West of Marysville (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marysville%2C_Kansas), where my wife went to high school, on our way to a 50th anniversary party for her brother and sister-in-law. It was held in the town of Bremen, population 50, where you can rent out the firehouse for events.
Just past sunset on Tamarindo beach. There was a group of young women in fancy tropical dresses waiting at water’s edge. Perhaps there was a seaborne soiree. It may be time to go back to The Lou but more Costa Rica at https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobcrowe/albums/72177720324696670/ and more to add in the next few days.
Have to do this one every time we come here. Taken from poolside at the condo development, Playa Langosta, near Tamarindo.
The kid’s spring school break comes up next week. We are taking Ellie back to our favorite place in Costa Rica. She’s been there a couple of times and just loves it. The scene here is sunset at Tamarindo beach. Flying to Dallas-Fort Worth this afternoon, overnight there, and then onward Sunday morning. It might be good to get out of the U.S. for a while.
Because, well, I’m scrounging for material. However, how would you like to end most of your days looking at this? It might be hard to see at this resolution, but I like the row of telephone poles vanishing toward the horizon.
Lots of stuff coming up. There is a free blues festival at the Arch this weekend, and the St. Louis Fringe Festival (I’m the photographer) is about to start.
I have taken innumerable ordinary photos of the sunset during our many visits to Playa Langosta. Some are pretty but don't have much creativity. Yesterday, though, something new caught my eye. There is a public path to the beach along one part of the ocean-side lawn, which is protected by a tall metal fence. The lowering sun fell between the bars and the complex tree branches. Opens to different interpretations.
I intended to go to shoot some of our 314 Day events yesterday. Nature intervened. We've had a mild winter and very early spring. Here in the Midwest that means it's time for violent thunderstorms and some tornadoes. When I was getting ready to leave in the afternoon my phone began to blare severe weather warnings and the radar looked ominous. A blast drove through soon thereafter, ripping off a large part of the tree in the foreground onto our front steps, seconds before Mrs. C was about to walk in the door. This was followed by a strange orange sunset over our street.
One of the things we like so much about Death Valley is the silence and the enormous sense of space. It's not busy during the week and you can drive a long way before seeing another car. The distances between main sites are tens of miles apart. Whether driving or walking through, you may have a sense of being a tiny observer in a vast universe.
Those of you who know us personally are aware that the last couple of years, and particularly the last couple of months, have been difficult for our family. Our last stop on Tuesday was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes. The western skies were cloudy as we approached. I was pessimistic about the light but as we walked out into the sand the clouds parted. I don't need any jackpots when we get back to Las Vegas. I got all I want here. Our rental car has Apple Play and I have a lot of music on my phone. I put on some Chopin as we drove back to Furnace Creek and, in all the space and quiet, a sense of peace fell over me.
St. Louis has a long, graffiti-permitted section of the Mississippi River floodwall. There are some industrial facilities behind it. It faces west and can simply glow in the late afternoon of a clear winter day.
There was an event for children last night st the St. Louis Art Museum, or SLAM. We took Ellie (bright colors, lower right). One of the activities was a scavenger hunt. The kids had to find four paintings inside and four works in the sculpture garden. As we came back in the low sun put a warm glow on the building. There is an inscription on the lintel that says Art Still Has Truth Seek Refuge There.
The condo we rent at Playa Langosta faces roughly west with a view to the Pacific. The qualities of the sunset depend on the weather and cloud patterns. This was a pretty good one.
At least that's what the scene made me think of, maybe at a temple on an Aegean island. It is actually just out back of an excellent restaurant called Pangas Beach Club. The strip of water in the mid-ground is an estuary between Tamarindo and the next beach over, Playa Grande. People walk across at low tide but there are, uh, crocodiles.
A mostly cloudy sunset at Playa Langosta. Underexposed but not color corrected. Would it be the end of the world if we couldn't come back here?
Through all of our busy travels over the last month we have come to our final destination, Playa Langosta, Costa Rica. This is the view from our balcony. We figured out from the guest book that this is out twelfth time in this condo, fourteenth time in Tamarindo/Playa Langosta and nineteenth time in Costa Rica over the decades. I guess we like it a lot. Pura vida.
Monteverde, Costa Rica, lies just on the Pacific side of Costa Rica's central mountain range. With the elevation and moist winds from both the ocean and the Caribbean, it's never too hot, never too cold, and there is a permanent mister blowing through the forest. The biodiversity is stunning. For the third time in ten years, we are staying at the Hidden Canopy Treehouses, https://www.hiddencanopy.com/p/user/home.php, perhaps the most wonderful place we have ever laid our heads. Your suite is literally a treehouse built into the canopy and hillside. As sunset approaches, guests gather in the main building for a glass of wine and this.
It's hard to come up with new images of the Arch after all these years but I had an opportunity yesterday evening. We have a nephew from Kansas in town on a job assignment. We took him to a restaurant and bar known as Three Sixty on the top of a downtown hotel. It's indoor/outdoor and there are views in every direction. It was an exceptional August evening here, not hot, not humid, and perfect for outdoor dining. A day-short-of-full moon rose in the east as the sun was setting. We will probably come back to that.
The July theme is a tough one and maybe your admins set the bar a bit high. How do you depict something you can see through? I settled on this. It's not St. Louis but I like it. The location is at the Whitney Museum in New York, in a gallery overlooking the Hudson River at sunset.
See what other City Daily Photo members can't see at https://citydailyphoto.org/2022/06/23/july-theme-day-transparent/ .
Outside the St. Louis Planetarium.
Our huge St. Patrick's Day parade is today and I'll be downtown to shoot it. It will be really cold but my granddaughter Ellie is in it so I'll bundle up.
Today City Daily Photo members explore the many ways to be off by yourself. When I took this photo I was standing alone on the Illinois side of Eads Bridge, looking over the Mississippi back to St. Louis. No lights were visible downtown or on the passing barge. It felt like every living soul but me had vanished, and it scared me.
I didn't get out to shoot yesterday. The day got complicated. But near sunset I rolled down the alley in our neighborhood on my way to pick up Japanese carry-out for the family. The ice was almost melted and the sun was low in a clear sky. Good thing the phone cam was handy.
