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 paying 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 after a 180 turn - the Queensboro Bridge from an elevation 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.   

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

More adventures await.

Another Year Flown By

I learned something yesterday. Apparently, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was the first newspaper to hire a staff photographer, Garnett Palfrey. It happened some time between 1899 and 1901. This gee whiz fact was acquired yesterday during a family visit to the Missouri History Museum, specifically a great show of panoramic photos of our city from the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

There were supposed to be some special kids' activities but that was kind of a bust. The museum does have a string of galleries aimed at teaching children the history of the region, There is lots to play with and Ellie's activities were not of the intellectual sort. As she wound down, she declared that was having a flower nap and wouldn't move along with us. Four year olds.

The central hall is dominated by a replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis aircraft. Seems like a good way for STL DPB to say good bye to 2017. Tomorrow: pictures of the year.       

Camels in waiting

.

Does this camel have its own prayer rug to kneel on?

The camel's handler was busy on his phone while waiting for paying customers.

A second dromedary was hitched to a fire hydrant, probably hoping someone would want to take a short ride just for fun.

From our bus I could see more camels on the other side of the highway.

It's a long outdoor market selling ceramics and souvenirs.
Gas station and restaurant.
And everyone knows the Last Chance coffee bar here.
It's on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and it's your last chance to make a pit stop before the desert, before making the descent to the Dead Sea, hundreds of meters below sea level.
.
(Linking to Camera-Critters.)
.

It's A St. Louis Thing

It's been going on for decades. Every December, a St. Louis County park near us puts up elaborate Christmas light displays. It's big and must take an enormous amount of work. People drive slowly through a set route with many oohs and ahs. You can also ride on a horse-drawn carriage. We were booked for that tonight but it's so cold the rides were canceled for the horses' safety.

So we drove through with Ellie yesterday. Cute, a little cheesy and immensely popular. Mrs. C did the driving while I shot out the window with the new Fuji. It still feels like I'm talking to someone from rural Alabama or Scotland. It's the same language, technically, but not always intelligible.

    

101 Things

Something new on graffiti-allowed section of the river flood wall. However, no list was provided. Maybe the panel is designed to be thought-provoking. You have to figure it out for yourself. Is it worth the bother?

There have been suggestions offered in the past. My high school library in The Bronx had a great selection of magazines. One of them was called Sing Out, the premier folk music magazine of the time. From time to time they ran columns by a great blues harmonica player, Tony "Little Son" Glover. 

In the spring of my senior year, when I had decided to attend St. Louis U, he wrote a piece called The Ten Best Things To Do When You Get The Blues. Number 1, the ultimate act, said simply: Piss in the Mississippi. It will give you a feeling of immortality.

So you can guess what one of first things 17 year old me did when he hit town. By the way, it didn't really help.

    

Monday Morning

Ellie on Christmas morning. My little friend got quite a haul. Green is her favorite color and her best gift was a new green bike with training wheels (she's ready for it) and a green bike helmet. When it gets warmer, there's gonna be action.

This is one of my first pictures with the Fujifilm X-T2. Its control and menu system is very different from my Canon DSLR and the transition will take some time. But it's so much lighter. I notice that the reds are truer than on my 5D Mk III, which tends to oversaturate them. I need a lot less sharpening and get somewhat less noise reduction at high ISO. On the other hand, I wish it had simple M, Tv and Av exposure settings, to use Canon's terminology. You can do the same thing on the Fuji but it's less intuitive. And it seems to underexpose when the scene is on the dark side. Lots to learn.

'Twas The Mid-Day Of Christmas

“Twas the mid-day of Christmas and all through The Lou,

Not a salesman was pitching, as far as I knew.

The wine racks were filled with the utmost of care

With hope that Aunt Flo doesn’t spill everywhere.

The children were plugged into PlayStation 2

With sounds of big mortars and gunfire, too.

While mom in her tennies and my Cardinals cap

Had just finished picking up holiday wrap.

Etc. etc. It was awfully quiet around town yesterday. If fact, haven't heard it so quiet since last Christmas when we had thick fog. Here, the parking lot in front of Nordstrom in the St. Louis Galleria is dead empty.

Beginning to take some shots with Santa's best gift of all, a Fujifilm X-T2 camera. It's wonderful, half the size and weight of my Canon DSLR but it's going to take some time to get used to. I can't get in the habit of adjusting the f stop with a ring at the base of the lens. My brilliant teacher, Bobbi Lane shoots with one and, although she gets paid for it, I trust her.

Correction! -- The REAL conservator appears!

.

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it today!
(I couldn't find a decorated indoor tree in the Negev to post, so this one up in our Meitar Forest will have to do. )

Being Jewish I don't do Christmas, but I DID get a present just now in the form of an unexpected comment. 
Jerusalem Hills Daily Photo blog is honored and surprised to hear from Georgios, the actual restorer from Golgotha in the Holy Sepulchre!
He wrote

Dear Dina . My name is Georgios and i am the man in the foto. I am Greek and i was working in the conservation of the wall paintings in Greekorthodox chapel in Golgotha. We were 3 professional conservators from Greece and we restored and cleaned the wallpaintings ,the icons and the Jesus on the Cross. It was an unbeliavable and fansinating experience. Thank you for your fotos.

This is the man in my recent blog post title Overhead Work in the Holy Sepulchre.
If you missed it, please take a look now at the four photos of Georgios at work.

After trying to find information online about the conservation work, I confess that I  assumed him to be a different expert, and thus made a big mistake in that post.   :(
My apologies to all!  That will teach me to be more careful in reporting and to "assume" nothing.

Shalom dear Georgios,
Thank you so much for miraculously showing up here in the blog on (new calendar) Christmas Day!  Thanks for your graciousness in forgiving my case of mistaken identity.  And thank you for sharing with us how it felt to give your help to such a holy place as the Holy Sepulchre. 
I wish I could have talked with you; I was so moved watching you work.  God bless you for your loving contribution to Golgotha. 
May you have a blessed Christmas season. 
With much respect,
Dina
.

Merry Christmas From St. Louis

Could It Be?

Local news outlets say that St. Louis last had a white Christmas in 2010. 2016 was foggy, misty and dark (but I liked it). We got the first snowfall of the season en the early hours of Saturday and may get a bit more today. The weather should stay cold enough to keep some of it. So maybe this year?

Ellie woke up yesterday, looked outside and squealed with delight. In no time she was outside making snow angels. According to the family botanist (not me, since I grew up in the concrete jungle) the plant just below is called heavenly bamboo. Doesn't look like that to me but I love the berries. Ellie deigned to pose before it. Lastly, chez Crowe with extra white accents.       

Merry Xmas

Have a lovely Xmas wherever you are

Short Days

The length of days is creeping forward again but sunset is still early. Our city isn't very far north, about on the same parallel as Washington and Rome. Still, the calendar gives lots of opportunities for dramatic shots like this. It's called a pagoda, although it doesn't look Oriental, in a pond in Forest Park.

We had our first snow overnight. Not much but enough to cover the grass and cars. Ellie will be out making snow angels as soon as the sun is fully up.            

Delta

I could tell while editing that this is a Delta jet passing behind the Civil Courts building. It is approaching our airport from the southwest so it's probably coming from the airline's hub in Atlanta.

We almost always fly American. It took over TWA, which was based in St. Louis. We play the frequent flyer points game with a vengeance, so we stick with the carrier that gives us the most freebies.        

Winter Trees

Near sunset, looking out from Kiener Plaza towards 10 South Broadway.       

All candles brightly burning

.

The 8th, final, candle of Chanuka tonight!

Tomorrow is the last day of the festival of lights.
The name of the 8th day is Zot Chanuka.  See why here.
According to tradition this last day is the essence of the holiday. 

Still unlit candles,  just waiting for their chance to shine.
What a difference, eh?  
.
Chag sameach, happy Chanuka!
.

Naughty Or Nice

After the children's pageant and pot luck dinner at St. John's Sunday evening, who should appear but a merry old elf. Ellie looks a little concerned. How do the scales of justice hang between naughty or night? As an observer of her behavior I'd say there is a definite tilt toward nice but, well, nobody's perfect.  My sources tell me she's going to make out very well this year.      

Temporary Angel

There was a little Christmas pageant and pot luck dinner last night at St. John's Episcopal Church, where daughter Emily and Ellie attend. Three small girls, including our own. were dressed as angels. While the outfit isn't always appropriate for her, they played their roles well. The three of them, but Ellie most of all, performed impromptu interpretive dance in the sanctuary during the carols.

The bottom picture is a phone cam shot by Emily.   

   

Scuba diving party in Port Elizabeth

Parties are getting more and more sophisticated.  Back in our days it was kids coming over and eating cake and sweets while watching a video and playing.  These days parents are pulling out all the stops to make a child's birthday party a memorable one and with two kids, a boy and a girl, we've been to everything. Movies, ice skating, trampoline park, pool parties, supertube, survival parties and more.  But Drama Princess had a first the other day.  A scuba diving party hosted at ProDive here in Port Elizabeth. 

The kids had a swim in the dive pool while waiting for everybody to arrive before the full safety briefing by one of ProDive's qualified dive masters.

They were then given their diving gear...

... with the dive master kitting them each out individually to make sure everything is in order.

Then it was time to get in the water and the fun to start.

Miggie showing off her scuba look.

Some of the kids "got it" immediately...

... while Miggie's mind told her she has to come up every time she wanted to breathe in.  The dive master brought her back to the shallow side and spent a few moments with her to put her mind at ease and to help her get used to breathing underwater. 

Then there was no stopping her.

I wondered beforehand if Miggie would enjoy a scuba party and if she would even go under water.  Any uncertainty was cleared up very quickly and the kids at the party absolutely loved it and would have spent all day in there if they could.  I did my diving qualification many years ago and haven't dived for a while, but I remember the feeling and I can imagine while the kids loved it.  It's really something different and if you're looking for something out of the ordinary for your child's next party, then you should really consider doing this.