Tower Grove Fog

First day of a five day weekend and Mother Nature gives me fog!



Naturally I went to the nearest park.



I know I should have worked this out before I left, but I'd gone about a block before I realized just how damp my scooter ride was going to be.

Sunday at the St. Louis Zoo

More experiments with the old 500mm mirror lens:




 And a modern zoom:

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?

Playing with light in Tower Grove Park

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

Well, I guess I'd better start catching up

Hiya. I've been doing not-bloggy things lately, but I have been taking pics.

This is Logan. He lives with one of Julie's co-workers. We had a portrait session last month in Bud Wiel Park.

Lovely Saturday in Tower Grove

Picnic time.

Saturday in Carondelet Park

Kite Flying on Art Hill

Hello. I've been quiet for a while, but I'm still here. I haven't posted much because I haven't been doing much. The answer to "where do you want to go?" has pretty much been to bed, or to play video games, or to my friends' house for dinner, or my friends house to watch them play video games. Between winter blahs and a cold I couldn't shake, the photo ops haven't been very interesting.

Things are picking up now. Julie & I just got back from Chicago, where we watched a writer's conference from the wings. More on that tomorrow. Today let's take a peek at some kite flying pics from the beginning of the month.






Julie took this. Apparently I make faces when I'm struggling to keep a kite in the air.

Sunday at Steinberg in Forest Park

Some of our crew went skating Sunday afternoon. I didn't take many pictures of them. I only get to post pictures of strangers flailing. The kids were the best. They didn't really seem to mind how much time they spent sprawled.





Here are Cath & Christine.

Saturday in Carondolet Park

My father.

Unexpected Music at the Festival of Nations last weekend

I think someone had taken its batteries, but he loved it anyway.


Yeah, she was beating his head for a solid 5 minutes at least while they were watching the Polynesian drummers.


I wish I had gotten a better pic of this. His shirt says: "punk's not dead."

Sunny Sunday in Forest Park

Forest Park is nicely lush this spring.





I once did a family's photo shoot from one of those little paddle boats.

Kites on Art Hill

We got together with some friends for food and kites a couple Sundays ago. The wind was too quiet for any of my kites, but a couple people had small fighter kites that went up for a while.



This sled did okay, too.


Cath made her own shade.

Sunday in the Park with Snow

It's all gone now.


Noooo!

Sunday afternoon in Carondelet Park

Julie & I were just looking for a place to lounge and sip cold drinks. This is what we found on the hill beside the lake.

Saturday: Picnic in Carondelet Park

A feast featuring carrot strips, bananas, olive bread, hummus, apples, a little chicken salad for me (the omnivore), and wine. I really didn't want to leave. I had good food. I had a library book full of Margret Burke-White. I was pretty content. Luckily, Julie keeps her eye on the bigger plan, and knows better than to let me lounge all afternoon.

PrideFest in Tower Grove Park (Saturday)

This is Cath. She is adorable. She should have gotten sooooo many more hugs.






For more PrideFest photos, take a peek at my Flickr pages. Tonight I'll go through my rain soaked photos from Sunday and see what I can put together. I had a really good time shooting in the rain, even if my cameras didn't.