Flag Flies High

The Jacob Loose Memorial Flagpole was rededicated today. The pole stands near the Meyer Boulevard Entrance to Swope Park..Refurbished and painted it stands close to 200-feet tall. Originally dedicated on July 5th 1915 in front of a crowd of 70 to 80 thousand people it had fallen into disrepair in years past and the four plaques that adorned the base were missing. All have been restored.

Parks Director Mark McHenry was master of ceremonies and other guest speakers read portions of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address.






Mr. George Bates' Great, Great Uncle was Jacob Loose... he and his brother, Nathaniel did the unveiling of the refurbished plaque.




The American Legion Band then played the Star Spangled Banner and nearby Battle of Westport Reenactors fired a canon......

Summer Sundown

From North Terrace Park

Blatant Bragging

My client, Amber, won Crown Cover Model with the above picture we took in the America US Miss pageant in St. Louis. She also was the 3rd runner up overall. Congratulations Amber... and yes, she is taken by a fellow who has access to torpedoes.... :) Above shot taken with the Nikon D 3 at F16 and 1/250th, ASA 200... one large softbox above the camera position, one hairlight set to the same power as the mainlight and one background light on the white background....

Bond Bridge Fully Lit

Bond Bridge illuminated its LED lights along the sides tonight. They can be almost any color and move.... sliding red right to left, blue left to right, white from middle to sides.... very interesting.... makes for a very dynamic structure. Also another, much longer, fireworks display tonight from Riverfest.... good evening all round! Here's a link to a brief iPhone video of the fireworks... and you can see the LEDs changing. http://gallery.me.com/dremley#100622

Restoring the Past Final

Above the original, below the restored. Both are 18 1/8 by 47 11/16ths.... Restored version is 353 mb. The original photo was taken "1,000 feet above 13th and Summit" using Lawrence Captive Airship. Lawrence, the photographer, used a set of seven kites to raise the 49 pound camera into place. Google the airship name for more info.

Independence Eve

Bond Bridge on July 4th eve.... a short fireworks show tonight. Tomorrow night the LED lighting on the Bridge will burst forth and a much longer display of pyrotechnics will happen.
First two shots are multiple exposures sandwiched... fireworks shots are all F5.6 at 1/4 ISO 2000. Nikon D3, 24-70 lens. It would be nice if the fireworks could be higher tomorrow night :) .

Mighty MOcha

32.5 feet today.... around 3pm.... supposed to fall now... but we should expect higher levels through August. In comparison, the 1993 flood crested at 48.9 feet. We are nowhere near that and shouldn't be. The only thing that could cause issues would be levee seepage... the barriers aren't designed to hold back waters permanently... today I saw pick-up trucks driving the levee tops checking for anything amiss.

The water is quite rapid.... enough so that the bridge supports leave wakes..... lots of tree trunks and branches in the water too. All recreational boating is banned and barge traffic has a voluntary ban....