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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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The canyon running from Wacker Drive to the Chicago Board of Trade Building has always offered an intriguing urban view. For a longtime, I did not think the Chicago Board of Trade Building was centered on LaSalle Street, but when I took a daylight photograph of the building three years ago, I realized that it was centered.
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2017 Grammy-nominated jazz pianist Fred Hersch brought his trio to the Logan Center last night. For me, the standout was drummer Eric McPherson, who was the master of the subtlety, as exemplified by his use of brushes and the gentle tap here and there.
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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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One thing I learned long ago: Don't start watching the Super Bowl until very late in the day. This young man apparently agrees. He was at the Millennium Park skating rink early today taking a spin around the ice. Looks cold, but the temperature was probably 32F or thereabouts. And the sky was blue.
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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.
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The day started out rather temperate, but by 4:00PM, a cold front had moved in, sending temperatures plummeting. Good light often accompanies a change in temperature, as it did today.
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Carrington and company performed selections from her tribute to Duke Ellington's Money Jungle, now 50-plus years old. I was particularly impressed by saxophonist Mark Shin's guttural tone. The notes had an edge that was more out there than one might have expected.
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Somewhere around 250,000 people gathered in Downtown Chicago today to take part in the Chicago Women's March, exceeding everyone's expectations. The crowd was peaceful and enthusiastic. The capacity crowd forced the organizers to cancel the "march" portion of the event. Participants were instructed to rally in place.
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I gave some thought to reducing the amount of water in the foreground--and I could have because I shifted several times as I made multiple exposures--but the reflected colors were so lovely, particularly as doom descends upon us tomorrow.
