Bowl No More

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Little know factoid about St. Louis: since 1984, we have been home to the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. Until Saturday, that is, when it shut its doors. Despite being across the street from the baseball stadium, it had very few visitors. It got no promotion and did nothing to make people aware of it. Some years ago, the Cardinals baseball team took part of the space for its own hall of fame but it wasn't enough. Now, I haven't bowled a line since my son's bowling birthday party when he was about 10, so 2008 - 1990 = a while ago. Although I drive by the place almost every day going to and from work, I set foot inside for the first time on closing day, camera in hand. It was really pretty interesting. Over the next few days we will look at some of the neat stuff inside.

WHAT'S TICKING ME OFF: the old camera I had modified to shoot infrared doesn't seem to be working right. Everything comes out in shades of red. If I can find the solution to the problem, you'll find out here.

TOMORROW: women who set 'em up and knock 'em down.

COME BACK THURSDAY FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Soldiers Memorial - Full View In HDR

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So this is what the whole building looks like. The statues I've been posting pictures of are on pedestals towards the top of the outside stairs - you can just see one here.

One of the things I especially like about Photomatix is the way you can control the result. It's easy to achieve an image that's painterly as well as eye-catching. The color tones are often the bit-more-than-real typical of color postcards up to the 1960s. Lots of HDRs are screaming crazy (although there is a place for that). Search for HDRs on Flickr. Too many look like the backgrounds on futuristic blow-em-up computer games. I like a little more subtlety.

WHAT I DID YESTERDAY: attended a closing. See below and come back tomorrow.

TOMORROW:

A Courthouse That Glows

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Photomatix can do strange and wonderful things to your pictures, although it takes some experience to get comfortable with it. If you didn't know better, you might think that this image was a painting. I particularly like the way the software adds a light glow around large objects although I don't know the technical reasons why that happens. This image is made of three photos, shot at correct exposure, two stops underexposed and two stops overexposed. The variable is the shutter speed, not the f stop, because you need to keep the depth of field the same. Photomatix squishes everything together, preserving high and low tones. Then you can fiddle with it some more. This is another picture of the architecturally wacky Civil Courts Building, with the Arch lurking in the background.

BY THE WAY, you may begin to notice some changes in the blog starting today. For one thing, I'm now using my real name, not the old nickname. Something new is afoot, something exciting (well, depending on how somnolent you are), with a projected launch next Thursday, November 13. Watch the skies. And thanks, PJ.

WHAT'S ON FOR THE WEEKEND: very little (a relief!), made up of tons of paperwork at the office, photo shooting, photo editing, dinner with our daughter and son-in-law, and working on this hush-hush new project. That's what I call free time.

TOMORROW: all of Soldiers Memorial. The full view. More than meets the eye but not necessarily the lens.

More of Autumn In Forest Park

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This picture is just me having fun playing in the toy box: Forest Park in mid-autumn, tricked out in HDR with Photomatix Pro and a few bits of this and that in Photoshop. Looks better than nature. Who needs reality? Make your own.

WHAT I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THIS MORNING: I have an appointment with my ophthalmologist. I have been going to this guy for more than 30 years and he's a great doctor but, man, he's a far out right-winger. I'm gonna get an earful and will have to change the topic. He and I both like opera. Let's talk about opera, doc.

TOMORROW: you could even say it glows.

Thursday Arch Series

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I could make some corny comment about a new morning in America. The problem, though, would be that the view in this picture faces roughly west so it would be afternoon in America (or at least St. Louis), suggesting the same old day. We don't want that now, do we? Sometimes I feel this way about the Thursday Arch Series, which must be up to about 75 photos by now. Our visitors know what I have to say about the subject. Should I put it on sabbatical for a while or keep pushing? We could have, say, the Thursday My Messy Desk Series (which might be Zen-like). Or just put the series thing to rest for a bit. Let me know what you think.

WHAT MY STAFF AT THE OFFICE MADE ME DO YESTERDAY: they were so elated by the election results that they insisted that the boss (me) buy lunch for everybody so there could be a little party. Happy to oblige.

TOMORROW: I'm thinking more colorful fall foliage in wildly exaggerated HDR. The results may look like the cover of an LP produced in San Francisco in 1973.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

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The members of the Strangetastes family are doing the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance! My wife and I waited about an hour and forty-five minutes to vote but it was worth it. We wish the best to President-Elect Obama and hope for a fresh wind blowing across our country. Join us, Ren and Stimpy in dancing for joy.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series (new day in America?)

...and who, disguised as a mild mannered lawyer at a great metropolitan law firm, fights a never-ending battle for TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE AMERICAN WAY

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No, not me. That line was about Superman or Barak Obama, I forget which. Lawyers in my specialty don't even go to the courthouse. The Civil Courts building downtown, completed in 1927, is one wacky piece of architecture as I discussed in a post last year. To call it grandiloquent might be an understatement (although it's kind of run down inside). I tried to bump up the volume in this picture with a wide angle lens. HDR, and various Photoshop magic tricks.

WHAT I'M GOING TO TRY TO AVOID DOING TONIGHT: gluing my nose to the television as the election returns come in. Que serà, Que serà.

TOMORROW: well, that depends on what we Americans learn late tonight, doesn't it?

BY THE WAY, my friend Snapper at Gabriola Daily Photo was kind enough to give me the Kreativ Blogger Award that's been in the blogosphere of late. I appreciate his support. When you get this, you are supposed to nominate six other bloggers for the prize and publish a list of six things that make you happy. I'm going to almost pass on the first part; most of the bloggers I would nominate has already been so honored, with two exceptions. First, Andre of Chicago Flair. Never routine, never boring, always a fresh eye on that Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler. Second, to iBlowfish of Cleveland Daily Photo, who stopped publishing last July. He is one of the finest photographers to have graced this group, a street photographer in the tradition of Cartier-Bresson and Winogrand, but with a melancholy spirit. I wish he would rejoin us. Look at his work. If you agree, email him and ask him to come back.

So, I am supposed to list six things that make me happy:

- my wife and two children. Really.
- arts and sciences.
- learning. Knowing is fun but learning is more fun.
- seeing the whole damn world, or as much of it as I can get to.
- this image thing, photography.
- independence.