July 10, 2015

I went on an evening trek to Standing Bear with my brother last night, and I had the sense to bring along my real camera.  We went all the way around the lake this time, though part of our journey included walking dangerously on the side of the road at 144th Street.  The path doesn't make a full circle around the lake, so you're forced (if you're on foot) to go off road if you want to do a loop.  I'm not sure of the distance we walked, but we left around 7:30 p.m. and didn't get back until about 9:30 p.m.  It had to have been several miles, so it was a good little workout.

Here are the photos I took.  Arguably, the coolest photo was the cell phone Instagram photo.  I was too lazy to switch lenses to replicate the shot with my dSLR, so the higher quality shots are closeups of some grasses on the side of the lake.

July 9, 2015

Well, with our ridiculous amount of free time before the school year starts, my brother and I decided to check out the Henry Doorly Zoo.  I was just there last year, but figured it was still worth it to go.  The zoo is never boring for me!  It was an abnormally cool day for mid-July (only in the mid-70's), so I thought it would be a great opportunity.  Usually, the zoo is insanely hot with 80% humidity, so I wanted to take advantage of the nicer weather.

We avoided the areas that we've seen since we were kids and that don't change much, such as the Lied Jungle and the aquarium.  It's not that those areas aren't cool, they're just kind of old hat at this point.  Instead, we went to the desert dome, cat house, ape house, petted stingrays, and went over to see the giraffes.  After a couple hours, we were way too tired to make the trek out to the rhinos, we packed made the treacherous (for out-of-towners) drive back to our part of Omaha.

Here are a few pictures from the day.  I didn't get too snap happy this time.  

A klipspringer contemplating jumping over the fence.

A wide shot of the desert dome.

Desert dome ceiling and fake cliffs.

Leaves and more of the ceiling that fascinated me.

A peacock taking advantage of spilled popcorn.

More desert dome

The Skyfari...the line was way too long for us to attempt a ride.

A derpy looking snow leopard sitting in a box.

A tiger looking majestic.

A vulture...creepy but also strangely cool.

Omaha Life Thus Far (July 7, 2015)

I haven't ironed out walking routes or paths just yet, but I did discover some cool areas for potential photography around Standing Bear Lake.  I didn't have my nice camera with me, but I did take a few shots with my cell phone.

I also had the pleasure of being able to see a fireworks show hosted by Champions Run golf course.  They put on a pretty impressive show.  I can't even imagine how much it must have cost!

Anyway, my brother (my roommate this year) and I have mostly been doing a lot of exploring of Omaha and our apartment facilities.  I've taken advantage of the pool several times, he's used the raquetball court, and we went mall hopping yesterday.  I'm slowly getting the hang of Omaha driving.  I got so used to Lincoln, but Omaha is an entirely different animal.  To quote a comedian I saw at the Funny Bone a couple years ago, "Dodge Street is not for beginners."

Well, here are a couple of the shots I have so far.  With any luck, more will be on the way!

Cool looking blue fireworks....

My favorite of the fireworks shots I got on the Fourth of July.

Boaters at Standing Bear Lake

Wildlfowers

Even more wildflowers

A little pond off to the side of the lake

The End of My Time in Lincoln (for Now)

Well, I've been moved into my Omaha apartment for a few days and finally feel settled enough to post up a few straggler images I took in my final days near campus and downtown Lincoln.  It's pretty weird living in a different place, and I've definitely gotten lost driving around a few times, but my new apartment is about 1000 times nicer than my old one.  As I've told several people, in retrospect, I feel sorry for "Past Tiara" and all the crap she had to put up with at the old place.  However, living in my little dungeon of an apartment made me more appreciative of this one, so there's the silver lining.

Anyway, here are a few more random images from the past couple weeks.  I also posted a video that is essentially a summary of the Lincoln Skyline Project.  I didn't include ALL of the images, but tried to pick the most interesting ones from my early days with this blog.

I'm still working on a new name.  Perhaps just "Skyline Project"?  I haven't really decided...

Yet another picture of the sunset from the other day.  This one is a cell phone shot.

A curvy path near South Street in Lincoln.

Summer, fall, and spring versions of the walking path near the Lincoln Children's Zoo.

June 25-26, 2015

As discussed in my last post, I've been trying to make the most of my time in Lincoln and all of my familiar walking and photography spots before I leave.  I was able to catch some neat shots in the pollinator garden along the Antelope Creek walking trails, flowers close to Sheldon Art Museum on campus, and a beautiful sunset.

I was proud of all of these shots for different reasons.  The pollinator garden photos I took a couple days ago were much better than ones I took last year.  The lighting was better, the garden is more established, and I feel like my photography skills have progressed.  The art museum photo thrilled me not only because I liked the shot, but because it got picked up by the official UNL Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.  I felt social media famous for a day.  Finally, I was proud of the sunset shot because I took it when my camera was on its last minutes of battery life.  I thought I was screwed when I saw the flashing battery sign, but I managed to conserve energy long enough to get the shot I wanted.

Here they are!

June 22, 2015

I've been trying to take as many walks around my old campus and downtown haunts as I can in my final week living in Lincoln.  Honestly, the myriad of trails in my part of town and the variety of things to photograph is perhaps the thing I'll miss the most about this town.  All of my patterns will have to change, including my "go to" photography spots.

Here are a few Instagram shots from my wandering...

Early Summer Scenes Around Lincoln

Well, the past couple weeks haven't been too horribly eventful.  I finished up my master's project and presented it the first week of June, which was a tremendous relief.  I've also been ironing out all of the details for moving to Omaha for my new teaching job, which has been a little stressful at times.  For the past week, I have had the final class of my master's degree to deal with, as well.  However, everything is moving along nicely.

Mostly, I'm just trying to enjoy my last couple weeks in Lincoln.  I like Lincoln.   It has been my home for six years and the place where I first set out on my own in college and young adult life.  However, the cards did not fall in a manner that allows me to stay here, so I will be living the Omaha life in a couple weeks.  I may have to rename my blog "Skyline Project" or something more generic since the title will no longer be appropriate come July.

I also considered handing this over to my sister.  She has the same job I did during the creation of this blog, and her dorm room has virtually an identical view to the one I had.  Additionally, she has a far more advanced camera compared to what I used four years ago.  We'll see...

For now, here are some photos from my more recent wanderings...

Reflections following a storm as seen from the 17th and R parking garage.

Construction of the new CBA building on UNL's campus.

Sunset over Memorial Stadium.

Stairs and shadows on UNL's main campus.

Looks like the trails are recovering nicely from May flooding.

The good old Capitol Building

The Rose Garden by the zoo is in full bloom

Pretty blue and purple flowers lining the trails next to the zoo.