Geppetto's Hammer

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Similar to Wednesday's post, fooling around in Citygarden with a wide angle lens and hand-held HDR. This is another view of Tom Otterness' Kindly Geppetto. There's a front-on look at the statue in my post of July 11. This hammer-wielding puppet maker doesn't seem kindly to me.

I noticed when I was editing this picture that Geppetto is left handed. Does that mean anything? Maybe. In Renaissance iconography, the right is protected by God while the left is open to danger. That's why Michelangelo's David looks cautiously to that side, maybe for things like Geppetto.

Up to Chicago today and tomorrow on business. Unfortunately, not likely to have time for photography.

Thursday Arch Series

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An exercise: this photo has a close relative appearing today on GATEWAY. They are parts of a seven image sequence of the same subject, shot at 2/3 stop intervals from -2 stops to +2 stops. The aperture remained the same and the shutter speed varied. They were intended to become part of a seven layer HDR of the Arch. However, when I blended them in Photomatix, the sky came out with a marked box-shaped weave pattern in. It looked like fabric. Actually, it looked terrible. If any HDR experts can explain that I'd appreciate it.

So, I started playing with the individual pictures in the sequence. This one was -2 stops (ISO 100, f 6.3, 1/800 sec., spot metering). I always shoot in RAW so I could mess around with the image a lot. This is what came out.

Click to see the companion photo on GATEWAY. Which do you prefer, assuming that either one does something for you?

Let's Do The Lens Warp Again

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No, not time warp, lens warp. Plus HDR for further image bending, just for fun. This view is southeast from Citygarden, through a bit of 2 Arcs X 4, 230.5 Degrees Arc X 5 by Bernar Venet. I like the rubbery look of the building on the left. It's caused by using a 17mm lens on a full frame sensor.

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch Series here and a companion image on Gateway. They are two snaps taken from a tripod in rapid succession. Same subject. Same composition. Different exposure and editing.

World Naked Bike Ride, Part 2

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This picture gives some idea of what the WNBR looked like when it left Tower Grove Park and hit the street. For the locals, the group is riding north on Grand, just north of Arsenal. The Bare As You Dare slogan is evident, with some people more-or-less fully clothed and others, well, not.

This was a difficult assignment. It was too dark in the park for much light besides the flash on the foreground. The riders left the park in an area with no street lights, so I was shooting into the dark at whatever appeared to be moving. A couple of pics, like this one, got a cool effect by using second curtain sync on the flash. It's a fun effect for night shots.

Flickr users know that you get a running count of how many people have viewed each of your photos. This set started to go up barely 36 hours ago and it's blown away the number of views of anything I've ever posted there, now almost 2,000 images. Maybe it's from people searching Flickr for the keyword naked. As they say, sex sells.

World Naked Bike Ride, St. Louis Edition

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Saturday night brought the World Naked Bike Ride to The Lou. The slogan is "bare as you dare" and the cause is to protest dependence on oil. There is a good history and analysis of the event here.

The ride takes place in 70 cities. This was the second run in St. Louis. This couple had on about the average amount of covering. (Note the woman's headlights. Uh, head...?) A few bikers wore a lot less. Now, since this is a proper town, appearing in public with the naughty bits uncovered is prohibited. Fortunately, the St. Louis Police Department forgot their night vision goggles and nobody got busted.

There is is a growing set of my pix from WNBR on Flickr here, including the naughty bits, or most of them. Note that you will not see all the photos in this set if you do not have a Flickr account or have your filter set to Safe. In accordance with Flickr's rules, any pictures showing more skin than is allowed on U.S. over-the-air television have been classified as Medium. Some people were nakeder than than others so set your filter accordingly.

I think we'll have some more of this silliness TOMORROW.

BY THE WAY, STL DPB welcomes a new St. Louis photoblog, Merry@St. Louis. It's nice to have another pair of eyes on this city. Merry and I have exchanged email but have not met. I know her husband from my work. They moved here about a year ago from upstate New York. I greatly recommend the weekly essay on his blog, St. Louis Sojourn, in which he writes lucidly about his experiences as a transplant to the Midwest.

Get Get God

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Ed Box (or Boxx) is a local graffiti tagger. Some people are unhappy about what he does (see here and here). Like it or not, his stuff is often enigmatic, as in this example. The building is in the semi-barren old industrial area north of the Arch.

NOW, ABOUT THAT PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST: there were several entries. I was a little disappointed, though, because none of them were really photo captions. They were mostly things the man in the picture might be saying. My favorite, although too long to be a caption, is from local artist and friend of the blog Dan Jaboor, who submitted:

Introducing:

The Veginator!

All natural meat substitute

100% biodegradable!

Certified orgasmic!

Enjoy with your favorite salad!

So Dan, you're our winner. Let me know what picture you would like printed and I'll drop it off at Soulard Art Market.

TOMORROW: the World Naked Bike Ride visits St. Louis.

Home Grown Hip Hop

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After shooting at Tomatofest last weekend, I went downtown to see what looked good in the late afternoon sun. Walking by Kiener Plaza, I found that a local radio station was putting on a show with young local hip hop artists. They were just kids but they were full of energy and could really sing and dance. Now, I don't know hip hop from a block of wood (except that Nelly is from St. Louis), although I can sing a fair amount of Italian opera from memory (Che gelida manina! se la lasci riscaldar. Cercar che giova? al buio non si trova.). Nevertheless, I thought these guys were a lot of fun.