Arcs In Arch City

Just a quickie as I pack for my weekend trip. I was playing with the fisheye lens last weekend, something I don't often do. Once again, this is in Citygarden, featuring Bernar Venet's 2 Arcs X 4, 230.5 Degree Arc X 5. The mathematical-esthetic concept is more than I can grasp but I like the way the lens makes the downtown buildings bend with the sculpture. And you can see just a bit of a certain monument on the right.

Two hearings this morning and then straight to the airport. Details to follow.

 

Twisted

I made it back downtown with the fisheye lens. To complicate matters, I shot HDRs with it, something I've never tried. 

The top image is an old (by American standards) courthouse that gets great light in the late afternoon reflected from the windows of the building across the street. You can see a bit of it in the extreme warp at the top left.

The second picture was taken in exactly the same place as yesterday's lead pic, just different lens and digital technique. Note the weird digital noise outside the circle of the image. That area was theoretically dark, as the fisheye should have kept all the light within the circle. What you see in there was created by Photomatix, the HDR software. Kinda cool. I blacked it out in the top photo and left it in the second. Which do you prefer?

I've been terrible about comments. Too damn much work, with some special business planning issues on the table right now. On the current schedule, retirement is 43 months away. Maybe I should start a countdown clock.                                    

Thursday Arch Series

Another fisheye shot. Again, I like the shapes and symmetries the distortion creates.

Arch photos are usually posted by themselves but I threw in a lagniappe today. (One of my favorite words, from Cajun usage.) Brad, Servant of The Lord, seen here several times, still stand on guard under the Arch. I think he's been down there on weekends a couple of years now. Behind, the riverfront tourist helicopter loads more passengers. We did it once. It was a blast.         

Thursday Arch Series

There are still things I want to show from the Fox. However, the Thursday Arch Series hasn't been very active of late. I've got some new shots and I thought I'd stick one in.

It gets harder and harder to find new ways to depict the Big A. Sometimes all you need is a new toy. This was taken with the fisheye lens I got a few months ago, 15 mm focal length on a full-frame sensor. I like how the Arch and the surroundings of its underground entrance seem to interlock.

Back inside the theater tomorrow.

       

The Fabulous Fox

The Fox Theatre, which styles itself The Fabulous Fox, was opened in 1929 as one of America's great movie palaces. It's big, 4,500 seats, and its Egyptian-Babylonian-Arab-Indian-Rococo architecture and decor is beyond belief. The overall effect is less of a style than a hallucination.

As huge city-center cinemas gave way to suburban multiplexes, the Fox went dark in 1978. I do remember, though, hearing the Greatful Dead and Cream there in its declining days when I was a student at nearby St. Louis University. Some years later, with the aid of two visionary philanthropists,  the Fox reopened, restored in all its over-the-top glory. Now big name acts (Jerry Seinfeld is coming soon) and touring Broadway shows keep it busy.

The St. Louis Photography Meetup arranged for a photographers tour on Saturday. These pictures were taken from the stage, the second with a fisheye lens. More grand views and details over the coming days.

Sorry for being rather light on comments yesterday. I went out to shoot the orchid show and take some fisheye shots around the Arch. Then our daughter, son-in-law and grandchild-in-progress came over for Easter dinner. No rest.         

Thursday Arch Series

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New toy.