Warren Web: st. louis

Our Day 12 assignment in Photography 101 was “Architecture”, and we were also asked to explore black-and-white. I have included dual photos in color and black-and-white of various downtowns: Granbury Texas, St. Louis Missouri, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and Seattle Washington. There is a photo looking up at the ceiling in the Atlanta Museum of Art, and also a photo of the iconic Space Needle in Seattle built for the 1962 World’s Fair.

It’s interesting to note how the color versions of the skyscrapers show various shades of tan, blue, black, and silver, and the St. Louis photo includes the turquoise and green from the courthouse top and lawn; these are all eliminated in the black-and-white versions, which I don’t think I like as much even though it still shows a lot of gray-scale color contrasts.

The St. Louis photo was taken from the observation windows at the top of the Gateway Arch, the Philadelphia skyline from across a highway (which was cropped out at the bottom), and the Seattle photo was taken from the 76th floor of the Columbia Tower building.

The atrium ceiling in the Atlanta Museum of Art had a striking pattern of lines and shadows and I had to take a photo of it since it was different; I think I might like the black-and-white version in this one better since the shadows are even more emphasized, and there wasn’t much color in the original anyway.

The old 1890 Hood County Court House in Granbury, Texas offers the most unique character in this typical Texas town square, and I prefer that one best.

: Hood County Courthouse – Color

: Hood County Courthouse – BW

: St. Louis Downtown – Color

: St. Louis Downtown – BW

: Philadelphia Skyline – Color

: Philadelphia Skyline – BW

: Seattle Downtown – Color

: Seattle Downtown – BW

: Space Needle – Color

: Space Needle – BW

: Atlanta Museum of Art – BW

: Atlanta Museum of Art – BW

Recently, we visited St. Louis for my nephew’s wedding, and we visited the Gateway Arch on the west bank of the Mississippi River where St. Louis was founded. It is a magnificent 630-foot high stainless steel monument to the westward expansion of the United States built in 1965 for $13 million. It’s the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, Missouri’s tallest accessible building, and the world’s tallest arch. You can ride all the way to the top in a series of 5-person mini-pods, and then you can get out and look through the narrow windows at the city and river in the surrounding area.

You can see St. Louis landmarks such as the Old St. Louis County Courthouse and Busch Stadium (where the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team plays). I also tried taking some photos of the river from the top of the arch, but those didn’t really turn out so well. We ate dinner at the Broadway Oyster Bar, which is a famous Cajun/Creole seafood restaurant that has live St. Louis blues/R&B music nightly right near Busch Stadium.