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The Gateway Arch

Monday, November 9th, 2009
Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch

I’ve been in St. Louis now for 3 months, so it’s time to share a couple of photos of the Gateway Arch (whose full name is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch).

The Arch was designed by Eero Saarinen, built in 1947, and stands 630 feet tall. Standing under the arch you get a sense of how amazing it really is. And riding the elevator up the arch is even more amazing as you sit in the specially designed elevator cars that rotate as they travel up the arch. The rotation is needed to keep you upright as the cars travel along the curvature of the arch.

The observation room at the top of the arch is only seven feet wide, but 65 feet long. Rows of windows on either side provide a clear and long distance view both east and west of the Mississippi.

I was there on a bright, sunny day late in the afternoon. The arch looms over a pond that was perfectly still on this particular day.

The Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch

While the arch lends itself to a portrait (vertical) layout, the natural surroundings provide enough visual framing to allow for a landscape (horizontal) layout.

On a warm summer day, the park is crawling with tourists as they descend below the arch to visit the museum and board the elevators to the observation room.

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Fall Colors – Brown Deer Park

Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Brown Deer Boat House

Brown Deer Boat House

The fall colors have come and gone, with colder weather starting to move in. Today’s pictures were taken several weeks ago, just as the trees were turning different shades of red and yellow.

This is a picture of the boat house (seen in the distance) at Brown Deer Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The boat house is located on a pond, and in the early morning light, the pond is still and the scene is saturated with warm sun light.

On this particular morning, it was just warming up from an overnight frost.

Frosted Leaf

Frosted Leaf

This leaf had fallen from its tree, and what attracted my attention was the frost around its edge. The blades of grass also display the overnight frost.

The colors of the leaf make a nice contrast against the deeper green of the grass. Ideally, this should be shot with a tripod, since there’s a lot of magnification and the early morning light restricts how much light hits the camera’s sensor. This picture was taken with a image stabilizing lens so I was able to get away without a tripod. The picture was taken for 1/40 second at f/6.3 (ISO 200) with a 300 mm focal length.

Fall Goose

Fall Goose

Finally, there was also wildlife in the park enjoying the morning sun. This is one of the many geese that inhabit the park.

The goose is framed against the saturated hues of the reflection of fall colors in the waters of the pond. The light ripples in the water give the picture the feel of a watercolor painting.

While the fall colors have disappeared with the leaves on the trees, the changing seasons provide lots of opportunities for the many divergent views of nature.

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Serendipity

Friday, July 10th, 2009
McKinley Marina

McKinley Marina

Wikipedia defines serendipity as “the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.”

Such was my experience when I went to Milwaukee’s lakefront to take pictures of the circus wagons that had been assembled for the Great Circus Parade.

I was forced by a diligent park worker to park at a distance from where the wagons were located, and I ended up parking by McKinley Marina, located right on Lake Michigan just north of Veteran’s Park. Since the sun was just rising, I notice some unique photo opportunities – first of the boats moored at the marina, and then of the reflection of the city skyline in the pond at Veteran’s Park.

Here are some of the photos I took.

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