A very happy Monday morning to you. My flight was cancelled Sunday evening due to bad weather so most likely you will be reading this as I fly home today.
After a week long adventure teaching at a photographic workshop in Pittsfield, IL and dodging deer at night, I headed to St. Louis for fours days of shooting and touring. St. Louis has become one of my favorite towns to visit because of the number of good friends I have there, as well as, all of the very cool things to see and do.
My tour guides for the St. Louis excursion were my dear friends, Mike and Trina Green. Mike is an instructor with me at the Supershoots workshops. They had set up an itinerary of a couple of “not to miss” things to see and one of those was the Chinese Lantern Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden. As only my mind could imagine, I was thinking I was about to experience a large quantity of Chinese lit lanterns floating throughout the gardens. As we entered the grounds I realized that I was totally unprepared what I was about to witness. As described by the brochure, “The 2015 Lantern Festival features unique installations with environmental, historic and plant-based themes.” And unique they were, coming in all shapes and sizes depicting many aspects of the Chinese cultural. I have picked out 3 of the 22 displays to feature. The Chinese Garden display was absolutely mesmerizing with it’s color and pageantry. ENJOY!
Double Ninth Festival – Held on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. It is a day for people to eat chongyang cake, drink chrysanthemum wine, climb mountains, and pay homage to chrysanthemums.
Construction of the Great Wall – The legend of Meng Jiangnu has many variations. The most common version tells the tale of a woman, LadyMeng Jiang, whose husband is forced into service to assist with building the Great Wall but never returns home. When she hears nothing, she goes to the Great Wall only to hear of her husbands passing and in despair throws herself into the sea.
Soaring Dragon Horse – “The longma or dragon horse is the vital spirit of Heaven and Earth. It has a horse’s body with dragon scales. It symbolizes abundance and prosperity.”
Keep us in mind for any of your upcoming photographic assignments. All of the art showcased in my blogs, as well as, on my web sites is available for publication or for purchase as corporate and residential collectible art.
Have Camera – Will Travel … Corporate, Advertising, Editorial and Art.
Best Regards …..
~ dennis keim ~
