STL DPB ON THE ROAD - NIGHT IN TAMARINDO

We've been coming to this town regularly for maybe a dozen years. Every time we see more development and more crowds. This building wasn't here, or maybe was still under construction, at our last visit. Fortunately, we stay a distance out of the center where commercial development is restricted.             

WEDNESDAY NIGHT IN BOLOGNA

We made it, drooping with jet lag. Quick pic for now. Had a marvelous dinner of a regional specialty dish, tortellini al ragu, and then found this around the corner.     

 

WARP SPEED

Night on one of The Lou's main arterial roads. Interstate 64 runs east-west and bisects St. Louis City and County. This was taken from a bridge over the highway connecting the Planetarium on the north and the main building of the Science Center to the south.  There was a ledge where I could set down my camera for stability. What particularly interests me is the different colors of headlights with the various technologies of recent years.         

NIGHT LIFE ON THE STREET

A typical summer night in The Lou, hanging out in the parking lot at Ted Drewes' (if you can find a space). Families, teens and a few odd photographers hanging around. I don't know why the blue car left its lights on but it makes for a better picture.                

Lizards And Leftovers

I need to run through some more images from Costa Rica until there is an opportunity to shoot new material back here. (There is something on  tomorrow.) Going back over the files, I found this. For some reason it got past me on my first review. This was taken during a night walk in the Monteverde cloud forest with a superb local guide. How he finds these little critters in the dark, even with a flashlight, is beyond me.   

Thursday Arch Series

View from my office window after a heavy thunderstorm rolled through Tuesday evening. This was taken with an iPhone 5 and an Olloclip with the fish eye adapter. Fun little toy.  

    

Night Game

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The tent in yesterday's post was in a parking lot across from Busch Stadium, where the defending baseball champion Cardinals play. The ballpark had a nice glow on the quiet street so I took some snaps in that direction.

Something strange is going on in these pictures. If you look carefully at the right of the first picture and the top of the second, you'll see green dots that are the upside-down mirror image of the bright white lights of the entrance. This must be happening within the elements of the lens, a Canon EF 85mm 1:1.8 prime. If there are any techies out there who can explain it I'd love to know.

Our surprisingly big Mardi Gras season starts today with the dog parade in the Soulard neighborhood. STL DPB will be covering it. Images tomorrow.

More Of The Same, But Different

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Another night shot in Citydarden. Color works better in this one. In the foreground is the park's most visited work, Igor Mitoraj's Eros Bendato (Eros Bound). It's been on this blog a few times before. It is a hard work to interpret. In this dark shot, it makes me think of a decapitated head lying on the ground - those dead empty eyes. Just four blocks away in the Old Post Office Plaza is Mitoraj's Icarus, a work just as mysterious. It's up to the viewer.

Tomorrow is Thursday and I actually have a few new Arch pictures. Would you like simple and elegant, rhythmic and symmetrical in a urban setting, or lurid color?

Sorry that yesterday was a no comments day. I spent the evening assembling frame kits for my stuff that was accepted in Seen 2011, STL's big year end photo competition and show. They took five images (this, this, this, this and this). Of course, judges being what they are (each of us is the only perfect judge), they didn't take my best couple of images of the year. More about that, maybe, on the January 1 theme day.

Night In The City

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Citygarden at night. The darkness is broken, though, by selective lighting on the sculpture, some of the foliage and the nearby buildings. The wacky architecture of the Civil Courts Building is on the left. The top glows yellow and red these day. The lights on the side of the building after hours are always in that sort of double-L pattern. It's all a bit unsettling.

When I wrote the title for this post I had an immediate association with a song I liked a lot from 1967. Geez, that was the year I graduated from high school. It's a near-miracle that I can remember it.

Evening Stroll

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It's a good time of year for night shots. The sun sets before I leave work and it's not too cold yet. In Citygarden, next to the nearly-empty streets at 9th and Market, Kiera and Julian continue their endless, futile stroll toward the Arch.

Night Interchange

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We had the firm holiday party on Friday in the revolving restaurant atop a 30 story hotel near the Arch and the river. Of course, I insisted on a window seat and kept taking handheld blurry pictures out the window. Most of them are junk but I like this one. It is the tangle of highways on the Missouri side of the main bridge over the Mississippi. The bright spots, particularly in the lower left, are reflections from the restaurant.

Many thanks to all of you who left comments on my 1,000th post yesterday. Sunday was pretty hectic with errands and family stuff so I was not able to respond individually. I'll try to get back to everyone.

Terrace View

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I go right by Citygarden at the beginning of my drive home from work. Last night, I swerved into a parking place when I saw a nearly full moon hanging in haze straight over the Arch. More about that later. I took a few pix with my good point-n-shoot and then got attracted by the lights in Citygarden. The Terrace View is the bar and cafe overlooking the art and gardens. Someplace slick to stop for a drink on early Friday evening.

Thursday Arch Series

One of the few night time shots I have of the Arch. I'm not a late night guy at my advancing age. This was shot in December 2006. Our office had the holiday party on a boat on the Mississippi: dinner (mediocre), dancing (music supplied by an iPod whose owner had bad taste) and a cruise on the river along an industrial area. On a dank, overcast night. Did I mention that it was pitch black?

But I brought my camera and a small tripod. I tried to take some pictures as the boat was docking but the damn thing wouldn't stop its throbbing engine. When I started editing the pictures, I decided that I actually liked this effect - grainy, shot at ASA 3200 equivalent, and soft focus caused by the motion of the boat.

Since I started this blog I've noticed lots of thing I want to shoot at night. That will have to wait a few months until it gets dark earlier.

TOMORROW: From one extreme to another