UGH

Another nasty hot day in Chicago today. Think cool thoughts.

Root Beer

Shot 8/27/10, Alsip, IL.

Cotton Candy

I shot this photo in 1996, in a small carnival set up in the parking lot of a school. I used Agfa Ultra 25 film, a color saturated film that I liked quite a bit, but is no longer manufactured.

Crater Lake

My friend Brady just posted some photos to his blog from a recent trip he took to Crater Lake National Park. I visited there last summer, and agree with Brady that it is a beautiful place, well worth making the effort to visit it's out of the way location.

 

 I don't do altitude well without several days to acclimatize (a couple of bouts of altitude sickness while on vacation attest to that), so I would have had to pass on the walk he mentions in his post. I did visit the Pinnaceles, however, a series of interesting rock formations that many visitors in the park seem to miss.

I shot this photo in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood a few weeks ago. I like the colors, the green contrasts with the orange well.

Bowling Alley

A close up, shot with my Holga, of a bowling alley on 95th St. in Evergreen Park, IL.

NBC tower

This is the NBC Tower in Chicago, former home of the Jerry Springer show, among other things. It looks like it could have been constructed during the Art Deco era, but was actually built in the late 1980's. I shot this using expired film in my Holga camera last February.

Paper

A scrap of paper, stuck to a telephone pole in Chinatown.

For Rent

I shot this last spring while aimlessly walking around my neighborhood playing with a camera I had recently bought.

Chinese Garden

This is the Chinese Garden in Portland, shot in digital infrared. It's a lovely place, I recommend it if you're ever in Portland.

Heat Wave

Ugh. Chicago is in it's fourth day of a really unpleasant heat wave. Today the heat index (factoring in the excessive humidity) is supposed to be 100-110 degrees.
I hate Chicago's weather, it's probably my least favorite thing about living here. The weather is nice about two months out of the year. Summers can be dangerous from the heat and humidity, winters are bleak and bitter.
OK, enough complaining.  Enjoy the nice photo of snow, and think cool thoughts!

Cheese Head

A photo of a collage in progress, shot in my studio a few months ago. I never did finish that one.

MSI

I shot this photo yesterday outside of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. A horribly hot and humid day to be wandering around taking photos, but that didn't stop me.

Eye

This giant eye is a temporary art installation in Chicago's Prtizker Park, a tiny slip of a park at the corner of State and Van Buren streets. It's there through October, in case you want to see it for yourself.  The building at the left is the Harold Washington Library, the main branch of the Chicago public library system, and a really interesting building (although a lot of people seem to hate it).

Mid-Century

I love mid-century architecture and commercial signage. Luckily, there's a decent amount of it to be seen in Chicagoland, especially near the edge of the city and in the inner ring of suburbs. This is a photo made with my Holga of an apartment building located on Pulaski Rd. just north of 103rd St. I love that glazed brick! If I had to guess, I'd say it was built sometime in the late 1950's.

Multnomah Falls

This mosaic was shot at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge in Oregon. It's a big falls (690 ft.), but only one of several beautiful waterfalls in Columbia Gorge. It's also at times a ridiculously crowded tourist site, though not surprising, as it's only about 35 miles outside of Portland, and has it's own exit from a nearby freeway.

Planetarium

This is the Longway Planetarium in Flint, MI. I posted a photo of it taken with infrared film in my Holga camera a few days ago. This one was shot with a 1950's era Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera with a reversed lens.

You can read a little more about the reversed lens camera, and see several more photos taken with it, on Lightbender, my other blog.

Mom's Yard

Here's my mom's backyard in rural mid-Michigan, shot in digital infrared.

Mt. Hood

A gravel road in the middle of nowhere, a little lens flare, Mt. Hood in the distance. I like how those elements come together in this photo.
I shot this last month while on vacation.

Wolfy's

Wolfy's is a hot dog place located at California and Peterson on Chicago's northwest side. I've never eaten there, but last fall I was across the street having dinner at the best sushi place in Chicago, and brought along my camera to take a few shots of their wonderful sign.

Aqua

Here's another Holga camera shot, in color this time. This is the Aqua building, a residential tower in downtown Chicago that's one of the coolest and most interesting new buildings to be built in the city in recent years. Meant to look like rippling water to resonate with nearby Lake Michigan, each floor of the building is a different shape.

Holga Infrared

I was given two rolls of expired 120 infrared film a couple of months ago. Infrared photos have a really unique look, but infrared film can be really tricky to use (Kodak infrared, which is no longer made, needed to be loaded into the camera in complete darkness). I decided to shoot them in my toy Holga camera, but figured I'd end up blowing both rolls, as Holgas are known for having light leaks, which would likely ruin the film.

I did a bit of research in the internet, and encouraged by what I read, took my Holga camera with me for a weekend visit to Michigan. I shot both rolls in my Holga with an infrared filter attached. Surprisingly, most of the shots turned out pretty well. I was guessing at exposure, yet most of the shots are exposed decently well. I didn't use a tripod for long exposures, but there isn't a lot of blur in the shots.

This shot is the Longway Planetarium in Flint, MI. I've had this on my list of places to shoot for years, and was glad I had my Holga with me when my sister suggested a visit to the neighboring art museum. The planetarium and surrounding buildings are modern, International Style structures, and the infrared gives them an almost eerie, futuristic look.

Beautiful Mistake

The title of this post sums it up pretty well. I love the colors.