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So when the Lord blesses us with a day or two of January temperatures in the forties, we hit the streets. Today, it was Grant Park and the Women's March. Some 300,000 people showed up, breaking last year's attendance number by about 50,000 people.
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Earlier today, I listened to René Marie's new album Sound of Red in anticipation of tonight's concert at the University of Chicago's Logan Center. Last year, Marie was scheduled to appear at the Logan Center, but had to cancel.
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My hands are warm, then they get cold, then they burn, and then it's not so bad. Winter in Chicago. Headed north today along the lakefront. The sky was bright, thin blue. By the time I headed back about 90 minutes later the sky had already clouded over. Snow is forecast for the early evening hours.
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I was headed downtown today to photograph the cold. As the 146 bus approached the Wrigley building I noticed, to my delight, a demonstration across the Michigan Avenue, in the plaza that abuts the Tribune Tower and the international style building just south of the Tribune.
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At 1PM, the temperature is down to 5-degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind chill makes it feel like 10 to 15 degrees below-zero. Layers are essential, but unfortunately, I have not found a pair of gloves that allows me to operate at camera without taking them off.
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Today I had the opportunity to photograph the contrast between old and new when I visited a furniture and fixture manufacturing company and a metal grinder and fabricating plant, both located within a block of each other on Chicago's far west side.
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Two days after the Apple store moved several blocks south on Michigan Avenue to its new riverfront location, I stopped by the old Apple store to see what remained. I was greeted by an all-black wall where a sleek glass storefront once welcomed me, with what was for me an intriguing statement stenciled in white: "We would never leave you."
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The Chicago Athletic Association Building now houses a boutique 241-room hotel, with a ground-floor Shake Shack, the Cherry Circle Room on the hotel's second floor, and Cindy's, a rooftop restaurant and bar, with an outdoor terrace. The interior is pretty snazzy.
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Not much to say about this one. That's the Prudential Building. If you doubt me, read the sign at the top. It was completed in 1955--the first skyscraper built in Chicago following the Great Depression. I am standing in Millennium Park's Lurie Garden.
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I am standing dead center on the BP Bridge, which connects Chicago's Millennium Park with the newer Maggie Daley Park. The bridge is one of the most frustrating photographic subjects in Chicago. Designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, its stainless steel parapets and hardwood planked floor slithers across Columbus Drive, bringing children and their parents to the two gigantic climbing walls, an ice skating ribbon, and the playground areas that makeup much of Daley Park.
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No snow today. The temperature was well above 32F until sunset. Yet, for me, today marked the start of winter. I was still after that elusive photograph of the new Apple store that overlooks the Chicago River.
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Finally, after at least a year and half, Apple's new flagship store opened tonight at 5PM, with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the premises. The hordes were out there, worshipping the glass monolith just as the apes worshipped the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. From the monolith comes knowledge.
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The Cubs will not be repeating this year thanks to a powerful LA Dodger team, but that is not the only tragedy befalling Wrigleyville, Cubs fans, and late night drunks at bar time. News broke in early August that the much beloved Taco Bell at 111 West Addison would be closing, to be replaced with a shiny new 39,755 square foot three-story retail development.
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Mark Naftalin, who added high octane playing to one of the original incarnations of the Butterfield Blues Band, offered a dazzling two-hour solo piano recital. Why this guy has not issued albums of his great blues piano playing is totally beyond me, particularly because runs an independent record label.
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This photograph is either a two or four-minute exposure at F32 and ISO 100. I was using the iPad wireless app to trigger the shutter, and the camera appears to have recorded the shutter speed shown on the dial rather than the one I inputed into the application. My camera was fitted with a 10-stop neutral density filter, which explains the silky water and fuzzy clouds.
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I spent much of the day at the 59th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show. I take in some of the show every year because it takes place right out my front door, but I am not a fan, particularly from a photographic standpoint.
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Today, somewhere between 200 and 400 people marched from Federal Plaza to the intersection of Wacker and Wabash (Chicago's official anti-Trump demonstration site) to protest the weekend's events in Charlottesville and President's Trump's multiple responses to it. Clearly his 2-hour old comments from the lobby of the Trump Tower in New York City added fuel to the fire.
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Just finished a glass of Sauvignon Blanc at the rooftop bar of the recently opened Ace Hotel in the West Loop on Morgan Street. The bar opened August 10. Then headed over to the 'L' to get the long view of the Lake Street elevated line.
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I hate balconies, particularly when they are added to classic brick buildings. The developers will tell you that apartments and condos must have balconies to make them attractive, Yet, aside from storing grills on them, nobody seems to use them. Look closely at this photograph. It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon in August. Not a single person is on any of the balconies.
