I know things have been a bit quiet around here lately, but I have been intensely busy working on a large project involving a lot of travel. I’m going to be spending the majority of my waking (and quite a few of my non-waking) hours either at airports, on planes, or commuting between job sites until Labor Day. It’s a great opportunity and the work is going well, although it is probably the most intense schedule I’ve had to stick to. I have photo shoots on both the west coast and the east coast in a space of less than 20 hours early this week! Back to regularly scheduled programming once this series of project is over.

Now I’m back in work mode even though it’s only Sunday. I have to make a lot of necessary changes to my business plan for the next year, as well as some more abstract changes to the direction I want my business and my photography to go. As such, news here may be a little erratic over the next few weeks/months. On the other hand, whenever I say that I always end up posting more that usual. So we shall see. In any case, expect to see some changes around the site.

Djs spinning at the Regional Arts Center on Friday night

I went out for a walk one evening, ostensibly to explore the neighborhood and work on some urban decay photography. In Saint Louis, there is certainly enough urban decay to go around. I’m still a new resident, so I wasn’t sure exactly where to go first. My inclination was to head north, where the abandoned warehouses start appearing a few blocks off of the newly gentrified Washington Avenue. However, to be honest, after a few conversations over the weekend about crime, I haven’t worked up the courage to go to far off the beaten path with my equipment by myself. So I headed west along Pine, intending to spend some time taking pictures of the dozens upon dozens of unused parking meters all over the city.

Next to the highway on-ramp, squeezed in next to a hotel in one of the many empty lots in the area I stumbled across City Seeds, a St. Louis non-profit project with the goal of increasing “food security in St. Louis” by providing “mentorship, supervision, and training twice a week.”

It certainly is an interesting project, there in the middle of the urban landscape, and given the number of signs warning people not to steal food, I was a little concerned about being chased off. To be honest tough, there wasn’t a lot of ready to eat food, so either it had already been stolen, legitimately harvested, or the garden wasn’t really producing much. Looked like there were a lot of leeks and potatoes approaching maturity, so maybe all of the earlier veggies had already been picked.

I was able to spend some time photographing the site and it was a really neat experience. I’m all about urban gardens – if I had some grass or a green roof I would certainly have one. Makes a lot of sense both environmentally and economically. Really cool to see that sort of thing locally here in St. Louis. Below are some of the images from my excursion of City Seeds as well as the surrounding area.

Once a Day Theory: The theory is that having to post a photo every day will make me a better photog. It’s also a theory that there will be a photo every day. Gallery of previous Once a Day Theory images can be viewed here.

Once a Day Theory: The theory is that having to post a photo every day will make me a better photog. It’s also a theory that there will be a photo every day. Gallery of previous Once a Day Theory images can be viewed here.

A few weeks ago I talked about going around to the Open Studios on Cherokee Street and one of the places we stopped was a gallery space called Ft. Gondo. At the time the gallery featured an amazing assortment of found objects, antiques-art etc. We picked up a postcard for a gallery show happening Friday night, and as part of our goal of getting out and involved in the art community we went. And had a blast.

This community of artists is all about putting work up and throwing a party around it. We were told by several people that everyone into getting their work out there. Which says something about the community as a whole. It takes a lot of nerve to put your work up on a wall and invite people to criticize it. However, the vibrancy of this group of artists makes me want to see more and more art, and it also makes me want to work harder so that I can show them my work too.

There were a lot of people at the opening and (after a couple glasses of jug wine) Xina and I got up the nerve to start talking to people. And the really excellent thing is that everyone is remarkably friendly and seemed pleased that we were there on our own, not just because we knew one of the artists. We ran into new friends that we’d met at the Open Studios and became better friends with them, and in turn they introduced us to even more new friends. Xina and I are very excited. Social contact! With real live people!

After several hours of chatting in the gallery, the party rolled outside to the street, where everyone hung out drinking cheap beer on the sidewalk. I don’t know how many times I can say this, but seriously, I love the fact that this city is casual enough that the cops allow a peaceful gathering of people drinking on the street without getting all fussy about open container laws. I guess the other theory is that the cops have greater things to worry about based on some crime stories we heard that night. Interesting side note: people rarely talk about crime in New York in anything other than an abstract way. Here the crime is a bit more real for some reason.

Eventually we moved the party up the street to a Mexican bar which oddly was converted from a German bar without much decor change and was amazing. I loved the discordance of a mural of the Alps along one wall with a broken neon Corona sign on the other wall. Also carpet in a bar. Crazy concept. Anyways, we spent the next couple of hours getting to know our new new friends, and then to top the evening off we all went down the street a bit for a midnight rummage sale that someone was throwing. Love it!

It was one of the best nights out Xina and I have had since we arrived in St. Louis and we would like to thank all of the wonderful people that welcomed us into their circles. We hope to see all of you soon!

End note on the photographs above: I’m STILL trying to make my bulky G9 useful, and have found that I like making B&W images from it, and I like using the craptastic viewfinder rather than the LCD mainly because I like shooting with the camera on my eye, not at arm’s length. I’m enjoying the crazy unpredictability of the images that I’m getting using this shooting method. An interesting fun fact I discovered about the camera: when you shoot in B&W mode, the camera still captures the image in color, retaining all three channels of info. Basically this means that you can preview the images in B&W on the camera, then treat them how you want when you process them. I find it helpful even though it’s just a preview/review function. I’m determined to get my money’s worth out of this camera, although I’ve spent two years trying and only have a smattering of good images to show for all my effort with it. Also, I suck at snapshots and documenting my own life (I don’t want to miss reality while hidden behind my camera lens, I’m not that type of photog) but I want to work harder at shooting when I’m out and about, especially with friends. It doesn’t make much difference now, but it will when I’m older and looking back at the images…

I spent the day Wednesday shooting a project that have been in the concept stage for a while with some limited success. I created a series of images which work really well for me, but I think I’m not quite there yet. In any case, I felt good about the day’s work. When I have a good day shooting I usually end up wanting to go for a drink somewheres, and bask in the feelings of accomplishment and productivity. Since I don’t have many friends yet and it’s too damn hot to go anywhere outside, I headed up the block to Left Bank Books instead. I’d been meaning to go since we moved in and it seemed like the time was right.

Left Bank Books in downtown St. Louis is a small bookstore, the second of two locations in the area. The flagship store opened in the Central West End in 1969 and they have been the go-to independent bookstore in St. Louis since. They are big on community, much like many of the arts folks that I’ve come across in Saint Louis, which is one of the things that I’m starting to love about this city. From their website:

We work hard and sacrifice much to keep this place going because we love it as much as you do. Many of us are writers, performers, and artists and personally appreciate the importance of a store like Left Bank, not only to the cultural health of a community, but to the health of its creative people, too! Many of us are involved in other community organizations as volunteers and activists. Issues like peace, racial justice, civil rights, urban sustainability, education, animal rights, and support for the arts are some of the areas in which Left Bankers are involved.

Left Bank Books strives to be a good neighbor and, like many locally-owned businesses, gives back to its community. Besides reinvesting three times more of our revenue locally than non-local chain stores reinvest, we also give a lot of organic support to grass roots and non-profit organizations through donations of gift certificates, percent of sales, bookfairs and even free event programming.

For the store owners and workers alike, working at Left Bank Books has been more like preserving a community trust than running a business. And while we know that being business-like is extremely important, we also know that earning and keeping that community trust is both our most fervent desire and greatest reward.

I found their inventory to be very small, but wisely curated, at least in the sections that I paid close attention to, mainly art, design, and of course photography. I found the limited selection to be liberating, and I was able to pay attention more easily to each title than being overwhelmed by several hundred titles in each section. My only concern is that now I’ve seen and examined everything in their photography section, and unless they regularly rotate content there won’t be much more there for me to check out. That said, there were a number of photography books that I wanted to buy but being on a limited budget I stuck to a history of the Met and a couple of photography magazines. That should keep me busy for a while. And I’ll definitely be going back. I’ll have to check out the West End Location as well …

In truth, I think I had a moment of insanity with the negatives. I even managed to block the fact that I’d tossed them into trash bags from my mind, and it wasn’t until I’d looked in every possible spot for them a few years later that I remembered my mistake. From a historic and nostalgic standpoint, it was a huge loss and I still feel like an idiot. While just about everything is gone, I came across an envelope of prints from that time period and luckily there are a few gems in there. The one picture that I’m most happy to have a record of is a picture I took of my then-girlfriend’s cat Gunther jumping for a toy on a string.

I also came across a few tortured angsty pre-facial hair self portraits and still life photos. OMG, I was, like, SO depressed and emo back then. I’ll spare you most of them, but here are a couple to give you the idea. (Although I’d be willing to bet that “OMG” was not part of my lexicon back then).

Somehow I managed not to throw out all of my art supplies and equipment from around the same time period, something I am grateful for now that I am stretching my creative legs, shaking out the stiffness and getting back to the business of making art. I am absolutely loving discovering myself creatively again and all the stuff that I didn’t throw out.

I just got some new running shoes! Finally. I am at least six months overdue and my feet thank me. We also had a break in the humidity the last few days, so Xina and I had a fantastic run (for me anyway). We did just under 5 miles in 45 minutes, which for me is super great. I’m generally a three to four mile runner, so anything over four miles to me is great, and I was even able to finish the run at a nice, not-quite-sprint speed which felt really good. I give the credit to the shoes and the weather, but hopefully I’ll be able to at least complete the same long run once or twice a week. I feel much stronger than when I arrived (and I think running in the insane heat and humidity has made my body stronger too). The other running news is that Xina is going to sign us both up for a Race (capital R) next month. It’s a 5k, so a perfect distance for me, but I’ve never competed, so I’m betting I run really hard the first mile then collapse. I’m going to make sure that Xina trains me a little between now and then.

2. On Making New Friends

We are in a new city, we don’t know many people yet, and frankly we are starving for friendship. Xina and I have spent a lot of time together, but we are looking for new people to hang out with. Last weekend we met some great people at the Open Studios and we are determined to keep the ball rolling. While we both do pretty well in social situations with strangers, we are not accustomed to simply walking up to people and making friends. We have made a pact to be open to everyone we talk to (and this being the midwest, that has proved to be much easier than it would be in New York).

We headed over to Benton Park on Saturday night to the Venice Cafe which is another art-installation-as-entertainment venue and is super cool. The entire structure is a 20-30 year long sculpture project made up of found objects, recovered architectural accents and columns and amazine tilework. We spent some time talking to the owner and I tried my first Stag Beer (for $1.50, can’t go wrong) Then the somewhat rowdy group people at the table next to us invited us over to their table to hang out. Turns out they are from St. Charles, and they had lots of advice about St. Louis for us, such as which airshows to go see, etc. One guy talked my ear off with all sorts of outlandish stories he’d heard about driving big rigs through New York. They were super friendly, and the woman who invited us over to the table in the first place gave us her card when we left and told us we should all hang out and have a barbecue. Turns out she is bail bonds woman who’s business card asks “Got Your Booty Locked Up?” Would we go to a barbecue hosted by this woman? You betcha.

3. Lumberyard Release Party: Firecracker Press

After our evening at the Venice, we headed over to the release party for the Lumberyard, a poetry and design magazine printed by Firecracker Press. Firecracker does some amazing design work and printing – it’s a great shop with a lot of great work. We spent a few minutes talking with Eric the owner who is a really cool dude. I’m thinking my next set of business cards should be letter press.

We picked up a copy of the magazine which is rockin as well as this kickass print. Very very cool.

It took them about 24 hours to allow me to add Facebook and Twitter once I downloaded Flipboard, but in the mean time I was able to check out a number of content streams that they provide, so there is always tons of material.

There are a couple of things that could be improved: I wish Flipboard had was a way to dismiss content I’ve already read. If I read through x number of things, then close the app and open it a short time later, I have to flip past all the content I’ve read before I get to unread stuff. Another thing is that I wish there was a way to import my Reader feeds. How sick would it be to have all of that content presented in the Flipboard manner? IN a perfect world, each folder in my Reader feed list could be a stream in Flipboard.

I also wish there was a way for me to mark articles for later reading, or so that I remember them without posting something on Facebook or Twitter. There are a number of occasions when this would be helpful. For example, I subscribed to the Uncrate stream. I came across a Christmas gift idea, but there was no way to tag it, or star it in a non-public way. So I had to go the safari app and bookmark it.

All in all though, very cool app if only for the Facebook integration. And it’s free!