It has been a long day, what with all the goings on at my studio. Today was the last day of a four day photo shoot at My King Studio of Dance in O’Fallon, and it is not until I have unloaded all of my gear and grabbed my outdoor photo gear that I am able to get to the park. It’s quite late when I turn off Skinker Boulevard onto Lagoon Drive, hold my camera out the car window and experiment with motion blur and sodium vapor lights.
This business of photographing every day in Forest Park is a challenge on many levels, relying as I do on a serendipitous approach. Some times my chance discoveries are not as happy as at others, but I figure that just makes the hunt more exciting. Let the creative energy flow!
I continue my out the window blur clicks as I pass the Grand Basin and the Visitor Center, before turning toward Pagoda Circle and the Muny. But at Theatre Drive the circle is blocked, and in front of the Muny colonnade hundreds of white folding chairs are laid out in neat rows, looking for all the world as if they were participating in a military review in some authoritarian country. I picture uniformed men beneath by the side of the marching chairs, saluting the glories of their nation, smug in the knowledge that their enemies tremble in fear. Then I realize it’s time to go home and go to bed.