Not From The Hubble Space Telescope

We had a nearly perfect viewpoint for the Webster Groves fireworks.  Just on the edge of the infield dirt of the baseball diamond so there was no one for more than a hundred feet behind me. I could stand behind my tripod and not block anyone's view.

Some of my shots used the crowd and carnival rides for scale. For others I shot straight into the blackness. The results reminded me of pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope. Well, loosely.

The formula for shooting fireworks isn't complicated. I found it on the Web years ago. Sturdy tripod. (Don't even think about handheld.) Cable shutter release. 100 ISO, f 11, bulb mode. Open the shutter when you think the explosion is about to pop and close it as the brightness starts to fade (this can be a few seconds but easier said than done). Don't leave the shutter open very long during the big finale or you'll get lots of blown out highlights. The technique worked for these.                          

Angular Momentum

Amazing things happen when I stop being lazy and use a tripod. A shot of the Webster Groves carnival rides while the crowd, including a close personal friend, wait for the fireworks to start.

I got so many good fireworks shots that I'm still editing and can't decide which to use. Decisions have to be made very soon.                         

Local Traditions

With the big regional fair stuffed uncomfortably into Forest Park this year, Mrs. C and I did the Fourth in Webster Groves, the town where we live. About 23,000 people, just a bit outside the limits of the City of St. Louis proper. Economically, ethnically and racially mixed with a strong sense of community and a certain charm.

It's surprising that I ended up here. When I was in high school in The Bronx ages ago, the Jesuits showed a CBS News special called 16 In Webster Groves as a discussion topic. It was sort of an exposé of the shallow lives of middle class suburban teenagers, Quelle horreur! But there must have been a shaft of light beamed at my head that was invisible to me. Here I am.

So, some scenes from the town holiday parade, something that's been going on for decades and decades. I got some pretty damn good pix of the local fireworks last night, IMHO, but there will be more of this, too.
                             

The Fourth Of July

It's Independence Day in the United States. We have a huge festival in The Lou at this time of year. It's always been held on the spacious grounds under the Arch but that's in the process of a big restoration. So the authorities moved it to Forest Park. I'm not going near it. Getting in and out, parking and moving around the great park sounds awful.

So I'll shoot the parade this morning in Webster Groves, the town where I live, and the local fireworks tonight. Plenty good enough. Images to come. This photo was taken two years ago in Ridgewood, New Jersey, where I lived briefly long ago and still have family.                            

Open Studios STL 2014 - Andrew Brandmeyer

Another young painter on the tour, Andrew Brandmeyer. I don't see many abstract artists around here these days. The trend seems to be toward the figurative but with reality rearranged, not surrealist but more subtle. Here, the woman seems to be disintegrating in some way, maybe so anxious that bits are shaking off her. Some molecules seem to float in the air (more out of the photo frame). Note the ceramic owl with a pink, empty, thought balloon.

He told me that the painting he's using as his Facebook header (link above) at the moment is based on a Caravaggio work. I searched a couple of online catalogs and couldn't find the reference. So use your imagination.                   

Open Studios STL 2014 - John Joseph Hunn

As mentioned yesterday, Anna Chekhovskaya, the young artist posing in a picture frame, was visiting the studio of painter John Joseph Hunn. He describes himself as a figurative artist. That's true, but an inadequate description. Some of his work has a Gothic Christian setting of contemporary subjects. Others are on a large scale with a juxtaposition of elements that make you stop and use your brain. A view of the whole painting seen in the top photo is the first on this list.

There is a collection of odd objects around his studio. Below are copies of the ventriloquist's dummies Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead, made famous by Paul Winchell when I was a kid. My art history isn't good enough to know whether the relief mask behind them is Greco-Roman or much later neoclassical (the expression and horror-show hair make me think it's the latter) but the combination is wonderful.   

Open Studios STL 2014 - Portrait Of The Artist As A Portrait

I was visiting the studio of painter John Joseph Hunn and had taken some pix of him with a very large painting. His loft had plenty of wall space. Other areas had pictures in frames that would be appropriate for a Gothic church altar, a very clever idea.

As we were finishing a young painter came in, a woman not long out of school trying to make a name for herself. This is Anna Chekhovskaya. Hunn, who we will see tomorrow, suggested putting her in this frame, a brilliant idea. I'll steal any good ones that come my way.