicely flying with the morning sunlight showing a very flattering, sharp view.

These pictures were all taken from the balcony of our condo over looking Redfish Pass. This small gap between the North most point of Captiva Island and North Captiva connects the Gulf of Mexico with the shallow Pine Island Sound. This stretch of water has lots of fish, and thus lots of big beautiful birds. Of course it helped alot that I took the pictures right after sunrise, with near perfect lighting!

Nikon 500mm f4 Lens used for Pictures from Ding Darling

A favorite activity for all visitors to Sanibel-Captiva is to visit the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a home for a wide range of Florida wildlife. A visitor drives slowly along Wildlife Drive and stops to look at the wide variety of birds. For this trip we saw: Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Iris, Black Crowned Night Heron, Roseate Spoonbills, Hawks, Osprey, etc.

The above pictures have Roseate Spoonbills. From my many years visiting Sanibel-Captiva, these birds are most commonly found here. Its always a thrill to see them. I have plenty of pictures of these guys, but they are much larger and clearer thanks to my new lens. Since our view of the marsh area is from an access road, I rarely get a closeup view.

And finally, here a nice picture of a Black Crowned Night Heron and Cormorants.

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Manhattan Walk – Flatiron, Empire State, and Herald Square

Jack Kozik — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:47:52 +0000

Flatiron Building view looking South on 5th and Broadway

I was in Manhattan for a day of meetings. My hotel, the location of the meetings, was on 26th Street right near 7th Ave. The late afternoon of my arrival I decided to go for a walk.

I started walking East on 26th; I passed by Broadway, and turned South onto 5th Ave. I walked down to the Flatiron Building. I looped back around, heading North on 5th to the Empire State Building. I turned left onto 34th, headed over to Macy’s. I took a break at Herald Square, then headed back South along Broadway to 26th. From there, I headed back to my hotel.

Along the way, I saw: Madison Square Park, Metropolitan Life Tower, NY Life Building, One Madison Park building, Merchandise Mart Building, Admiral Farragut monument, Worth Square, Marble Collegiate Church, Textile Building, 309 Fifth Avenue skyscraper under construction, Haier Building, James Gordon Bennett Memorial at Herald Square, One Penn Plaza, Herald Square Building, Greeley Square, etc.

The hotel was 6 short blocks from Penn Station / Madison Square Garden. The hotel proudly named itself the Hilton New York Fashion district.

The sky was clear with just wisps of clouds. The sun was low, and it made for some very nice photos. The next day, it rained, and I wouldn’t have been able to do this beautiful walk. I am glad I went for a walk when I did.

Manhattan Walk – Flatiron, Garment Districts

EveryTrail – Find the best Walking Tours in New York City

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Medellin – Feria de Las Flores and Fashion Week

Jack Kozik — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 02:52:08 +0000

I was visiting Medellin, Colombia on business for a day of meetings. The usual hotel near our offices was booked, so I stayed at the further away, but nicer InterContinental Hotel. It turned out the week was a very busy one: Fashion Week Colombiamoda was ending and the Flower Festival / Feria de Las Flores was starting, so I was lucky to get a room.

My stay was very short and I had no time for tourist things. So I took some pictures from my mobile phone while at the office and in a car.

The hotel is in the El Poblado area just off the Via Las Palmas highway. This is a major road that you follow to get to the airport. Just a short ways South on Via Las Palmas, there is a beautiful lookout point where you can see Medellin. My host took me here at night and it was breathtaking! It was a popular spot with lots of other people enjoying the view, too.

For reference, my cityscape photos were taken the Forum Skyscraper, 23rd floor. The building is located right next to a popular shopping place called the Sante Fe Mall. Both of these buildings are located in the La Aguacatala barrio of the El Poblado district of Medellin. A very nice section of town mixed with residential and business.

Medellín sits in the Aburrá Valley surrounded by hills that make up a section of the Andes Mountains. The city is at an elevation 5000ft; just North of the equator, the climate is beautiful — it never really gets too warm or too cold. It was between 60 and 75 when I was there, and it was late in July.

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Paris Walk – La Tour Eiffel, Rue Cler, École Militaire, Le Mur pour la Paix

Jack Kozik — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 01:53:06 +0000

I was done with my last day of meetings in Paris, and from my hotel I went for a walk before dinner.

I was staying two blocks from the La Tour Eiffel; I started from here, walked through the Champ de Mars (park land area by the Tour Effel), then North East up Rue Saint-Dominque, turning right onto Rue Cler. At the Southern point of the street, I made my way over to the École Militaire, where I walked my way toward La Tour Eiffel and back to my hotel.

Along the way I saw the following noteworthy sites: Église Saint-Pierre du Gros Caillou, Cavalerie, Joffre equestrian statue, Le Mur pour la Paix / The Wall for Peace.

Rue Cler. I learned about this street from the Rick Steves TV show. It’s a lively market street with fresh food, boulangeries, flowers, and outdoor cafes with lots of people and atmosphere. It was fun to walk through.

Champ de Mars. This is the park area between La Tour Eiffel and the École Militaire. I have been here before, but I haven’t ever walked it from the South East. First thing I noticed was the Peace Wall. This was a really nice monument, ironically located across the street from the military school. Also, the park was the site of a very lively outdoor concert with lots of people listening to the music.

This was a delightful early evening walk!

Paris Walk – La Tour Eiffel, Rue Cler, École Militaire, Le Mur pour la Paix at EveryTrail

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