Fortress Hays

Fall Semester classes begin today at Fort Hays State University. I shot this GigaPan of Picken Hall last spring just days before graduation. Where has the summer gone?

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

Just one more week until classes begin at FHSU. Time to buy some books!

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

Shot at the end of last winter, this is the view of St. Joseph Catholic Church from the southeast. How many pigeons can you spot on the roof and steeple?

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

Martin Allen Hall is located between Picken and Rarick Halls on the campus of Fort Hays State University. According to the FHSU website:

Martin Allen Hall is named after Martin Allen who settled in Hays City in 1873 and attempted to make improvements to the city by planting and cultivating in the surrounding areas. Allen was the man most responsible for Old Fort Hays becoming a College. Martin Allen Hall is the home of the Psychology Department.

This image was shot in mid-July 2008. If you look closely you can see evidence of some of the construction that was just getting going on campus at that time. You might also spot my GigaPanning assistants Edi and Berti if you look closely.

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

1401 Ash Street is a house I’ve always admired. I’m not sure exactly why - maybe it’s the turret room. In any case it looked lovely this past spring when the trees were in full blossom. Does anyone know the proper name for these pink-blossoming trees?

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

I’ve neglected this blog for far too long. To make up for it, I’m going to begin a series of regular, weekly postings in order to spur my writing. I’ll begin this with a series that I’m going to refer to as “GigaPan Mondays”. Each Monday I’ll post a GigaPan image from around Hays, Kansas for your viewing pleasure. Some will have stories, others will stand on their own. You’re encouraged to visit the GigaPan.org website where you can log in and create shapshots of details of these images and make comments on them.

To begin the series I’ve selected a GigaPan I shot this past spring of the Tea Rose Inn Bed & Breakfast at the corner of Fort and Thirteenth Streets. I haven’t stayed there myself, but perhaps someone who has can comment on what the experience was like.

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

I haven’t used 67601.com much for a couple of months now, but I had recently made a post there for Easter. When I went back to check on that post today I was greeted with the disappointing news that Michael was shutting the site down, in what sounds like it will be a more permanent way than past hiatuses. Michael cited increasing legal threats and the burden of running the site and I can certainly understand his decision.

Although I can’t say I’ll miss much of the banter that made up the site’s day to day traffic, I do think that 67601.com served a noble purpose in giving ordinary citizens a place to publicly publish their thoughts and conduct conversations on matters of importance to the community. I would hope that those members who wish to continue to be heard and to continue the valuable conversations begun there consider starting blogs of their own, as I have here at Fortress Hays. Discussions in the blogosphere may lack some of the immediacy of a discussion board like 67601.com, but they can be a conduit for concerned citizens to speak publicly on matters of local importance. Many free and/or low cost hosted blogging services exist - I’d suggest Wordpress or Blogger, to name just two. If you do begin a blog with a local focus, please post a comment here with a pointer to your new site. I’ll try to aggregate a blogroll (in the right hand sidebar) of those who do so.

Thanks for all of your efforts over the years Michael. 67601.com will not be soon forgotten.

For Easter this year the Gigapan.org website is featuring a number of GigaPan images with “hidden” Easter Eggs. I have the honor of having posted one of the eight featured images. So if you’re up for a little exploring, welcome to my front yard. There are three dozen hidden eggs, as well as two Easter bunnies and a couple of other treats. If you view the image on the Gigapan website you can login and take snapshots of all of the eggs and critters that you find. Happy hunting and Happy Easter!

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

It’s been about 4 months since I got my GigaPan robotic tripod head and began taking Gigapan photos. One of my earliest panoramas with the new robotic head was a taken from just west of the southern edge of town and was one of the subjects of this blog post. The earlier panorama had a lot of vignetting because I didn’t have sufficient overlap between the images when I originally shot them. I’ve learned a lot over the last couple of months and so for the beginning of Spring I decided to go out an reshoot that panorama (slightly expanded) for my hundredth GigaPan. Here’s the result…

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Click on the image and use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out. You can also move around by simply clicking and dragging on the image. Probably best enjoyed in the full screen version.

A new GigaPan of the ice storm damage downtown in Hays, KS.

Limb down on 12th, just west of Fort