Museum of Surgical Sciences

This photo was taken last November at the Museum of Surgical Science, a small but quirky museum in Chicago. The museum is full of antiquated medical devices, and is worth a visit. This photo is of artificial limbs in a display case. the reflections in the glass are an interesting part of the photo for me, so I made no attempt to minimize them. I like this photo, and came close to making a gum bichromate print from it, but always ended up choosing a different image to work on.

Fisherman's Wharf Holgarama

One more Holgarama to finish the week. This one was taken at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco last October. I'm no fan of Fisherman's Wharf. It's a lot like Navy Pier here in Chicago-An overpriced, boring tourist trap. It does have one thing I love, however, and the reason I was there: the Musee Mecanique, which is a great collection of vintage arcade machines. I love those old arcade games, and spent a few hours shooting them.

This Holga panorama was taken right after about 2 1/2 hours spent shooting in the Musee Mecanique, when I wandered outside for some fresh air and a place to eat lunch (I ended up at In and Out Burger, a California chain that everyone raves about. I don't eat red meat, and found out by ordering one that their 'veggie burger' is just lettuce and tomato on a bun, nothing else. Not the most satisfying lunch!). Anyway, I really like how this one turned out. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, panoramas shot with a Holga can be difficult to do well. This one just came together nicely.

Holga Panorama II

Here's another panorama made with the Holga Camera. This building is on 111th St. In Chicago, a few blocks west of Western Avenue. The building actually looks better in these photos than it does in person. It's really not that interesting, but makes a decent panorama.

Holga Panorama

Here's a two panel panorama made with the Holga toy camera. The photos were taken last fall when I was on a bike ride. The building is somewhere around Western Ave. and 75th St. in Chicago. I like the 1950's era decorative element over the entrance on the left.
Getting a good panorama with the Holga isn't as easy as you might think. One interesting 'feature' of the Holga is that the camera actually records much more of a scene than you actually see through the viewfinder. It's hard to know where to line up your shots as a result. I've attempted Holga panoramas where I only end up using every third image. There is so much overlap in images that many of the shots are redundant.

Home

I'm back home after visiting family in Michigan over the weekend. Here's a photo I took in my Mom's backyard on Saturday night. I wish I could see sunsets like that more often.

The Blue Spirit Battles Deadly 17-Year Cicadas

Three photos today, I’m leaving Friday afternoon to spend Memorial Day weekend with family in Michigan, and won’t be posting again until Monday.


I thought I’d finish this little salute to the 17-year cicada with a couple of funny shots. I took these just for the heck of it, I didn’t have any serious artistic goals in mind.


The action figure is The Blue Spirit, alter ego of the banished Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated series that’s been an obsession of mine for a couple of years now. I highly recommend the series. If you can get beyond the ‘cartoons are for kids’ mentality, you’ll find that Avatar is a smartly written, beautifully animated show with a complex storyline. It attracts a sizable adult audience as well.

They'll Be Back in 2024

Here's another cicada photo. Not a whole lot to say about it, really.