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The Arctic Vortex has arrived as the holiday shopping season shifts into high gear. Last Friday night, Jane Byrne Park was a little more crowded, but Michigan Avenue was still hopping last night--with an eight second or so exposure, that is hard to tell--lots of ghosts--but folks are walking by with shopping bags full.
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Before attending Jules Masenet's Don Quichotte opera at the Lyric Opera this afternoon, I took my camera over to Belmont Harbor to commemorate the arrival of Chicago's first snow fall of the 2016-2017 winter. It didn't take the form of flurries. Instead it came down as wet snow that stuck to the grass, leaves, and bricks, but not the sidewalks or streets. When I left the opera at 4:30PM, it was still coming down. It had begun to accumulate on the streets and sidewalks. Mostly slush.
When I left the house today, I was headed to LaSalle Street, just north of the Chicago River, to get make a photograph of the Board of Trade on the south end of LaSalle. Much to my dismay, it isn't lit on Sundays, at least when I was in position. I had to settle for a classic river shot looking east.
Looking south from the Wolf's Point at the fork in the Chicago River. It's November 17th. The water taxis and the tour boats are still cruising. Temperatures hit 75F today, but light snow is forecast for Sunday.
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On the right, sits the vacant hi-rise office building locate at 150 North Riverside, just south of Lake Street on the west bank of the Chicago River. No lights yet, but I expect we will see some shortly in this Goettsch Partners designed project. It sits above the Amtrak railroad tracks leading to Union Station.
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It's never to early to celebrate Christmas and the holidays, unless, of course, you are Victoria Boros Liccione, who becomes distressed when merchants begin to display their holiday wares in November before Thanksgiving.
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This photograph was made from the north end of the Franklin Street bridge, which is just west of the Merchandise Mart at about 5:00PM. It depicts a classic view of the Chicago River, looking east. Visible are Marina City,
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This gentlemen should have ordered a Venti Triple Shot Expresso when he visited the Starbucks on Lake Street under the El tracks in Chicago's Loop.
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Gone are the boats. Gone are the leaves. Gone are the late sunsets. Today Day Light Savings Time began. In 48 hours we may know the results of an election that has gone on too long.
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In one sense, a comparison between the aftermath of 9/11 and the Cubs' World Series Victory is inappropriate. I, however, was in New York City shortly after 9/11. The level of intensity I felt from those those around me at Ground Zero is similar to the the level of intensity that Chicogians are experiencing from the World Series victory. We see sports victory celebrations four or five times a year, but nothing I've ever seen rivals what is going on in Chicago. This is a big deal.
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Friday night saw an exciting take on Latin jazz come to the Logan Center. Fourteen-time Grammy award winning Paquito D' Rivera brought his quintet to the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts for an evening of jazz that featured work from his 2014 album, Jazz Meets the Classics. On the bandstand were Diego Urcola (trumpet and valve trombone), Alex Brown (piano), Oscar Stagnaro (electric six-string bass), and Mark Walker (drums). Sitting in as a guest from Alejo Poveda on congas.
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Pick your poison, so to speak. I decided early on that I wanted the image depicted in the cover photograph, but that presents a problem. A photographer's worst nightmare is being relegated to a fixed position. I always say that when photographing in a club or concert hall. By picking this location, I did not have the opportunity to photograph the rally in Grant Park, the parade stepping off at Wrigley Field, or the chaos at the AMTRAK station. Only a media outlet like the Chicago Tribune has the number of photographers to cover all the bases, so to speak.
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The new Apple store under construction on Michigan Avenue just south of the Tribune Tower. The early morning serenity is deceiving. As this photograph was being made, some 5,000,000 people were descending on downtown for the Chicago Cubs' victory celebration.
Millenium Park on a fall afternoon in October. The light was perfect, casting lovely shadows of the lighting trusses and lamps on the metal skin that gives form to architect Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavillon.
It's all about the layers that exist in urban settings. Tokyo is known for them, but Chicago also has its share of layers.
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The Chicago Theatre is one of the most photographed buildings in Chicago, but most of the photographs feature the vertical script that spells out Chicago on the 6-story sign attached to the building. Built in 1921, the theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. What many photographers miss is the archway above the marquee, with its elaborate carvings.
One of the highlights of this year's Hyde Park Jazz Festival was the opportunity to see and hear the great jazz trumpeter, Tom Harrell, together with TRIP, which also features saxophonist Mark Turner. A tight unit that plays gorgeous music. Still lots of humidty in the air, but the darkness and dark greenish-yellow hues portend Fall.
By Day Four, I am running on empty. It's not the time put in at the festival or the gyrations necessary to capture some decent images despite the people paid to hassle photographers. It also the late night and early morning image processing. So I come with low expectations, hoping I can snag one or two decent images and hear some great jazz.
The Good News from the Chicago Jazz Festival: Legendary drummer, percussionist, and nice guy Avreeayl Ra was back in the saddle tonight, after having been jumped and then beaten by a group of thugs as he walked to the parking lot from Chicago's Green Mill Jazz Club a couple of weeks back. From my seats, he looked fully recovered, but my photographs reveal some purple bruising around his left eye. He was in excellent form and spirits.
Photographically, the Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park is a hot mess. I didn't have a media pass, so I positioned myself just to the right of the media pit in the second row on the aisle, which gave me a relatively unobstructed view. What those in the pit learned very quickly is that the video screen behind the stage creates all sorts of problems.
