Kenny Lackey 9/3/24 Kenny Lackey 9/3/24

Greek Festival

I visited the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas’ near to Forest Park Ave and Kingshighway on Labor Day, and really I don’t think I did it justice. I didn’t feel the same level of comfort I normally do in singling people out for shots, I think because this really was more of a shared public meal than anything else. I don’t know. It could also just be that I didn’t take my time, wait for the moments. Anyhow here’s what I got.

50mm, f/10
There's nothing really to draw the eye in this image, but I'm sharing it out of humility for what happens when you 'fail.' As in, this might as well have been me or anyone raising an iPhone and snapping a quick image. There's nothing at all wrong with that. But I think the difference between someone whipping out a phone and someone going out with a camera is intentionality, not equipment. That's a bit glib--someone could go out with a phone camera with the same level of intentionality of course. Most of the time, however, our phone cameras are for "taking pictures of things" or selfies or generally portraying our lives in a certain way. Not for portraying life.
What I do like, if anything, about this image is mostly nostalgic. Here I was at essentially a very large church cookout, and it plucked my heartstrings to see people queuing up in the church basketball court and plastic tables and chairs set out. But a compelling image it is not.

Kenny Lackey 9/3/24 Kenny Lackey 9/3/24

August 18 - 25: SLAM, TGP, Page Blvd

Again, just trying to catch up. Posts might be frenetic and brief for awhile, not that this will ever be a terribly word-heavy blog. But this is probably the best example of a ‘normal’ week of photography for me so far. No real plan or theme, just driving around from one spot to the next and going for a walk. Usually a slow walk, observing for a moment before snapping anything. Looking at light, what’s going on, backgrounds, potential frames.

50mm, f/1.8
Just a random pickup game at Love Bank park, Cherokee St.

50mm, f/2.8
I visit Cherokee pretty often, and there's something about this particular spot, Don Carlos at the intersection with California, that always draws me in.

50mm, f/2.8
Some people may think this DJ is wearing the jersey of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. To me, he is wearing the jersey worn briefly by the District 5 Mighty Ducks in the movie "D2: The Mighty Ducks" after they decided to take the ice in a beefed up uniform rather than their Team USA uniform. Those were the days.

50mm, f/1.8
The grounds outside the St. Louis Art Museum.

50mm, f/3.2
A completely random capoeira practice at the Tower Grove Park pavilion. I hadn't looked at an event page to find this, just stopped on by--there is nearly always something going on in this park.

50mm, f/2.2
Now, I was aware there's a Tuesday evening farmer's market at TGP, but I didn't realize there would be free swing lessons this particular Tuesday.

50mm, f/2.2
These two were a pleasure to shoot! They were having a blast, being weird and experimental with swing, didn't at all care what I was doing--in general just made it really easy to work with them as subjects.

Kenny Lackey 9/2/24 Kenny Lackey 9/2/24

Festival of Nations

This year I spent the first day largely solo apart from a brief rendezvous with friends, and otherwise walked just shy of twelve miles across Tower Grove Park. The second day I approached it from a more Dionysian angle with another friend. I have more to say, but I’m still learning SquareSpace and while I like it, it’s twice now cost me a substantial amount of work on this post simply for clicking the wrong button with nothing saved and I tire or rewriting the same thing. So briefly then: this is a beloved event, and I enjoyed both days equally—”working” it for a full day, and really getting to take it in the second day as a festival-goer rather than a photographer.

Kenny Lackey 9/2/24 Kenny Lackey 9/2/24

Japanese Festival

This year was my first time attending the Japanese Festival, hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden, right by Tower Grove Park. One of the things I enjoy most about photography and my semi-unexpected obsession with it is that I want to get out there, to be shooting every day. And if I go to an event like this (where by “like this” I mean an event that many hundreds or even thousands are going to), I hope to get at least some shots that while fairly representing the moment aren’t where most people’s eyes would drift. This event was a joy to shoot. Very well organized, something going on in every corner of the grounds and often overlapping—but it went on for three days and most events were repeated, so you could either just meander, or choose when to stop in on a certain presentation. The shots below are from both Friday and Saturday.

50mm, f/5
This might be my favorite shots so far. There's a lot going on without it being noisy, several 'moments,' all distinct, some overlapping, and I like that it's representing this corner of feminine expression. To me it almost looks posed, like I set the scene.

50mm, f/5
I like this one, too. This gentleman sitting alone, doing something on his phone but with a new friend on his lap that he'll need to take care of.

85mm, f/8
This one is special to me because the woman dressed as a geisha on the right had noticed me shooting and chose to look over her shoulder right at the camera, when she was supposed to just be staring straight ahead, showing the back of her ensemble to the crowd.

50mm, f/8
A magician working the crowd. I'd been trying to find a way to get a decent image from his impromptu performances. He wasn't on the schedule. He would just wander around the grounds and decide when he wanted to perform and he'd start. I'd tried a number of things and nothing was working. Stood up on a bench here and grabbed this when he began running this young sir around in circles, and while normally I don't like subjects looking at the camera it sometimes makes the shot a touch better.

50mm, f/8
Another 'off the schedule' performance. I love that they worked in these little moments of surprise.

Kenny Lackey 9/2/24 Kenny Lackey 9/2/24

Paint Louis 2024

Paint Louis ran from August 31 - Sept 1 this year, and I drove over yesterday to see what it was all about after getting a hot tip from some friends. It didn’t disappoint. Breakdancing, vendors, DJs, dozens of graffiti artists from all over the country, skateboarders, scooter-ers, photographers, motorcyclists, families all spread up and down the Mural Mile graffiti wall.

I’ll also soon (maybe later tonight!) post images from last weekend’s Festival of Nations and this weekend’s Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden.

50mm, f/8
I'm pretty sure I used the 50 and set to f/16 for this whole shoot, but I'll note where I switched it up. I think I often fall into the amateur trap of tending to shoot wide open and I've been trying to course correct. f/16 is maybe going in the opposite direction a touch too far, but I didn't want to have to think about aperture when the idea behind this shoot was to keep moving, not be precious with my shots, and not have to worry too much about focal points.

18mm, f/16, I was lying in the gravel off the main path for this one

Kenny Lackey 8/4/24 Kenny Lackey 8/4/24

Herman and Jeff City

On Saturday, July 20th I hit the road, really setting out to shoot Columbia, MO, but with quick stops at Herman and Jefferson City. As it turned out, by the time I got to Columbia it was late in the afternoon, I’d been shooting all day, and circumstances forced me to have a local IPA off 9th St. I took all of four or five pictures while there, and I’ll definitely have to return.

Herman is about an hour and a half west of St. Louis taking I-44 and then MO-100. It was recommended to me as a bit of a charmer and it didn’t disappoint. Motorcyclists use it as a waypoint for what I imagine are fun, relaxed drives and tourists pile in on the weekends for the many independent shops, the architecture, and the vineyards — maybe especially the Hermanoff Inn.

50mm, f/2.8
A view of the Hermanoff Inn.

50mm, f/2.8
In the wine cellars of Hermanoff Inn. Before heading down I was carefully

24mm, f/4
Just outside of Herman, oon MO-94.

24mm, f/4
Jefferson City, Capitol building of MO.

Kenny Lackey 7/23/24 Kenny Lackey 7/23/24

S. Kingshighway, #1

I committed to this site today, and given that I’m daily taking photos I hope that I’ll be updating here almost as often. I have a decent amount to share just to catch up, but tonight I’ll just post the catch of the day. I just parked on a side street off S. Kingshighway and walked for thirty minutes or so. I’ve thought about this area and wanted to explore on foot as it’s this vast wasteland in the middle of an otherwise dense part of town.

24mm, f/11
Professionally maintained flower garden off an empty lot and alley.

24mm, f/10
In the center off in the distance there is a huge graffiti mural, I think reading “CDEEZ” with a row of signatures beneath.

30mm, f/4
The former Jefferson Cafe (so yes, this is Jefferson Ave, not Kingshighway but was the last shot I took today), which burned the morning of June 7th after years of neglect, resulting from out of town ownership. I took this about 11pm, both because I wanted to try out the Manfrotto tripod I picked up today from Schillers and also because this is such a common story in St. Louis.

Kenny Lackey 6/29/24 Kenny Lackey 6/29/24

Alton and Grafton

As a first post I think I’ll be brief. Alton and Grafton both have the blown-through feeling of beach towns with deep roots. I drove over from St. Louis today to go for a photowalk and try to share a sense of them. These were all taken today. I’ve been going out after work to take photos around the city and usually I’ll also put in a long Saturday. I started with a Rebel T7 on March 20th. These were shot with an R

Earlier in the day I was at the Tower Grove Farmer’s Market and took a few quick shots.