night/vision

I didn’t know when I made this shot that the arch would be going dark every night for a month, starting the very next evening. I was so naive in those days, two weeks ago.

Gateway Arch
Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 8.31.2026

tortilla

In downtown Saint Louis, one quarter of the block that’s bounded by Olive and Pine Streets and North 7th and North 6th Streets contains a surface-level parking lot. The rest of the block is a huge, vacant graffiti-encrusted parking structure. The street-side businesses are gone, with only a few reminders that you could, at one time, shop at Mr. Curry’s Indian Cuisine, the Olive Express Mart, Quizno’s, Nova Red Karaoke, Pharaoh’s Donut, the Edible Difference, or the Tortilla Grille (and other places whose signage didn’t survive). It’s sort of amusing to see the ghosts of these places that didn’t make it, I guess, but it sure does represent the lost dreams of a lot of small-business owners and their employees in a way that takes the amusement right out of it. (It was the Pharaoh’s Donuts sign, with a drawing of an actual pharaoh on it, that got to me.)

Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 9.2.2026

flying buttress

As always when I visit often-photographed locations, I try to find different ways to capture it: I don’t like following the crowd.

I shot this because the arch pieces on either side of the building looked like flying buttresses. And as a bonus, the half-staff flag (RIP Dolly P.) is reflected as a series of broken rectangles.

(part of the) Gateway Arch
Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 8.30.2026

hottest job in town

I was in Saint Louis for a few days and was able to watch the progress of a street-paving project. There were record-high temperatures while I was there; just imagine how much hotter it was on the street, working alongside heat-producing vehicles. Yikes!

Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 9.2.2026

seven cones

Today, I would love to show you my hotel-room view of the iconic Gateway Arch in Saint Louis.

However, I was on the other side of the hotel so here are seven iconic orange traffic cones instead.

Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 8.30.2026