Tour de Frances, St. Louis Hills

I have a Reflex-Nikkor 500mm lens that I have never gotten a feel for.  My dad loved it, and it does have good points: it's sharp, it's in perfect condition, and it's surprisingly comfortable to shoot with.  On the down side, it's slow-- f8 fixed aperture (which is probably really a 1/2 stop darker in practice).  Also, I'm not much of a telephoto shooter to begin with.  Historically, I've preferred the large depth of field and sharpness of wide angle lenses.  I just can't seem to think of pictures so far away.

Yesterday I decided to play with the behemoth.  One of the reasons I bought a Nikon DSLR was so I could continue using the collection of Nikon lenses I had used for years on my F, F3HP and Nikkormat.  The results aren't all that impressive, but another joy of digital cameras is the low cost of practice, practice, practice.

We went to Frances Park to watch the bicycle races.

Wings of Hope in the Forest Park Grand Basin

It's no secret I love boats. Also, I have a fondness for things that may or may not work out the way they're supposed to. Clearly the Hope Floats cardboard boat race is made for me. Julie and I wandered out to Forest Park Saturday morning to see what we could see.


It was a beautiful morning- the heat actually broke for a few minutes.


Some launches went better than others.


Vikings don't seem to like bathing. Who knew?

After years of admiring the folks who risked their pride in the "Anything That Floats" Race at the Three Rivers Regatta, I think I'm ready to try making a cardboard boat for next year's Hope Floats. Who's with me?

The Safes at The Firebird

After a week of not wanting to put anything near my tender nose, I picked up my camera again. I didn't use it too much, but I wanted to grab some shots of The Safes when they came down from Chicago.







It was another night of playing with the new camera and my RAW software. Shooting in the dark isn't much of a challenge with the D5100. Friday night I decided to see how "filmish" I could get. It's not my normal way of working; I don't generally waste my time twisting one media to resemble another. Everyone has moods, though, right?

Ohiopyle State Park, Western PA

I try to visit this park every time I go back to Pennsylvania.

Happy Independence Day!

I didn't brave the heat for any fireworks this year. Have some colorful pics from last week's Pride Parade instead.

Wednesday night at Off Broadway

The new camera does really well in low light, and it works with all of my old Nikon lenses.


I took this pic of Holcome Waller (in his fancy shirt!) from the balcony of Off Broadway with a 40 year old 200mm lens.


And here's Haley Bonar...


and Daniel Martin Moore.

It was a good show. Exactly what I needed last week.

Playing with light in Tower Grove Park

For the record, I'm really happy with the Nikon D5100.

I Went to a Showcase, Off Broadway

I'm learning how to use a new camera. I don't quite have my sea-legs with it, yet, but five hours of practice last Saturday at Off Broadway certainly helped.

Record Store Day @ Vintage Vinyl

I'm not really crazy about crowds, so you'd think I'd avoid events like Record Store Day (Featuring FREE SCHLAFLEY BEER), but I do like music. Papa Ray was a good host.

More from Cherokee

Photo Walk on Cherokee

I went for a walk with my friend Ann a couple of weekends ago. Our photo walks are always fun. It always crack me up how many times we jockey around to stand in the exact same spot, but we end up taking completely different shots.

Icy Walk

JulieDill and I took a short walk today.
First we planned to go to Francis Park.
Then we decided to go the shorter distance to Ann & Karen's.
Then we decided against dropping in on people without warning and thought we'd go get coffee instead.
Murdock Perk was closed, so we decided to be sensible and headed home to a pot of homemade chili and a quiet afternoon in front of the fire.
I see nothing wrong with walking a mile and a half to get nowhere.

Lookie: Knobs!

So I oggled a sound board at one of my favorite music venues last week. I'm not very good with the audio part of A/V, but I'm learning.



I have it on good authority that real audio geeks like knobs. This must be a sweet board.



There was a photo shoot with a bunch of music bloggers going on in the background, but you'll have to check out the Riverfront Times to find out more about that.

Staying Home all January

It's been 2.5 weeks since my last blog post, and I've been sick the whole time. For those of you who haven't been listening to me whine, here's the rundown. I started getting sick the day we visited the trains. By New Year's Eve I was too sick to go out for dinner & party. Thanks to a monster course of antibiotics and much sleeping I've only missed one day of work, but really, this is getting silly. I'm sure my throat will stop hurting soon, but I'm getting impatient.

Julie made jello today.



I think it might be medicinal.