City Daily Photo June Theme Day: Nature

I'm mostly an urban street photographer. A trip into the archives was required to come up with something for this theme day.

This may be the single photo I'm most proud of. It was certainly the most difficult - Mt. Everest on a rare clear day. Long way to go for starters. We were travelling in Tibet with a small group, accompanied by English and Tibetan guides. There was a night at base camp, accessible by a very rough road. The shot was taken at 17,200 feet / 5,242 meters. I had pretty bad altitude sickness. Two men in the group had to grab me under the arms and pull me up the last little hill to the overlook. It was worth every effort.

Maybe there is something to the fact that Ansel Adams and I were born on the same date. Okay, that's an exaggeration. Other than this shot not much has rubbed off.

Our most beautiful desert oasis

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A real oasis in the desert, near the Dead Sea.
Ein Gedi, my most beloved nature spot in all of Israel!



This Apple of Sodom grows from the rock and clings to the canyon wall in Nahal David, on the way to the waterfall.
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June 1 is Theme Day and City Daily Photo members are starting to blog about Nature today.
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The Lonliest Guys in Town

There aren't a lot of Republicans in the City of St. Louis proper. I think every single elective office is held by a Democrat. On the other hand, they have lots of colleagues in the suburbs and surrounding rural areas. The state government is very far right wing. (Well, if it's any consolation, neighbouring Kansas is worse.) Now, it is a completely personal opinion but I think that this group, is its current form, is allied with the forces of darkness. Haven't they read Matthew 19:24 or 19:21?        

Surprise around every corner!

The Station

An ever changing station and surrounding area in the Paddington basin.

Moonrise At The Space Station

Nah, it's the Climatron at the Missouri Botanical Garden, a geodesic dome that somehow contains four different climactic zones. The family went to an event at the garden Sunday night, more about which soon.  

Yesterday's photo was from the annual Annie Malone parade. The organisation is a major provider of social and economic services to the area's African-American community. The parade is always a great photo op and there me more from it, too, as soon as I can work it in. I think Olivier's comment on the Facebook version is correct. He just wanted to fly.

We ordered Madeleine her first camera today. After all, the child will be four years old in August. It's time to get started. There may be some guest posts. 

What Is This Man Doing?

Let's make a projective test out of it. What do you see? I'll give you one hint: it's in a parade. More details later.   

Need A Job?

Being a police officer could never have been an easy job. However, it must be exceptionally tough in contemporary America. For better or worse, we need them. Some people put "Support Your Local Police" stickers on their cars. Some people hate them. But then I've represented a number of corrections officers, the current euphemism for prison guards. That's even worse. The stories I've heard...

There have been recruiting posters for the Dallas Police Department in the men's rooms at our baseball stadium. (They may or may not be in the women's rooms. I wouldn't know.) That's desperate. I've heard Dallas pays its cops poorly.         

Panera Bread Restaurant in Lake Sumter Landing, The Villages

Consumerism

The back door of a truck that is a mobile women's clothing store. The words are from a Supremes song that is more than 50 years old. I wonder how many passers-by got the reference. In any event, more stuff doesn't get you love or anything more than a momentary buzz.       

Cool campus cats

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Cats are EVERYWHERE on the campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 
Even indoors, it now appears! 
This one was feeling right at home inside the Student Administration Building. 

When she saw me sit down near her, the kitty perked up, assessing me: would I be a good source of food and cuddles? 
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(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
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Mexican Music, Mexican-ish Food

I've still got a backlog of raw images to edit and I haven't even started on what I shot last weekend. It occurred to me to take some time off during this holiday weekend. Do you think it's likely?

The first photo is the singer in a Mexican band. She was really into it and I enjoyed her passion. I speak a little Spanish and I understood some of the song. Like a lot of popular music, it sort of boiled down to "ooh, baby baby."

The restaurant in the second picture was new to me.  It sounds like heaven. To hell with the cardiologist. Enjoy life.   

Summer type weather

A very warm day last week in the Public Garden.

The Cheshire Cat

Remember the cat in Alice in Wonderland?  Who often recited the first verse of the Jabbertwocky poem

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

The Queen of Hearts, rabbit and the bottle were also spotted tripping around the streets.  Ah summer promises to be fun with lots to entertain us.

Looking out the museum doorway

I'm finally busy going through and editing the pictures I took in Graaff-Reinet a few weekends ago and will start posting about our visit shortly.  One of the photos I found was this one of Miggie standing in the door at the Reinet House museum looking up towards the Drostdy Hotel.  She clearly likes being outdoors a lot more than going through museums.

I've Been There

Another hip shot.  Actually, I've walked by there several times but have not actually been in it. Not really my kind of place.  

We can figure out the sticker to the left. Check. I think the one on the right is Paris. Check.  The lower right has to be Wales. Check. The flag just below the buckle is that of the City of St. Louis. Well, obviously. There is still an awful lot on the list.   

Fort Point Channel

Along the Harbor Walk, looking at the South Postal Annex at South Station. The tall white building in the background is the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Pet Store Sale in Lake Sumter Landing

My Guardian Angel

Low-res phone cam shot, taken while waiting for the traffic light at Olive and Broadway downtown.  There are many segments of American society. I suppose this represents one of them. 

Some Things Don't Change

Late post. I left my laptop at my office last night.

Our iconic statue, The Runner, is back. I think it came from the 1904 World's Fair. (To paraphrase Marlon Brando, we used to be somebody.) The circular pool is now much smaller, giving the sculpture more of a direct impact.  In the old installation, persons unknown used to dump red or blue dye into the water if something special was going on with the baseball or hockey teams. Now it has infinitely variable LED lighting.

And, of course, Fredbird, the Cardinals' idiotic mascot, often hangs around. Here, he is challenged by a fan of the San Fransisco Giants who were in town.

There is a good photo how the eastern half of the plaza used to look here.  Pretty bland and often unkempt. Also, there is an overview shot of the new plaza here. Hard to tell from the picture but that big lozenge of grass is hump-backed. The developers claim that if will provide seating for 2,000 people for concerts. I'm sceptical but we will see. Otherwise, it doesn't look very useful to me. Only a bit of shade around the edges and our summers are hot. 

"We still Bezzy for the Moument"

A walk around the Reinet House Museum in Graaff-Reinet recently had me wander into the mill house in the backyard.  They're currently busy with restoration work and a hand written sign on a piece of torn off cardboard caught my eye.  I just had to snicker. Clearly somebody asked one of the Afrikaans workers doing the restoration to just put up a sign so that people don't fidget with the mechanism and this was the result.  No, I'm not being a Grammar Nazi, I just love the simplicity of it .

Sculptures at sunset

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Art in between two Brutalist buildings at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev!

The light of the setting sun (see it in the tree?) silhouetted them nicely.

The BGU booklet Beyond the Classroom about the sculptures on campus offers this:

Three Fanfare Trumpeters and a Climber
Ofra Zimbalista
2014, cast aluminum, life-size figures
Three musicians scale the side of a building, representing a group  going in a single chosen direction.   On a nearby building, the W.A. Minkoff Senate Hall, an individual chooses to climb a new, previously unexplored peak. 

Click the photos if you'd like to see them bigger.
There are three other posts in the blog with more sculptures by Ofra Zimbalista z"l.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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What We Lost

These are old pictures of what used to be the west half of Kiener Plaza. There was an amphitheater surrounded by a collonade. The stage, below street level, was was in the middle of a wide brick floor that could contain, for example, the Kansas University band and cheerleaders. (Some phase of the college basketball playoffs was in town.) In back, there was an irregular waterfall flowing down concrete steps, a treat for local families during our hot summers.

It was a delight, and well used. I shot political demonstrations there, music performances and civic events. Apparently, the amphitheater did not fit the very flat plans of the new architects (see yesterday's lead picture). Losing it is the worst thing about the new Kiener Plaza.

Kiener Reopened

STL's main downtown square, Kiener Plaza, has been closed for a year for renovation. It was completely redesigned and opened again this weekend.

There are pluses and minuses. A lot of it looks quite barren to me. The new landscaping, where it exists, is better. (It couldn't have been much worse in the old one.) There is more seating and a cute, if somewhat cramped, children's play area. It will look better when the trees fill in.

I'm going to cover this for a few days with some comparison shots to the old plaza.