Clayton is the county seat of Saint Louis County, which is a separate political entity from the City of Saint Louis. This shows the top of the old county courthouse, illumined by the last light of the day.
One of the newer buildings in Clayton.
Another county government building. I wouldn't expect this building to be to the taste of my readers, but it is striking against the dark blue sky.
Taken from the parking lot of Saint Joseph Church.
Saint Joseph's is built on the highest hill in Clayton, but now tall buildings rise above it.
Within living memory, Clayton had a small-town feel, with low rise buildings like the one in the center of this photo, and downtown was surrounded by single-family homes. The streets were lined with a variety of shops, and the town basically shut down at 5:00 p.m. Nowadays, high rise buildings define downtown, and the shops have been replaced by restaurants and bars, which are open until late in the night. The homes in surrounding neighborhoods are being demolished and replaced by condominiums.
This surviving classic Clayton shop with illuminated interior is an antique store.
Sodium vapor street lighting is so yellow that it makes color photography rather difficult. So here are black and white photos instead.
The newest high-rise building in Clayton.
A nice place to sit down, in Shaw Park.
Clayton city hall.
Ah, progress.
ReplyDeleteBut your photos are beautiful!
I've been meaning to ask, what type of camera do you use?
ReplyDeleteI use a very cheap one, but if you feel sorry for me, you could send me a Canon 5D with an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM wide-angle lens. (This is an older, and cheaper camera model; I won't be greedy and ask for the much more expensive and new Nikon D700 camera with AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens).
ReplyDeleteThe camera does just fine with the kind of images I show here - no motion! My church requested that I take photos of liturgies, but the poor little camera can't handle "action" shots under dim lighting without being all noise. The church instead hires an excellent professional photographer who has the right equipment for the job: cameras that have far higher sensitivity to light, and vibration reduction hardware.
But I put a lot of time and effort into overcoming the inherent defects of the camera, both before I take the photo, and afterwards when processing it. But even the most expensive of professional cameras won't produce excellent photos without extra work, due to the limitations of how all cameras really work.