Ice Water

Yesterday was clear and very cold (for us). The family took a ride to the state park at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The point on the right is literally the tip of land between the two. The view is roughly to the southeast. All the ice is coming in from the Missouri, on the right. 

The Mississippi, on the left, is clear for a reason. The site is just below the massive lock and dam at Alton, Illinois. Ice backs up behind it and only clear water flows through. There hasn't been enough time and space for it to re-freeze. The drop in elevation downstream is so gradual that there are no locks all the way from St. Louis to New Orleans.             

Where To Go Sledding

The place in STL to go sledding, tubing, or your choice of sliding device is Art Hill. The great sloped arc descends from the art museum to the Grand Lagoon in Forest Park. Almost every child in St. Louis had sped down it at one time or another. The problem, though, is that if you are going too fast you could slide off the edge into the water. It is partly frozen now but was completely open when this was taken.

Today's newspaper headline says they we have stayed below freezing for thirteen days, the longest stretch in 35 years. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/feels-like-i-m-a-kid-again-longest-freeze-in/article_b42a8f29-8309-5599-ba5b-2a8310349bce.html#tracking-source=home-featured As a rule, we're not that cold a city.          

Brrrr

We have not been above freezing since before Christmas and there have been several nights sub-zero Fahrenheit (that's -18 C. Why this country does not convert to metric is beyond me.). That's unusual for here. In these pictures, freezing condensate pours off the top of the Federal Reserve Bank next to my office building (maybe they have to keep the money chilled) and ice flows throughout the Mississippi.

As I look out my office window this afternoon, there are chunks of ice in the river from bank to bank. If time and weather permit tomorrow, I may walk out onto Eads Bridge (rear of second photo) or even drive up to the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi. It's not that far away but the route is very indirect because of the shape of the rivers. And I've been trying to find the last time the river froze solid here. Hard to be sure but I think it was 1936.       

Cold + Wet + Wind

A  last note about sub-zero aquatics on New Year's Day. I admit to being a cold weenie but having the aromatic spray from the Mississippi in your face at such temperatures is unimaginable. It seems that you have to be the kind of person who wears a flamingo on his head to tolerate it.    

Fox & Friends

I didn't see anyone dressed like this in the frigid Mississippi after I arrived but I suspect the event began before the advertised hour of noon. There was a picture in the Post-Dispatch yesterday taken from the back of someone water skiing in a Santa suit. I didn't see it. But was it this man? The suit doesn't look soaking wet.

A couple of the TV stations always show up with reporters and camera operators. You can see them milling around below. (New Year's is usually a slow news day.) The local Fox outlet got an interview with the person who would have played Santa in Frozen if Santa had appeared in Frozen. No Fox in this household. We watch MSNBC.   

BTW, that skin color and tone is a nice example of what the Fuji X-T2 can do. My 5DM3 would have put too much magenta in the face and coat.   

The Age Of Crazy Has Not Passed

It was -5F / -20.5C when I woke up yesterday morning. At noon on the riverfront it was 4F / -15.5. The water temperature was just below freezing. Remember, we are on about the same parallel as Sicily and Athens.

Being New Year's Day, it was time for the annual water ski run on the Mississippi by the Missouri Disabled Water Ski Association, a fine organization that gets people usually confined to wheelchairs out on the water at high speed. Fine people, yes, but they don't all necessarily have all their marbles together.

I've shot this event before and on some cold days, but I've never seen ice in the river on January 1. It left the skiers with little room to maneuver. Only two people tried and only one actually got up.      

First day of  shooting with just the Fujifilm X-T2. There were other photographers with big Canon cameras and bigger white lenses. Doubt they got better shots than I did and my shoulders left in better shape.    

City Daily Photo Theme Day - Best of 2017

January 1 is the day City Daily Photo members post their best work of the year. It's theoretically supposed to be one picture, I think, but I'm greedy. These are my favorites. 
       

There is a tie for first, two photos taken a short time apart in Canyonlands National Park In Utah. The first is the baddest of the badlands. The second shows two men playing with their cameras, while only a child appreciates the awesome beauty of the scene.     

Portrait Of The Year

Our friend Olivier Perrin on the tramway between Governor's Island in the East River, New York City, on our way to midtown Manhattan.      

Leading to the Travel Photo Of The Year

Taken seconds after the last one with a 180 turn - the Queensboro Bridge from the tramway heading into midtown.      

Best Theatrical Picture

I've done a lot of theatrical photography in last year and this shot is my favorite - Chicago performer Matthew Markum doing Pollack: A Frequency Parable. Free jazz with words and abstract expressionist art.   

Best Grandchildren, Period

Audrey  and Ellie, taken in Clare, Michigan, within a few days of their second and fourth birthdays.

And last, another best picture of paradise, Playa Langosta, Tamarindo, Costa Rica. It's been here before. Thanks, Dave and Julie! 

More adventures await.