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

Soulard #1

I thought I would head downtown tonight, either that or there’s a section of Gravois I’ve been meaning to visit. Instead I found myself in Soulard. This is a neighborhood I rarely visit and it was my first photowalk there, and these shots somewhat reflect that. If I go downtown I feel very comfortable working and I know where light falls in the streets at certain times (at least in summer), where the interesting backgrounds and parks and so on are. Soulard is so new to me that I had to refer back to my photos in order to return to my car.

Oddly, it was one of the first neighborhoods I visited in St. Louis as I wanted to see the farmers market. So that very first Saturday in mid-August of 2014 I went. I was still very much in an agricultural mindset and as I walked the stalls I was jotting down prices and other notes. It struck me that nearly every vendor was a reseller. That is, as is often the case at a farmer’s market, the ‘farms’ aren’t farms.

Say a farmer has a contract with Kroger and they grow cucumber, squash, and zucchini across twenty acres or something. Kroger will open a certain number of boxes and if they find a certain number of rejects (pest bite marks or other imperfections) they reject the shipment altogether. It doesn’t get tossed, but instead goes to an auction. A reseller will be at that auction and bid on the shipment. If they win it, they take it to your local farmers market and pretend to be a farmer. Fun!

So there I was jotting down prices when a market manager came up to me and said in an especially clear manner that I was to either stop taking notes or leave immediately. I left, and have never been back. Although I will be there this upcoming Saturday morning if I stay in town. And even if not, I barely scratched the surface tonight and know I will be coming back many times.

50mm, f/8
Tile work from the 1930s on the 'Smile' building. Originally a German social hall, then the headquarters of Smile Soda, and now condos.

50mm, f/8
Facing Eat Crow gastropub at S.12th and Allen (the blue awnings). Three things struck me on this walk: the amount of bars and restaurants, the golf cart culture, and the architecture. I saw not fewer than two dozen golf carts on the road. I see this in my neighborhood, Tower Grove East, but maybe once a month or so. An hour into my walk a younger guy asked me what I was doing, which happens at least once when I go out. I explained and assumed he lived in the neighborhood, and remarked on how many golf carts I'd seen. It turns out he was visiting from Atlanta (hello if you're reading this, it was good to meet you!) and said he had the same first impression. It's definitely a thing.

50mm, f/8
Notice the three cake statues in front of the Soulard Art Gallery (and one more further down the sidewalk is pictured next--along with a golf cart). The city commissioned 250 of these for the 250th anniversary of the city's founding. Initially they were scattered all about. Many are in their original locations, some are unaccounted for, and some are clumped together like this.

50mm, f/8
Golf carts everywhere. And an attractive abandoned property.

50mm, f/8
At first I thought this cart misbehaved and got the boot, but more than likely this is the owner's security measure.

50mm, f/8
Even just a little pop of color can make me happy.

50mm, f/4
The spire of Trinity Lutheran. Founded in 1839, they built a new church on 8th street in 1865, which was then destroyed by a tornado 1896. They rebuilt on the same property, pictured here. The next few shots are on 8th as I made my way towards a triumphant return to the Soulard Farmer's Market.

50mm, f/4
This front yard blew me away. The next image is to the right of these stairs.

50mm, f/4
Right before I took this I had to wait because someone was approaching the shot. Not just someone, but a photographer clearly also on a photowalk, a young woman. We smiled and looked quickly at each other's cameras. I find that when you see another photographer in the city it's cats circling each other, as my friend Ambrose says of INFJ personality types meeting.
Another incident happened on 8th. I clocked a couple on the opposite side of the street standing in their doorway, the woman holding the man from behind and both smiling and just taking in the beautiful night. They had seen me. I really, really wanted that shot, but I find it's especially difficult to take if you've already been spotted and once I was directly across from them I didn't have the guts to raise the camera. I've been kicking myself ever since because for me it would have made the walk. I guess I'm feeling extra chatty tonight...

50mm, f/4
Looking down one wing of the market. There are several. I saw a poster for a Hispanic festival the weekend of September 20th which I'll definitely be returning for! This is the oldest farmers market west of the Mississippi. I underexposed almost this entire shoot, after reading some advice that it's a good idea to do so. It's not a good idea, it turns out, as while I like this shot many were unusable.

50mm, f/4
The broadside of the market, although this is less than half of the length of the structure. And a guy with his doggos. He arrived here by way of golf cart.

Kenny Lackey 9/7/24 Kenny Lackey 9/7/24

Art Fair, Zoo, Market, Jazz & Blues on Euclid

This week largely felt like a bust for shooting, maybe starting with the Greek Festival last weekend. But that happens. Quite a bit, actually. When you work in a studio, or work (paid) at a wedding or an event or some such thing, you have access to get to where you need to be. For me, I go out and see what I get. I do my best to frame things up, to compose an image, but in large measure you are at the whim of the world. What’s the light doing? What’s the weather? Who are the people and are they amenable to be photographed? It’s not the case that they always are, which I respect.

But between yesterday and today I put together a decent enough set of images to share. The settings were: the St. Louis Art Fair (held in downtown Clayton) between last night and this morning, but before returning to the fair this morning I got a few shots at the Tower Grove Farmer’s market, then after Art Fair part two I spent some time at the zoo, and then finally a jazz and blues fair at the intersection of Euclid and Lindell.

50mm, f/4.5
I stalked this trio for awhile as they tended to walk single file and all shaded their eyes and just thought it made for an interesting capture.

50mm, f/4.5
This isn't my normal editing style. I like big, beefy colors, but this is what's in vogue and I do like it. I think it's the sort of thing that alludes to film photography. I may end up incorporating more of it over time. Also just to note it, I know this isn't a good shot and so it's also a poor example of this particular style--just want to throw it in.

85mm, f/4.5
If you know photography, you can tell that a bunch of my 50mm shots are cropped somewhere between a touch and aggressively (50mm is maybe what the eye sees, but with around a 1.5X zoom). This one isn't cropped. There's a quiet little alcove by the large Riverside Crossing lake at the STL zoo that the pelicans seems to enjoy and my guess is get fed from. Nothing but a short plastic fence between you and them. This is the full frame of the shot, no cropping, just a few feet from me.

50mm, f/4.5
This and the rest are from the Jazz and Blues fest at Euclid and Laclede. It was small-ish but very well done

Kenny Lackey 9/6/24 Kenny Lackey 9/6/24

New Orleans

I stayed about a block from Bourbon St. in NOLA from July 25 to July 28 this year—my first visit there. Lodging on Iberville near its intersection with Bourbon, it was truly just a five minute walk to the craziness of the night life. At least one night I was out until 4am! The experience of Bourbon St. was a wholly positive one, or at least that was my experience. Despite significant levels of inebriation I saw no violence or even tension. It was a welcoming, friendly bacchanal.

I’ll post liberally here as this was an extensive shooting trip.

50mm, f/2.8
I've tended to shoot slightly overexposed. I'm working on it!

35mm, f/7.1
There's live music near constantly in the French Quarter.

35mm, f/4
This one is too tightly shot I know, but I still like the moment.

35mm, f/4.5
The French Quarter Marriage Chapel was kind enough to let me in from the rain and take this shot. They normally don't allow folks in unless you have nuptials in mind.

50mm, f/4
Touring the NOLA float 'museum,' which is also an active warehouse where next year's floats are designed, built, and painted.

35mm, f/4
So chess was happening all hours of the night near the intersection of Iberville and Bourbon, but what really grabbed my attention is that while these were games for money, none of the boards used a clock. I have no idea how you can play for money without a clock involved. It's not just the money--time is resource in chess, same as pieces and board control and tempe. Total anarchy without a clock.

35mm, f/4
Grainy, I know. Leave me alone I still like it.

35mm, f/4.5
A lot of posterior expressiveness on Bourbon St.

35mm, f/4
Experience a twenty-four hour layover in Houston. Got bored, had camera.

Kenny Lackey 9/5/24 Kenny Lackey 9/5/24

Twilight Thursdays

Tonight was the first of the Twilight Thursdays, a fall-ish music series of outdoor concerts hosted by the Missouri Museum. I milled about the crowd and even squatted in front of the stage for a few minutes to get some shots. The crowd was full of colorful umbrellas and outfits, smiles, and singing. I wasn’t really in the mood to go out shooting after a long day—but so far, after nearly half a year of doing so near daily, I never regret it.

50mm, f/4.5
Afterwards I parked over on Euclid and walked around for an hour or so. There wasn't much going on, just some folks enjoying dinner and drink, some out for a stroll. I just took a few quick ones. The light tonight was beautiful--my favorite conditions are partially cloudy and the hour before and then during golden hour.

50mm, f/3.2
This and the next few are from the previous evening, shot in Maplewood. I went to visit their farmer's market. It had cleared out by the time I arrived so I fixed on a polarized lens and decided to shoot through some windows, and then visit Side Project--a small brewer voted best in the nation two years running.

50mm, f/3.2
A desk in a lighting design firm.

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.