Internet Cats

Internet cats are such a thing people can make a living off their celebrity pet cat. Does Maggie cat have what it takes for me to quit my day job?

Madison County Transit Confluence Trail

For Memorial Day I rode part of the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail which tracks the eastern bank of the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. The path is poorly marked, the trail isn't paved in places, and overall it is fairly exposed. I can't say I recommend it, but there are some interesting views of  St. Louis City and various industries along the river. Also, there is the occasional bit of wacky charm. This sculpture of a giant head bouncing away from it's tiny body was on a bare street corner in Granite City. 

Possum Opossum

You know what's cute? A baby possum eating dog vomit. That is all. 

Birds on a Building

The weather was too nice to ignore today so I spent some time cycling through south St. Louis. The mural is a Jeff Kapfer design installed recently for the Southampton Neighborhood Association.

IRL

Is this the beginning of the end of www.pluckandlights.blogger.com? Perhaps, I have plans to scale up, to provide a more varied and useful content, and to switch platforms. Between real life squeezing me for attention and lack of experience in web design, though, I have no idea how long the switch will take. A week? A couple of months? We'll see.  
This was an opportunist's shot of a sun ray over a sun ray. Perhaps I've used a bit too much Photoshop in post but what I really needed was a strong flash, which I didn't have, to pull this shot off. 

Dirty Bird

Mom turned 60 last weekend and we celebrated by going to Grant's Farm. This handsome fellow was one of Grant's exotic birds that had escaped his perch. He was landborne, and was slowly making his way towards the fence and the greedy hands of children that don't know better than to avoid his beak of doom. Really, that beak can crush nuts, and children are all kinds of nuts. The bird was giving a staff member the fits, though, before someone gave him a ride back to his stand. Perhaps the bird had tasted human flesh before?

DayQuil Tinted Glasses

I'm playing hooky from work today. It's legit, my sinuses were inflamed yesterday and today I have a cough and a fever. Still, I don't like calling in sick; it's tough to keep experimental momentum in biochemical research, and this has put me two days in the hole. The bright side is I get to spend the day with my feet propped up on the couch. True, I'm heavily under the influence of cold medicine right now, and I am attempting to work on a paper today – instead of watching movies – but I do like this couch. 

I'll be off the blog for a couple of days. We have family visiting over the weekend so I probably won't return until Monday. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to shoot some new material next week. 

Lemon Katie

I was reading a tutorial today on making double exposures with DSLRs. The tutorial was specific for Canon 5D Mark III cameras, which have a more robust multiple exposure function than my Nikon 5200, but I found I am still able to make them in camera. After trying a few, however, I decided I would have more control over such things in Photoshop.  True enough, but as with most things this heavily manipulated it's difficult to make it look natural. And there is nothing more natural than a Katie full of lemons. 

Goin' Pro

For fun, I've been looking into what it would take to be a professional blogger. Basically, to make ends meet, I'd have to have on the order of half a million page views a month. In the past four months I've had almost two thousand. At current AdSense rates that puts me at about $12 pre-tax profit for four months worth of work.

Not too shabby... As long as I don't need money.  

Chicken Little

In lieu of a grassy lawn our landlord has planted the backyard with leafy plants and perennial flowers. We let the dogs trample through it but they don't make a dent in the vegetation. The plants are rugged, hardened by the harsh St. Louis weather. The advantages of this style are that yard looks nice and it requires little effort in maintenance. It's smart. I do find our landlord's choice in lawn art amusing though. The nude concrete bust looks like a sculpture of a butchered chicken to me. 

Mystique-ish Photoshop

Alright, so take a perfectly good iris highlight and turn it into something cartoony and dumb. This is my playing around with layer masks in Photoshop. Somehow, I've made it a long time without figuring out that layer masks make life easier in Photoshop.

That eye and hairline need some work, but this was mostly a get-a-feel-for-the-tools session. 

Caffeinated

I do not envy drug addicts. My caffeine fast lasted all of two days before I reintroduced coffee into my diet. It was two days of a mild hell. My head throbbed, my muscles ached, my nose ran and I was so damn sleepy. On the third day I decided going through withdrawals was not worth the effort. Luckily, caffeine is the only drug I've ever developed a physical dependence to and it is relatively benign. I can imagine the trials an addict to a dangerous drug has to go through to stop — and I include nicotine as a dangerous drug. 

Of course, the photo above has nothing to do with drug addiction. It's an artless selfie of me. I'm posting it because I came across a Photoshop tutorial on Phlearn that describes a technique for making the eyes of your subject pop. I'm using the technique heavy handedly here, along with my standard mix of tricks, but there is real potential here for legitimate touch ups. It's fun, and straightforward, but not something I would have figured out on my own easily. 

Fire Fire

Short post tonight: I decided to give up caffeine for awhile and today is day one of the fast – horrible, horrible flu-like symptoms. This fire is a good representation of what's going on in my skull. 

Ho ho ho

I've been posting a lot of archive shots lately for two reasons. First, I enjoy being a tourist through my own work – it's interesting which shots I liked back then and which ones I like now. Sure, my past and present preferences overlap, but not always. The difference, I think, is that I'm not as biased now by my original vision, and whether or not that vision was achieved, than on day I took the shot. So, I'm seeing the photo in a different light. My second reason for mining the archives is, I fear, that I've been lazy. There isn't much new material to draw from because I haven't taken the time to shoot.  Worse, I've been drooling over new photography gear during my turn at sloth. 

Let's not be that guy shall we?

The spray of color above is from a mistake. I bumped my tripod while taking pictures of Christmas lights back in December. The effect was interesting enough though to try to recreate it. Of course, none of my deliberate attempts turned out as well. 

Cutthroat

Anyone who follows my online dealings would notice I have an absurdist streak. It flares up when I'm at my most nihilistic because I'm frustrated over something – which, with my current career track and lackluster resume, happens frequently. To relieve stress, I try to make myself laugh with visual and verbal non sequitors. Not everyone gets it – actually, a surprising number of people take me at face value – but that's fine by me, others' reactions become part of the joke.

That said, while I haven't yet found the voice for this blog I don't want it to always be the joke that only a narrow audience gets. So, enough already with the niece gifs. Today's post is more sincere, it's simply an image I rather liked. The photo is a shallow-depth-of-field shot of Eugene Field's cutthroat razor. It can be found in his field house museum in downtown St. Louis. 

Just Because 2

Well, so I was thinking the only way to get better at this photography thing was to push my comfort zone both creatively and technically. To really challenge myself, I looked through my sister's  Facebook page, the sister that is the most tolerant of this kind of thing, and started downloading pictures of meals that I thought looked good to eat. I then decided to put my niece dancing in her Motorhead T-shirt (not Photoshopped) on top of the food.  

It was a lot of effort but I believe you will agree this is one of my most important pieces.*

*Now that I've watched this a few times I realize I forgot a series with her Chicago Hot Dog Salad dish. She forgot the celery salt and sport peppers on that salad though so I don't think it really counted.

Catching Up

I just noticed that the blog has just reached as many unique page views as its parent blog, A Day in St. Louis. It has only taken me four times as long to reach that number since changing the name to Pluck and Lights.  I'm fine with that, I've also noticed I get much fewer non-human visitors. So, this blog gets fewer numbers but more people.

Today's photo is another archive shot. This was taken in Chicago's China town when I visited the city for a job fair about a year ago. The job fair, unfortunately, didn't go anywhere but I wasn't trying very hard. It seemed that everyone was wearing a suit and tie except for me. While I didn't dress like a slob, I didn't see the point in getting all starched up to walk around booths to collect corporate swag.  Also, I despise corporate swag -- so what was I doing there exactly? Well, to network presumably, but I didn't meet anyone I was much interested in talking to. So, after ducking out of the fair early I went to China Town in search of one my favorite dishes, Sichuan pork intestines. Unfortunately, the Chinese bistro I went to didn't have that so I settled for a cumin lamb stir fry instead. It wasn't spectacular, but it was certainly better than being over dressed and eating fast food at the convention center. 

Just Because

Apparently my niece walks now. This video was shot of her at an Easter egg hunt a week ago. I have no idea why her parents thought Devil horns were appropriate for an Easter egg hunt -- they do listen to that punk-rock music though.

Oooo, Dr. Waldman can make a stoopid animation!

Nude

I asked Katie a few weeks ago if I could join a nude-model photography group. Her response was "Nudie pics!" which I assumed meant consent. My rationale was I thought it would be an interesting way to learn portraiture. After putting my application in and being accepted to the group, however, I realized many of the events seemed to be more about the nudity than the photography. To each their own, but that's not my bag, so withdrew my membership. 

But speaking of nudity this nude bronze, titled "Emma," is a favorite of mine. Perhaps because it's a nude bronze next to a parking lot -- context is everything here. I first encountered it, fittingly enough, while riding in the Naked Bike Ride last year. I didn't, ahem, participate fully in that ride but the event is for promoting cyclist visibility, and I'm a cyclist that likes to be visible, so I wanted to support it.

Unfortunately, I don't recall the artist's name -- and after spending 15-fruitless minutes searching combinations of Emma-bathing-nude-and-St. Louis on the web I'm fine not crediting the work for now. 

Eades Bridge

I was looking through my archives and came across this photo. I took this one last year on the Fourth of July off the Eades Bridge looking down at the crowd exiting the Arch grounds after the fireworks display. I was taking long exposure shots to try to capture the kinetic feel of the crowd. Perhaps, in this case, the exposure was a bit too long since the crowds are mostly obscured by blur, but I liked angle and scale and the relatively immobile couple embracing in this scene. There are things I'd change about my technique this year but at the time I thought I had done good and proudly posted this photo on Facebook. Of course, no one besides Katie posted positive feedback on it. I have since learned that Facebook is strictly for pictures of your dog and lunch...

Sheep Go To Heaven, Goats Go To...

Ugh, another long-winded and serious blog post drafted and dumped into the trash. This one discussed religion and why I am agnostic. The whole reason for the topic was so that I could eventually say "whoever wrote Mathew 25:31-46 obviously never saw a cuddle puddle of pygmy goats at Grant's Farm." That verse is the one where The Son of Man says, "I will sort the compassionate from the sinners like sheep from goats. The compassionate sheep will join me in heaven while the sinner goats will burn in hell." And while I'm not trying to be blasphemous here – I like the verse, it's essentially the Golden Rule with strong imagery and repetition to drive the point home – it does short change goats.

Anyways, if you are not drinking beer because you are on some kind of a diet, the pygmy goats are the best thing about Grant's Farm.When you enter their pen they will swarm you and nibble on your camera equipment.

Feeling a Bit Gassy

Next to the Grand Street MetroLink station is an Airgas stockpile of high-pressure gas cylinders. Because of the pressure, each cylinder has a tremendous amount of stored energy -- enough to make them a missile should they develop a sudden hole. These cylinders must be able to withstand considerable stress from the weather, however, if they are stored without cover in St. Louis. Perhaps they are empties?

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

There should be more STL-250 cakes tonight but I'm a bit caked out. Besides, there is more gif-ing to be had from the CAM STL's Takeshi Murata exhibit. 

Happy Easter!

This post has been hard for me to write. The subject is a gif of Takeshi Murata's Melter 2 which will be projected nightly on the side of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis through April 27th. It's trippy, and today is 4:20 – a major pot holiday –  so every draft of this post has devolved into a dry discussion of the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana. In short, I find the efforts to legalize the drug more of a challenge to societal norms than a threat to public health. It's not a subject I care much about though, so I don't know much about it, and I fear the little I do know has been colored with hyperbole from both sides of the debate. So, should we legalize it? In my admittedly naive opinion – probably. While I am interested to see the public health statistics coming out of Colorado and Washington over the next couple of years, I do not see whatever benefit we get out of keeping the drug illegal able to justify the costs of enforcing that classification or the loss of personal liberty.

On a side note, I get Santa Claus, but what is the deal with Easter Bunny?

Sweet Ride Man

I spent last Saturday cycling around town taking cake photos. The day began cool but I expected it to get warmer so I left the house with no inclement weather gear. I also figured that I would eventually warm up from the exercise. The day never warmed up, however, and when I was at the furthest point from home the skies opened up and it began raining. In short order I was drenched and much colder than I was when things were dry. Luckily, I was close to the Maplewood train station so decided get out of the elements and ride the train most of the way home.

While I was waiting on the elevated platform for the train I spotted a cardinal in a tree filled with purple flowers. In an attempt to photograph the bird, I dug my camera out of my backpack and replaced the 50 mm prime lens with a telephoto-zoom lens. Unfortunately, the bird was gone by the time I was done fiddling with the camera. Instead, I spied a boring blue sedan with flames painted on its front fenders in a distant neighborhood.

Question: Can a car still be boring if it has flames painted on it? I don't think so...

I Squish Your Head

I have always wondered what it would be like to work in demolition. I bet it would be satisfying  to look at your work at the end of the day and know you made a dent.  Well, maybe – the former Forest Park Hospital (pictured) has been in this condition for awhile. They must be waiting on some permit or other before giving the structure the final kill blow. For sure, it's not a building I would want to trespass urban explore in as there is all sorts of detritus hanging off the side of the structure. Things like large appliances hanging by a cord and chunks of concrete clinging to rebar are all there waiting to crush your puny skull.

Spring in St. Louis

Spring is in full force in St. Louis. The weather is cool but fair, the trees are blooming wantonly and the grass is a lush-hypercolor green. It's lovely, but I let my eyes go dry because a blink will bring the swelter of summer.  

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

I just read a short column in the Guardian about why zebras have stripes. It turns out that zebra striping is geographically coincident with biting flies. That is, the more of an annoyance biting flies are in a particular region the more likely the local members of the horse family will have stripes. While this is merely a correlation study – from what I can tell from the Guardian piece – there is also experimental evidence that flies prefer to land on solid-colored surfaces relative to striped surfaces. So, it is certainly plausible that zebra stripes may simply be a mechanism to avoid fly bites. 

Happily, this was a rare example of science journalism that cites the original publication. If you are interested, the study was published by Tim Caro and colleagues and can be found in the April 1st, 2014 edition of Nature Communications.

The fly-free-and-striped photo above is of a shaded walkway in the Missouri Botanical Gardens. 

You'll Poke Your Eye Out Kid

There are a series of billboards around St. Louis for the personal injury attorneys Brown and Brown. Of the two Brown wears an eye patch in the ad – hold on, let me see if I can find it through Google, ah yes, perfect, here is Brown and his eye patch at the top of a Buzzfeed-sketchy-lawyer-billboard-thread. I have no idea how good of a lawyer Mr. Brown is but that eye patch must work wonders for his business. That one accessory, and who it's on, makes it one of few memorable billboards I can recall – and I've been on a highway, I've seen lots of billboards.

The only reason I bring this up is because I like Dale Chihuly's artwork – a lot – and Dale wears an eye patch. I find it suggestive that Chihuly's glass sculptures are full of sharp-eye-pokey projections, but the truth of the injury is much more mundane. Glass was involved, but Dale damaged his eye in a car accident.

Today's post is more cheap flower shots taken at MOBOT – the top arch is a Chihuly if you couldn't tell. 

Horses See in Telephoto Panorama

Katie and I went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens yesterday to shoot some pictures. It's a lovely garden but I am always reluctant to post MOBOT pictures because everybody loves a flower. It's easy to take a pretty picture here and pretty-easy-pretty-pictures are like cheap milk chocolate to me -- they go down easy but are unremarkable. That's not to say I dislike flower photography, but like anything else, it takes patience and skill and the proper equipment to do it well. In particular, Charles Dana, a local photographer who specializes in flower and fauna close-ups, has an exhibit at MOBOT that was thoroughly interesting to me. He has a great eye for color and getting the focus and light on his close-ups just right.* 

In any case, to try something different, I decided to put a telephoto lens on my camera to photograph the gardens. My main goal was to play with perspective by compressing the sense of depth. To maximize the effect, I was looking for long subjects I could photograph from afar. In the photograph above I was standing roughly fifty yards from the statue of the woman that was roughly fifty yards from the statue of the fish. The result was to squash the perceived distance between the two statues and to fill more of the scene with the floral trim.

Oh yeah, the title of the post was "Horses See in Telephoto Panorama." Well, I guess I have to discuss horse anatomy another time.  

*After I posted this I noticed that Dana has a photo on his Fine Art America page of a fire hydrant that is reminiscent of my cake photos. I've actually considered making the fire hydrants of St. Louis a photography project -- there are some good ones.

250 Cakes of St. Louis 6

No. 41 -- Location, Lyon Park - United States Arsenal; Artist, Tiara Henderson

Today's cake count brings me to the nifty fifty.

I'm going to be light on text because it's a nice day and I have, essentially, a brand new bike that I want to ride. The bike isn't completely new, just a replacement of the frame, front fork and handle bars. The reason for the major overhaul is back when I was photographing cake No. 12, near Powell Hall, I noticed the chain on my bike wobbling curiously on the front-chain ring. Getting the bike tuned didn't fix the situation. What the mechanics missed, which I'm still annoyed about, was that my bicycle frame was nearly cracked in half where the tubes meet the pedals. This was causing the front-chain ring to wobble when I put my weight on the pedals but not when I turned them by hand. So, telling the bike mechanics that the chain was wobbling was like taking your car into the shop because it's making a funny noise only to have the car not make that noise when someone knowledgeable is looking at it. Regardless, the 13-year old frame had a lifetime warranty on it, the bike shop I bought it from back in 2001 had record of my receipt, and Trek graciously honored the warranty. The result is I'm basically riding a brand-new $1500 bike which cost me a tenth of that in parts and labor.

The Trek frame warranty is a good warranty. 

The Cake Files:

• 250 cakes of St. Louis 5
• 250 cakes of St. Louis 4
• 250 cakes of St. Louis 3
• 250 cakes of St. Louis 2
• 250 cakes of St. Louis 1

No. 42 -- Location, Lemp Mansion; Artist, Phil Jarvis 

No. 43 -- Location, Jay International; Artist, Vince Sciaroni 

No. 44 -- Location, Griot Museum of Black History; Artist, Keith Cotton 

No. 45 -- Location, Clementine's; Artist, Earl Miller 

No. 46 -- Location, Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion; Artist, April Morrison 

No. 47 -- Location, Luvy Duvy's Café; Artist, Phil Jarvis 

No. 48 -- Location, Soulard Restoration Group; Artist, Rich Brooks

No. 49 -- Location, Historic Trinity Lutheran Church; Artist, Mark Hurd 

No. 50 -- Location, Ameren; Artist, Rudy Zapf