THE Place For Sledding In The Lou

There are lots of hills around town where kids can sled but there is just one classic venue. Art Hill is the long slope between the art museum and the Grand Lagoon in Forest Park, an artificial body of water that stretches a long way from the base. You would have to know it's there to see it but there is a line of hay bales at the bottom to keep speeding sledders from plopping into the freezing water.

It was very busy last weekend. Bare spots were starting to appear.          

Gray Day On Art Hill

It's been a gray, damp week in The Lou. Even the king himself looks bland. But the flowers are starting to bud so there should be something to shoot this weekend.        

Where To Go Sledding

The place in STL to go sledding, tubing, or your choice of sliding device is Art Hill. The great sloped arc descends from the art museum to the Grand Lagoon in Forest Park. Almost every child in St. Louis had sped down it at one time or another. The problem, though, is that if you are going too fast you could slide off the edge into the water. It is partly frozen now but was completely open when this was taken.

Today's newspaper headline says they we have stayed below freezing for thirteen days, the longest stretch in 35 years. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/feels-like-i-m-a-kid-again-longest-freeze-in/article_b42a8f29-8309-5599-ba5b-2a8310349bce.html#tracking-source=home-featured As a rule, we're not that cold a city.          

Fool On The Hill

He was sitting on the wall under the great statue of St. Louis, gazing through the fog down Art Hill to the Grand Basin. I walked by under the wall, taking pictures. I said hi. He said hi. I asked him what he had with him. A glass chess set and a volume of Aristotle, he said. I asked if I could take his picture. He said sure. I did, said thanks, and then walked away with a tune in my head.          

Layers

From the top of Art Hill, down the hill towards the woods surrounding Shakespeare Glen. The Chase Park Plaza Hotel and condos, a local institution, are in the backgroud.

Excuses made in advance: I've been pretty bad about leaving comments lately except on weekends. Work has been . . . well, I'll bite my tongue. But, as I mentioned on Facebook recently, the St. Louis Fringe Festival starts tomorrow night. I am the house photographer this year and I'll be shooting 17 performances over five days, this weekend and next. Gonna be a little busy but I hope to have first pix up Saturday.     

Parasailing Made Easy

Another airborne device on Art Hill. I watched with interest as this man carefully unpacked and spread out his parasail. The wind was favorable, essentially blowing up the hill from the Grand Lagoon. He put on the harness and gave the whole thing a tug. The wind filled the sail and he, well, just kinda walked down the hill with the wing floating above him.

I thought it was terribly disappointing. I expected him to lift up on a thermal, float over the lagoon and then then soar off toward the airport or something. (Which would have resulted in either danger or great amusement. A good story in either event.) Maybe my standards are too high.            

Octopus' Garden

The title of one of the few songs the Beatles let Ringo sing. At least one of them is still trading off the old fame. Paul McCartney played at our baseball stadium Saturday night. I declined to pay $300 for a ticket. My sister and I did attend the Beatles second concert at Shea Stadium in New York - OMG, 50 years ago next week. It cost $5.75.

But I digress, as is so often the case. I was walking around Art Hill last weekend desperate for some material when I found this remarkable cephalopod. Not entirely self-propelled but visually arresting.             

Le Roi Au Printemps

Life gets too overloaded and some days it's hard to think of something to shoot and post. But on as gorgeous a spring day as we had yesterday I can always go out to Art Hill and the art museum and take pictures of Louis. I can hardly remember seeing the park so crowded. There must have been 12 or 15 or who knows how many wedding parties taking pictures around the Grand Basin. A happy life to them.

The Earth Day festival takes place in the park today, a photographer's banquet.     

NYC In Exile

I changed educational venues from the Bronx to mid-town St. Louis in September 1967. It was a bit of a shock. After a few days, my thoughts were something like, "Oh my Gawd, I'm stuck in the provinces!" and started wondering if I could transfer back to NYU. I got over it. 

Still, we ex New Yorkers are all over. This young woman could be a student at nearby Washington University. Lots of us there. My sister attended WU. When I, the oldest of four, went to college a thousand miles from home, my mother thought her children hated her. When the next sibling, 18 months younger than me, went to the other big school across town, she was sure. (The younger two stayed in the Northeast.)

The scene here is the walk beside the Grand Lagoon in Forest Park. Art Hill and the St. Louis Art Museum are in the back.                          

Back In The Lou

We've been home for a week, actually, but I had a lot of Costa Rica material to use and the week at work was horrid. No new local material so I had to get myself back on the street. Not an idea in my head, I drove to Forest Park and decided to walk around the Grand Lagoon and Art Hill. There were things to see.

When I'm out with the big DSLR and white lens, sometimes people call out to me, "hey, mister, take my picture!" Always happy to oblige. These young people were beautiful.                    

The French Monarchy And Cake

Well, of course, it was a queen - the last one - who supposedly took part in this dialogue: "Your Majesty, the peasants have no bread." "Then let them eat cake."  We here in STL are doing a variation. The only French monarch to make sainthood, Louis IX, astride his horse in front of the art museum, offers a cake to the city for our 250th anniversary. What a nice guy.                        

Winter On Art Hill

I'm learning how to do Photoshop panoramas - take rows and columns of shots - at least four but there is no specific limit - and let the software  stitch them together to make a big whole. This is a six-shot pano, looking down across the wintery grass on Art Hill to the Grand Basin in Forest Park.

Mrs. C's recovery from her knee replacement is remarkable. The physical therapist had her up with a walker in the hall while I was there yesterday. She was remarkably stable and had little pain. Which gets to why I'm writing so few comments - family duties, office time to make up for when I'm at the hospital, and I gotta go shoot something. She will be home tomorrow. Things will straighten out.                               

Art Hill

The best use of the great slope below the art museum: Art Hill is the city's premier sledding venue. King Louie keeps watch over the children and their parents.

The snow was thin and you can see grass poking through in spots. It will be warmer this week and soon the snow will be gone.              

 

Louie And The Rainbow

The town's favorite saint and king on his perch atop Art Hill, ordering a bit of extra color in the sky.         

More Cranes While We Wait

Some of you who know me well have figured out what this announcement business is about.  Well, not yet. So, then, some more paper cranes from Art Hill. You can see the art museum in both photos and the monumental statue The Apotheosis of Saint Louis in the second.       

A Thousand Paper Cranes

Something unusual happened in Forest Park yesterday. A thousand or more origami cranes appeared on Art Hill, filling the greensward with gestures of flight and peace, yet ever so tethered to the earth. It was a memorial for police and firefighters who died in the line of duty and a benefit for their families. The event was organized by The STL Crane Project. Visitors could take home a crane for a donation and you can see how the flock was thinning by late afternoon. Walking across the hill taking pictures felt otherworldly.

There may be a major announcement tomorrow. Maybe.                        

Year's End

The last day of 2012. It has been a challenging time in my practice with significant changes in the field. The hours were often too long, taking time from other interests. It's also had special pleasures as Carolyn and I go through our 38th year happily together: the news about our grandchild; visits to Death Valley, Philadelphia, New York, Costa Rica, Birmingham, Seattle, Kansas and Los Angeles; and a week of intense photography study at the Maine Media Workshops. Now for another chapter.

We wrap up with sunset scenes in Forest Park taken Saturday, just to prove we got some snow this winter. Above, the Jewel Box, a giant greenhouse. Below, two views of Art Hill and the Grand Lagoon. The buildings in the background of the last one are part of Washington University Medical Center, where I sometimes get this and that fixed.

There are more good pictures of New York City (you can see them here) but I thought it best to end the year in St. Louis.

TOMORROW: A review of STL DPB's best photographs from 2012. IMHO, of course.

Art Hill

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A bit of the St. Louis Art Museum (or SLAM, a good name for a palace of culture) appeared in yesterday's post. Moving a little to the west, you come to the foot of Art Hill, a huge half-bowl that leads down to the Grand Lagoon. It's our town's premier sledding venue in the winter.

The cranes on the left are working on a large expansion of the museum. I think they look like they are bowing to the original structure.

A naked guy, angry fish and a pure blue sky on downtown St. Louis 365 today.

Don't you just love it...

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...when you are about to take a stupid boring picture and a kid on a bicycle rides into the frame and you had the flash on to get some fill? I was about to shoot the St. Louis Art Museum atop Art Hill, with Forest Park's Grand Lagoon in the foreground. Somebody mowed a crude arch into the grass on the hill, which is what got my attention. I put on the speedlight to get some pop on the planters in the foreground. This would have been a dreadful photo. Then the boy rolled into the shot. Thanks, kid.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series, plus a new Arch photo on GATEWAY.

Big Sky Country

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Fooling around with HDRs again but this one is different. Usually I shoot handheld and blend three images. This was on a tripod (yes, me!) and made from seven shots, like the big boys do it. It has smoother tonal transitions while keeping the whole light-dark range.

The view is from mid-way down Art Hill in Forest Park, beneath the Art Museum, looking north toward the Grand Lagoon. It was taken with a 17 mm wide angle lens. Note the other photographer in the green shirt working off a tripod in front of me. She was shooting film. Such discipline.

TOMORROW: bunch of fairies.