THAT WHEEL, ETC.

One of our City Daily Photo colleagues commented yesterday that it seems mandatory for cities to have a Ferris wheel these days, and it's nice to have one here. It is built on the side of Union Station, now a hotel and entertainment complex. There is an aquarium, a mirror maze, mini golf and more. Expensive but fun. But two things to note about this scene:

Something in this image is totally fake and it would take a Photoshop nerd to spot it. The newest version of the program has a tool called Replace Sky. It precisely finds the edges of everything in front of the sky and drops in a new background of your choice. These clouds weren't there. The actual sky was empty (see yesterday's post).

The tall building just right of center is vacant and has no immediate prospect of reuse. After the breakup of the old AT&T into the regional "Baby Bells," STL was the home of Southwestern Bell. It bought up some of the other regional carriers and then acquired the rights to the AT&T name. This building was, for a time, AT&T's world headquarters. Then they decided that St. Louis was Podunk and moved the operation to Dallas. I read that it is hard to repurpose a large building built for a single tenant so it just sits there.                  

IT MAY NOT BE MUCH BUT IT'S OURS

I recently had an opportunity to join a group of photographers who had access to the rooftop of a multi-level garage. It had an unobstructed view of downtown, perhaps two or three miles away. We met before sunset. I brought my full frame DSLR, my longest telephoto and fired away.

We are a middle size city in the middle of the country, not much of a destination outside the region. We have our jewels. (And our horrors, but what city doesn't.) I have worked downtown for almost 47 years, although those days may be numbered. It has changed a lot, in some ways better, in some ways worse. The Ferris wheel in the lower left is a nice touch.

There are more infrared images I'll get back to some time.                   

INTO THE BACKGROUND

The Arch was right out in front in yesterday's picture. Today it slides into the background behind downtown buildings, notably the architecturally wacky Civil Courts Building, described in an early post on this blog. For the locals, the view is east on Chestnut from about 14th Street. I got a little subtle color out of this infrared shot. So much more to learn.             

RETURN OF THE THURSDAY ARCH SERIES

Haven't had the big wicket up in a while. My experiments with infrared photography brought about this somber rendering with an enigmatic sign. Quo vadis? 

When I first started trying this I was getting some interesting color effects and it didnt work with the last batch of shots. I think you have to set a custom white balance for every scene. Not that hard to do on a Fujifilm camera but something else to remember.         

GOOD OR BAD

More fun with infrared: a defunct night club on the edge of downtown. There is still so much to learn about this.           

TUMBLE

Our town has a wonderful organization called Circus Harmony, https://circusharmony.org/, which takes young people from every part of the community and trains them in circus acrobatic arts. Part of it is for physical development and education, but an important part is to mix kids from every part of St. Louis in cooperative, harmonious efforts. They have traveled and performed internationally.   

The public can watch them work out and attend smaller performances at their headquarters in the City Museum. The group is always part of Circus Flora. They moved so fast I was lucky to get a clear shot.        

THE LADY IN RED

Circus Flora's performance this weekend was a scaled-down, late pandemic affair. There were no full trapeze acts like I saw the last time I took my granddaughter. A swing had to suffice but I could not have  imagined how beautifully someone could dance on a bar in the air.