Scarecrow

SHot a few blocks from my house last year with my reversed-lens Kodak Hawkeye camera.

Cactus

Shot with the Pinwide pinhole attachment for my digital camera at Allen Gardens in Toronto.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 8

And, when I wasn't out shooting this past summer, I was at home making collages.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 7

I spent a few days in Toronto, where I walked and walked (click on the photo to see a larger version).

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 6

I visited my mom in Michigan and shot photos with my new Pinwide pinhole attachment for my digital camera.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 5

I went to the Art Institute of Chicago (this exhibit and this one were really fantastic).

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 4

I rode the Chicago Water Taxi from Chinatown to the Magnificent Mile.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 3

I shot lots of photos in Hyde Park and other Chicago neighborhoods (but not as many as I would have liked).

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Part 2

I went to San Francisco and enjoyed the cool, foggy weather.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

The new semester starts Monday at the school where I teach. Back in elementary school, it seems like my teachers always made students write about what they did over the summer. In the spirit of returning to school, this week I'll recap in photographs how I spent my summer.

Right after school let out last May, I went to a local forest preserve and shot some digital infrared photos. This is one of them.

Lovely Fall Day

Looking forward to more days like it this Fall.

Backyard Fence

Flowers peeking over a backyard fence. Not my backyard, it's my sister's house in San Francisco.

Holga Train Station

Here's a photo made with infrared film in my Holga camera last summer. It must have been beginner's luck-I shot a couple of rolls of infrared film in my Holga earlier this summer, and the results weren't nearly as good. I should do some more-I haven't done much shooting at all this summer with my toy cameras. Most of my shooting this summer has been with my digital camera, and my studio time has been occupied with making collages.

Chairs

Shot on Queen St. West in Toronto when I was visiting there a couple of weeks ago. Maybe street photography? Traditional street photography emphasizes people, so maybe not.

Rain On The Bay

 A rainy day in San Francisco.  This is another photo that could be considered street photography.

On The Street

I don't consider myself a street photographer; in fact, I'm a little suspicious of that entire genre of photography (aside from Robert Frank, Martin Parr and Vivian Meier, and I don't consider Frank and Parr to be street photography). That said, I seem to do quite a bit of shooting 'in the streets', as it were, and I've recently seen some writing online advocating a broadening of what is considered street photography.

Here's an example of a street shot I made almost a year ago, last September to be exact.

Mid-Century Modern

Here's a nice mid-century apartment building, located a couple of blocks from my house in Chicago. I shot this late last spring in digital infrared. There's quite a bit of mid-century architecture and commercial signage within a few miles of where I live. I really should be shooting it.

Toronto From The Tower

This is the Toronto skyline, as seen from the tower at Casa Loma, a ridiculously huge mansion built to look like a medieval castle. You can see the tower this was shot from in this photo I posted a few days ago.

Untitled

I couldn't think of a title that seemed to fit this photo. Maybe it's because it's 2:00 am and I'm tired. Anyway, this was shot on the University of Chicago campus last fall. It's a construction site picture of the cool new library which opened on campus recently, with the actual construction site in the background.

Chicago Panorama

It was a beautiful day today, with perfect weather. I had some errands downtown, and used that as an excuse to go for a long walk to enjoy the day. I walked from Chinatown to the museum campus, where these photos were shot, and back again, about 4 1/2 miles round trip. The weather's supposed to be great tomorrow, so I may do something similar then.

Outer Sunset

Houses in the Outer Sunset, San Francisco, just a couple blocks from the Pacific Ocean.  I really like this photo a lot, but can't quite figure out why.

Reflection

An old building reflected in the windows of a modern high rise in Toronto.

Casa Loma

Here's a photo I shot at Casa Loma in Toronto last week. I used my Pinwide pinhole cap for this photo, and converted it to grayscale. Casa Loma is a lovely (and huge) home, but the guy who built it seemed a little crazy.

Toronto Panorama

Here's a quick panorama I shot last week when I was in Toronto. This is the corner of Yonge and Dundas streets, a busy shopping area that is always packed with people.

Cool School

Wandering around Toronto last Sunday, I saw this really cool old school building. I love Modernist architecture, so I had to stop and shoot a few photos.

The smokestack behind the building has spirals of glazed brick running up it (I love glazed brick).

I did a bit of research once I returned home, and found a short article about this building in a Toronto architecture blog. I also found out that parts of the movie Hairspray were filmed here (the musical remake starring John Travolta, not the good one).

I'm a little jealous that I didn't get to go to school here!

Elvis Heads

I'm back from Toronto with a fresh batch of photos from my trip to post. Here's one I shot at Honest Ed's, a bargain store that's funny on the outside, but kind of depressing on the inside, as you can see here:

I couldn't help but think of exploited third world laborers when I was in this place.