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
travel/day
It was really quite warm inside the airport terminal the other day – summer-in-hell heat levels, with about a million percent humidity.*
In an effort to try to stir up a bit of a breeze, I went back and forth on the moving sidewalks for a little while. It did not make things any cooler and it may actually have made me seem a little deranged. But I don’t care: I’ll never see those people again and I got a photo out of the deal.
Saint Louis Lambert International Airport
Saint Louis, Missouri
photographed 9.5.2026
*My spouse once told me, “You ALWAYS exaggerate.” He said it without realizing that his sentence was itself an exaggeration, a thing that still makes me laugh more than I should. But still: that sentence has already been spoken. No need for you to bring it up: I am aware.
One Day | One Image 