Photos

Kennedy Space Center

  • Lightning Towers

    3 lightning towers designed to direct bolts away from the launch pad that they surround.

  • Lucky Shot!

    A gull dive-bombing to catch a fish, at the moment of impact. Took quite a few trys to capture this!

  • Seaside Bunker

    Looking out into the Atlantic, one of the main launch platforms would have been behind me. According to our guide this little bunker was used to house sensitive equipment for detecting electricity in the air, as lightning is a grave threat to launches.

  • Apollo Guidelines

    A list of mission status and abort codes from the Apollo era. View full size to read it.

  • Facility Panorama (Click the full-size image for a better view)

    A panorma with a view of several facilities. The location this was shot from was formerly a public viewing area for space launches, but has been deemed too dangerous since then.

Last November, I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, while visiting relatives living in the area.
Fri, 01/17/2014 - 10:11
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Oktoberfest 2013

  • Locking horns
  • Yodelers

    A group of 3 yodelers and their alphorns, these instruments were traditionally used for communicating mountaintop to mountaintop in the past.

  • Tribute

    A tribute to soldiers of a local division in WWII, a gift from Italy.

  • Grounds

    Looking out over the grounds of the area, many local vendors set up tents to show off their homemade products every year.

  • Olympic Ski Jumps

    Not the best photo, but I think it came out alright considering the range was about 12 miles.

Every October, the ski resort at Whiteface Mountain has a small Oktoberfest. Traditional German music, food, beer, and demonstrations are featured, and many local vendors come to show off their homemade crafts.

This is the first time I've gone in many years, and the first time I went being older than 21! It's a ton of fun and is definitely worth checking out if you're in the area during the skiing offseason.

Thu, 10/17/2013 - 09:47
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Exploring Benson Mines

  • Ore Silos

    Rusting silo between concrete silos for holding iron ore. It looked like there was more machinery on top of the silos that had rusted away and collapsed.

  • Transformer Gauge

    The guts of the transformer were missing, probably stolen by copper thieves.

  • Abandoned Excavator's Engine
  • Machine Shop

    Judging from the abundance of 440 volt hookups in the building, this likely was some sort of machine shop.

  • No Entrance

    Back door to the machine shop.

Benson Mines is a long-abandoned iron mine near Watertown, NY. The mine was shut down in 1978 and the buildings and have been completely abandoned ever since. Abandoned man-made structures are my favorite to take pictures of, so I couldn't resist exploring!
Tue, 10/01/2013 - 09:26
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