Sunday, April 4, 2010

.
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
Sondern laßt uns angenehmere anstimmen,
und freudenvollere.
Freude! Freude!
Okay, the dark pictures are banished (for now)! Let's have some springtime joy.

There is a beautiful old water tower in Compton Hill Park at Grand Ave. and I 44. It was news to me, but you can climb the 198 steps to the top on the first Saturday of the month from April to October. The St. Louis Photography Meetup organized a group hike up yesterday. It was worth it. This is what passes for our downtown skyline, maybe a couple of miles west of the Arch.

I went down to the Arch later in the afternoon (the reason will be explained soon). The picture below is how the tulip trees were looking.

16 comments:

Eleonora Baldwin said...

Ahhh much better. That skyline made me gasp, how beautiful!!
And the colors of the blooming tree photo are stunning too. Is that really a magnolia? I had no idea they lost all their leaves in favor of the flowers!

Happy springtime/Easter/Passover/Equinox and happy smiles returned!

lewi14@gmail.com said...

Thank you for that nice photo, Rob. It's very impressive and very colourful. Who has written the nice poem? Ich wünsche Dir ein frohes Osterfest!

cieldequimper said...

Frohe Ostern et joyeuses Pâques, sir! The magnolia is wonderful but the general view of St Louis: I'm gobsmacked!

Virginia said...

Well I for one love the view from the tower but the flowers thrilled my soul. Not to nitpick but I think that's a tulip tree. Either way, it's lovely!
V

Olivier said...

La premiere photo est grandiose....J'adore...Je te souhaite de Joyeuses Paques

Jilly said...

Wow, two fabulous photographs. That top shot is astounding. I do love the tree tho but we see that here. Not the arch tho and that amazing vista.

Sharon said...

Gorgeous skyline shot! Happy Easter.

Oakland Daily Photo said...

The flowers are blooming, the days are getting longer, and the weather is getting warmer. Hooray. SAD begone!

T. Becque said...

The top photo is awesome, the colors, clouds, composition are excellent!

brattcat said...

this is spring joy alright! beautiful.

Pierre said...

Oh the upper picture is so beautiful! Can't stop watching it...

Beauty Above Beauty Below said...

What type of camera or process produced the skyline photo. It is exquisite! Thanks so much.

Bob Crowe said...

Beauty:Glad you like the shot. Canon 50D, 70-300mm EF lens at 150mm, f8, ISO 200. I cant give you the shutter speed because this is an HDR (high dynamic range) picture. It's a blend of three images, one at normal exposure, one at +2 stops and one at -2 stops. The shutter speed is different for each one. There is special software, Photomatix, that blends them into a single image, preserving the highlights the the underexposed one and the shadows in the overexposed one. Then I do final editing in Photoshop. It's time consuming but you can get some dramatic images.

Merry@Syracuse said...

Wow, thrilling photo of the skyline. Great tinkering! That tower is awesome!

Definitely a magnolia, saucer type; the leaves come next!

Flowers of the tulip tree, which is in the magnolia family, are very cool too:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1026/557008252_17805186d1.jpg

So, to clear up lingering confusion: Tulip trees are magnolias but not all magnolias are tulip trees.

Gunn said...

just SUPERB!

ruma said...

Hello.
What a beautiful bouquet!!
It is very Gorgeous colors.

Your splendid photography enhances charm still more.


Happy weekend.

From the Far East.
Best regards.
ruma