Sold one of my favorite photos of my Alma Mater, Milton Hershey School, today
Thank you to the buyer from Wake Forest, NC for your purchase.
I have several other angles of Founders Hall and during daylight hours, but I have come to like this one the best as you can see Founders Hall light up at night like this from all over Hershey.
If I remember right, you could see the top of the Dome from the student homes I use to live in while there and it is one of the buildings that has not changed since I attended school there.
First I have to say this one is a little overdue as I thought I had already posted this, but had not. So forgive the lateness.
After extensive online searching for the best price on a rental vehicle on my trip to New Zealand last May, I settled on renting from Ace Rental, Airport branch.
We booked very early in that I booked the People mover (Van for those in the US) back in Oct when our trip wasn’t until the following May and got the best rate out of all the rental agencies I could find for Auckland.
Booking online we easy and convenient. The only confusion I had been when I got the confirmation it showed as “Tourism Enterprises Ltd trading as “Ace Rental Cars””.
When we arrived in Auckland we called the Airport branch from their courtesy phone at the airport and they arrived in their shuttle van with a trailer for our luggage within 10 mins.
At the branch, the staff were friendly and got us squared away with the paperwork rather quickly. We did opt for the full insurance which I think made the paperwork go much quicker.
Now here is where I had the only problems.
After getting the paperwork done, they walked us out to check out the vehicle and walked up to a car, this was not what we had reserved as we had reserved a People mover (Van for those in the US)
I showed them my booking receipt and they apologized and we walked back in while they got the People mover ready. We went out and checked out the vehicle, put our luggage in and drove off. This vehicle had a problem right from the start in that at about 50K it had a horrible engine noise and no acceleration and then the check engine light came on. We immediately took it back and after waiting another 10-15 minutes they got us another People mover for us and we drove off into the city without issues this time.
We were very happy with this vehicle and had no issues with it while on our trip. At the time of our booking, they offered AA (AAA for those in the US) roadside assistance, if you needed it, but we did not, so I cannot speak to that. But most Auto Associations have very good service.
I would recommend getting the full insurance, as many roads outside of the city have loose stone and can easily chip the windshield, which did happened in our case. That and you do not have to deal with the large hold on you card (what they call Excess and Bond)
When we returned the People mover it only took a few minutes to check the vehicle in and the shuttle to take us to the departure terminal was already there, so we when right off to the terminal.
Despite the minor problems, I would still recommend this company due to the value for the service. The next closest competitor was at least $300 more and that was a similar service to Ace. If you went with the name brand agencies I would have spent over $1000 more.
Also, these are late-model vehicles with higher mileage than you would find at a name brand agency, but that is how they keep their costs down. Since they are late-model vehicles, the might get lower gas mileage/kilometers that a newer vehicle, but I in our case the gas consumption was about the same as a newer model and thus didn’t justify paying the higher rental fee. The vehicles all seemed well cleaned and in good shape as I checked out several of the cars while we were waiting for People mover to become ready.
I would take a copy of your rental confirmation with you and do one thing that I didn’t, call or email the branch you are renting from the day before just to confirm your reservation. This way they should have the right vehicle ready for you when you arrive.
A People Mover rented from the Auckland Airport Ace RentalEntrance to Ace Rental on Manu Tapu Drive, just a few Kilometers from the Airport.
One of my favorite photographers is starting up a new video show next week where masters of The Arcanum critique photos of their apprentices and others and was drumming up support for the show but asking his viewers/followers to post a photo of theirs to be critiqued.
So I submitted one of mine and they decided to do the critique of it in their “Live Critiques for the New Show Launch Day!” video
I’m the second photo in the video around the 3:27 min mark.
Came home early tonight to see the rocket launch from Wallops Island and to see if I could get a good photo of the arch in the sky as I was within viewing range this time.
Well that was a bust due to the launch being scrubbed thanks to a sailboat being in a restricted area.
But I got a bonus as the ISS (International Space Station) was also flying overhead at around the same time. And was able to capture part of its path across the sky.
Just in case you are wondering, the orange glow in the bottom left was a neighbors outdoor fire, the orange glow on the horizon is Baltimore City lights and the thin white line in the middle is the ISS streaking across the sky.
While I was waiting for the rocket launch was able to capture a nice sunset with the moon in 1st quarter.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the 2015 Johns Hopkins Credit Union Calendar in my mailbox today and I’ve finally found out which of my images they selected.
And the winner is.
You find it on the month of September.
Again, I am humbled that they selected one of my photos for the calendar and hope folks enjoy it and the many other excellent photos in the calendar this year.
This week has been busy here in Baltimore. From September 10-16, Baltimore has hosted the Star Spangled Spectacular Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of our National Anthem.
Part of the event included visiting Naval ships along with various Tall ships from around the work. Along with the Navy’s Blue Angels.
I’d say my highlight of the weekend was the Blue Angels show, it was awesome seeing them fly over Baltimore, the inner harbor area, and over Fort McHenry.
Below is a small sampling of some of the pictures I got over the weekend. Check out Americankiwiphoto.com for my favorites when I’m done processing them.
For 6 years now the Johns Hopkins Medicine community (University and Hospital) have been participating in The National Arts Program and I missed getting any of my work into those shows. I didn’t even find out the program existed until last year when I happened to walk through the Turner Auditorium’s lower level and see everyone’s work on display.
This year I made sure that I would have a photo that is part of the program.
So come on by the Turner Auditorium lower level anytime between Sept 9 and Nov 16, 2014 to view my work along with many other talented artists from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Community.
This is a judged show for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Best of Show prizes, but it also has a People’s Choice Award that you get to vote on. So come on down and vote for my photo.
I got some good news this morning that one or more of my photos are going to be included in the JHFCU’s (Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union) 2015 Calendar.
Part of the Congratulations message I got this morning.
Congratulations! Your photo(s) has been selected for JHFCU’s 2015 calendar. We received many entries and had only a limited number of slots, so picked the photos that we felt best represented the Hopkins community and Baltimore area.
The calendars are being printed now and will be distributed to members at upcoming benefits fairs, then in branches on November 1st.
I’m not sure which photo(s) they ended up selecting yet as I submitted 3, so I’ll have to wait until the calendar becomes available to find out.
I feel honored to have had them select any of my photos for the calendar and when I find out which photo or photos I’ll add the photo(s) to this post.
Yay Me!. As they said, there were a limited number of slots and the fact that any one of the over 38,000 members could have submitted a photo, I can’t help but be excited one of mine got accepted.
Update: Still don’t know which one they selected, but I did figure out which photos I submitted and here they are.
Which do you thing it was.
Domino Sugars Plant in BaltimoreShip in Harbor at Night in the Inner Harbor BaltimoreThe Pride of Baltimore II in the Harbor just south of Fort McHenry
