All in Chicago
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I thought I might go to a jazz concert tonight, but I didn't have the energy, so I hopped on the 151 and headed to North Pond. I took 68 exposures over a 2 hour period without once moving my tripod. This is the second to the last photograph of the session.
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Soon the leaves will return to the trees, which will make this a particularly interesting scene for infrared film. Shot from the bridge over the lagoon just southeast of Cafe Brauer, this photograph is pretty standard fare for me.
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March 13, 2017. Chicago had its first snowstorm of 2017. Up until today, there hadn't even been a flurry. Unfortunately, the storm was relatively minor, dropping somewhere between 6" and 12" inches. By rush hour, the roads were clear, but the clouds still blanketed the sky with white. No contrast and no falling snow: The city just doesn't look that great, which is why I headed to Lincoln Park.
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"Streaks" is today's world. The sky had some interesting dark streaks running through it. This is most pronounced in the space between the Wrigley Building and Trump Tower, but the upper sky also had dark streaks. Unfortunately my sensor had streaks of dust--not just spots--so it took some effort to remove the spots and streaks.
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The Allerton Hotel was originally a men's club with hotel facilities when it opened in 1924. It is noted for its set backs, which served as inspiration for many of the other taller buildings subsequently erected throughout the Chicago downtown area. The building's price tag came in at $4 million
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It isn't raining, but it sure is a purple sky. I am standing in Maggie Daley Park, looking westward toward the strip of skyscrapers on Michigan Avenue.
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Sunday afternoon, and this beer bottle is still so nicely balanced on the fire hydrant on Clark Street just a block south of Wrigley Field. I can only wonder if the person who put it there--presumably late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning--was as equally well-balanced.
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Today was "Not My President's Day" in Chicago and throughout the country. While I share the sentiment, it was a rather lackluster event in Chicago. Wabash and Wacker has become the regular meeting ground--directly across the river from the Trump Tower.
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While waiting on the steps outside the Michigan Avenue entrance for Evelyn to finish her scone, I heard a terrific trumpeter who clearly knew his chops. I assumed he was a jazz cat, but when I went to put money in his bucket, he asked me if I would take his photograph. Happy to do it. So we tried a number of poses. Turns out he is a blues player with J.W. Williams & the Chi-Town Hustlers.
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I left the house today looking for shadows and light in the South Loop, but when the bus turned the corner from Michigan onto Wacker Drive, demonstrators were spilling from the sidewalk into the street as a police horse brigade held the line.
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I find the Bahá’í House of Worship for North America to be both at odds and complementary to its surrounding. Visually, it fits nicely into the neighborhood, sitting on a bend in the road and at the inland start of a harbor. Yet, Wilmette is a plain vanilla suburb, albeit it wealthyYou just don't expect to find a house worship of a religion that originated in Tehran in the mid-19th Century in a Midwestern suburb.
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Nothing like standing in urine when making a photograph. It apparently had dried, but the smell was quite pungent. Before I set up my tripod, I looked for feces, which has been here in the pastI am standing on a bridge, with the tender's station building. It is possible to walk behind the station, providing a sheltered observation post, which is why I think it serves as public toliet.
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At this time of year, it is unusual to see much boat traffic on the Chicago River, but today is an unusual day. When I woke, the temperature was in the mid-30s. When I left the house this afternoon, it was 62 degrees.
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This is a photograph that proves it is worth waiting for the right sunset, which could be tomorrow, next week, or in a month. I am reminded of the series of photographs that Richard Misrach made of the Golden Gate Bridge over the course of one year, if I recall correctly.
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Before last night's performance at the Logan Center by Fred Hersch, we walked over to Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on the University of Chicago campus with technical camera and 23mm Rodenstock lens in hand. Would have liked some snow on the ground, but you take what you can get. Turns out, I guessed correctly.
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I headed out to photograph the Board of Trade at the end of LaSalle, but the photograph failed. Too much light pollution from the traffic jam at rush hour. I needed to get the cars blurred, which required a longer exposure, but that meant that the Board of Trade was overexposed. I need to comeback on a Sunday.
Meanwhile, as I was standing on the traffic island, I looked to my right, seeing the lovely blue sky.
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No point in watching all the pre-game nonsense, particularly when it is 32F or thereabouts in February. Out I went. Managed to get down to the Art Institute to see a terrific exhibit of Japanese photography from the Sixties entitled "Provoke"
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On a sunny winter afternoon, there are some very nice reflections in the windows of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is not a photograph of the statue, but rather, a reflection projected onto filthy winter window glass. Not the most curvaceous butt, but it will do.
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It was cold Friday afternoon in Chicago, but the light made it worth braving the elements. The weather assured that no one disturbed me while I was working.
