How You Get Up

We had a link the other day to a video about the funicular ride to the top of the Arch. One of the old cars is on display in the museum. The inside looks exactly the same today: five people sit in a little cylinder, one in the back, two on each side. It's cramped and not for the claustrophobic. Ain't no way out on your own.

The second picture is an old one of Mrs. C and son Andy squashed into one with me. Carolyn is not from Lilliput and Andy is not Gulliver. I was just using a really wide angle lens.

The sign in the bottom picture refers to the official name of the whole complex, The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It's about the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, when President Thomas Jefferson bought a great part of what is now the United States west of the Mississippi from France (useful map here) for, I forget, a few bolts of silk and a case of really good snuff, something like that. Westward ho!        

Trial And Error

This is what we call the Old Courthouse. It's been seen in these pages many times before but rarely from this angle. You can spot it in the  left mid-ground of yesterday's picture.

In the 1850's, the building was the venue for what we call the Dred Scott case. The decision on the final appeal is widely considered the worst decision in the history of the U. S. Supreme Court (although there are many competitors). If you would like to find out why click here.                   

Thursday Arch Series

Taken from the Arch's observation deck last Saturday morning. The clear sky and snow cover  made its shadow particularly strong. The dark squiggle is an artificial pond on the park grounds.

All of that is going to be revised. The Arch was topped off 48 years ago. The grounds have a number of problems. Most obvious is the major highway in a trench below ground level that cuts off the park and monument from downtown, visible in this photo. A big project of improvements has just begun. The area will be transformed.           

Once More From The Top

So, as I mentioned, I took a ride up to the top of the Arch Saturday. It had been a while and the light snow cover looked attractive.

This was taken from the observation deck, 630 feet or 192 meters up, looking west into downtown. It ain't much but it's home.

There will be a Thursday Arch photo tomorrow. Taken from the Arch but still of the Arch. Sort of. You'll see.         

An The Winner Is...

David McWhirter, above left, won the photographer of the year award at Seen 2013. It was well deserved. He is prolific and very talented, working in a variety of styles.  He took first in 11 of 30-odd categories. I heard something about him being a judge at Seen 2014, which would clear the way for some of us back in the pack.

There were some lessons for me to learn from this year's show: work more slowly. Think more, press the shutter less. Very hard things for me to do since I spend my work days reacting as fast as I can to a barrage of stimuli. It doesn't foster contemplation.            

Seen 2013

Seen 2014 (or year of your choice) is the big year end photography show and contest at Studio Altius. The opening reception and awards ceremony was Saturday night. David Cerven, above, the owner and impresario, presided. The irrepressible Shawna Ventimiglia is in the bottom picture.

I did okay but other years have been better. I won the photojournalism and humor categories, which were notable for their lack of competition. The PJ category is up and down the center of the middle shot, the top and bottom ones being mine. The prize went to this one. I got the humor award for this. Nothing in the top ten.

There was some awfully good work in the show. Now, to qualify as a photography judge you need to have a few screws lose and a thick skin. (Same for the legal profession.) Everyone knows that. The show's judge's taste sometimes ran to the well-made conventional. Particularly in two categories (which I will not name), the prizes were awarded to technically superb, perfectly-executed, um, well . . . (yes, this is my occasional rant), one an emotional manipulation and the other as banal a topic as you might hope to find. Moral: be true to your own artistic vision but work on your technique.          

Allons-y!

There was supposed to be an historical re-enactment under the Arch yesterday. 2014 is St. Louis' 250th anniversary. The kick-off event was to be the arrival of the French explorers, Pierre Laclede and his sidekick August Chouteau on the west bank of the Mississippi, ready to start the settlement that became the home of the world's largest croquet wicket. And me.

But, um, it was pretty cold so they canceled the river landing in a birch bark canoe. Six or eight "re-enactors" hung out in the museum under the Arch, chatting with anyone around. (There weren't many.) That's supposed to be Pierre himself in the top picture. The two below could be on their break from their jobs as elves at a department store Santaland.

Since the event was kind of a bust, I took a ride up the Arch for the first time in a couple of years. First time ever with snow cover. Results soon.