"Gateway to the West" Photo

Photographer’s Note

Here is a shot from the Fair St. Louis celebration on the Fourth of July. The fireworks on this evening were pretty poor, plus the wind shifted and all the smoke blew in from the river and obscured most of them, at least from my pov.

This photograph was taken at the north leg of the arch, looking south towards most of the crowd and the huge television screen they had showing the concert that was going on down at the bottom of the stairs leading from the Mississippi River to the arch. Most of the folks at the festival could not have a hope of seeing the show, but everyone could hear it, no problem. There were some local bands and finally a national act, "Train". They were a little too much pop for my tastes - I prefer the blues or good old hard rock n' roll. They tried to do some, like Aerosmith's Dream On and a Led Zeppelin song, but they were poor imitations of the real thing.

Anyway, I took several crowd shots and some fireworks photos. I liked more of the crowd shots than any of the fireworks, so that's what you will see here on the front page. If you click right here you can see a photograph of the fireworks that night, taken just before the wind shifted and blew the smoke straight over the crowd. If you like fireworks shots, see this one, a redux of Friday night's fireworks at the park in East St. Louis. On that post you can also read a story about the barbecue vendors that are directly behind me in this shot...

So, this is the "Gateway to the West" shot with my Sigma 10-20mm fully wide open so I could get it all in. I finally got a polarizer for this lens, but it didn't arrive on time to use this evening, so the sky is a little washed out in the center because I tried to equalize the exposure so you can make out the people, too. No distortion correction or anything other than some leveling and sharpening was done to this photograph.

Check the workshop for a blue hour shot of the Arch right before the fireworks started - it's one of the few decent exposures I got after dark.

Have a great Wednesday! We'll never see another like it - 07-08-09...

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Critiques | Translate

tola_ch2004 (488) 2009-07-08 10:34 [Comment]

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feather (49856) 2009-07-09 14:25

I don't think it needs any distortion correction as there aren't any straight vertical lines (or if there are, they're not obvious)Not easy to get the exposure right for all elements of the shot and here the OE doesn't really bother me. My attention is on the two people looking up. I like the blue hour shot in the WS too. You guys like to celebrate your independence!
Kath
btw the date will happen again 7th August in Europe, as we put the day first and month second!
K

baba_flies (7941) 2009-07-11 5:12

Hello Reed! I have a postcard of this arch when a friend of our family had an exchange thing with his school and dropped us a line. I like the way you have photographed it, I am always the kind of girl that stands there, in front of such monuments, or churches, or bridges, and I try this and that and nothing exciting comes out but you have done so well by also including the people. Somehow we can feel that it is a special day and a special place without many words needed. We celebrate our State on August 1 ... and I will have some Californians over as our special guests. Should be fun, it is not the first time actually and they seem to love it. Happy weekend, Barbara.

batalay (20788) 2009-07-18 7:01

Hello Reed,

What a wonderful perspective on the immense parabolic arch. Using an extreme wide angle camera, you've captured the entirety. Of course, the red-shirted figure in the foreground is disproportionately elongated, but that is very dramatic, in a manner evoking El Greco's paintings, and a suggestion that the great Greek-Spanish artist was was suffering from astigmatism. But for me, one of the most compelling aspects is that no matter what perspective you select for a parabola — straight on or at a grazing angle, as you have — the shape of the parabola is retained.

Warm regards,

Bulent

delpeoples (5608) 2009-07-25 4:30

Hi Reed, long time no speak. I've been in Italy and TE-less for the last month, and have missed ya. Great shot here. Love the perspective and the slight distortion of the wide-angle lens. Be "seein" ya soon, Lisa

jimmyjimmy (444) 2009-08-30 19:26

Hello Reed

I like the POV. I have never seen the arch except from a plane. Very well done.

Regards
Jimmy