On Saturday, 11/14/09, a protest took place to demonstrate against the dress code policy of the "KC Live!" courtyard area of the Power and Light District development in downtown KCMO. The protest began at City Hall and then proceeded to the steps of the Sprint Center, a short walk away, with the main portions of the Power and Light District across Grand Avenue.
As you may know, the dress code held by that section of the Power and Light District has been controversial due to how it seems to target fashions more often displayed by African-American youth. And given this city's difficult history with race relations, it's no wonder many are mad about it.
I must also throw in a disclaimer here: This is first and foremost a Kansas City-themed photoblog, featuring the events, life, and culture of my home city. I love to photojournalize whenever possible, especially when I sympathize with the cause - and I also have some photographs on display at one of the Power and Light District bars as part of the wall artwork there.
About the picture: Standing on the steps of the Sprint Center arena, some of Kansas City's religious leaders and activists from the black community spoke to the crowd after the walk from City Hall, where direct from the Human Relations Department itself recently came not-so-great news for the P&L's dress code. Since this is not a news blog, I'll abstain from belaboring the details.
On the technicals of the photo - I was excited about this picture due to several factors. The HDR processing I performed on the single camera-RAW file revealed the interior pillars and beams of the Sprint Center, along with the reflections of the P&L and downtown in the outer glass. I used the exposure blending function in Photomatix for the lower portion of the photo so the people would have a more natural look than is possible with complete tone-mapping in Photomatix, as was utilized for the upper portions of the photo where architecture is more prominent. Equipment used were my long relied-upon Canon 5D (original version) and my Canon 16-35 L II wide angle lens.
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