May 25, 2013
I’ve disliked most of what I’ve written lately. Words used to be very important to me, but at some point images became more important, or maybe they were always most important. I remember “reading” Sports Illustrated as a kid. Actually, I looked at the photos and read the captions more often than I read the articles. It was kind of important to me to see how the caption associated with the image. Did it work? Did I need to read the article (or much of the article) after just looking at the photos and blurbs below them?
Sometimes, when I’m writing this blog, I kind of think of my commentary as those captions. Rather than explain the image, however, I’d like them to help find a meaning or something stronger I’d wish to convey in the photo. Then I feel like I’m cheating, or cheating the image. Maybe they should always just stand up on their own? If words are cheap, am I cheapening the value of the photograph? I’d like to think not, but when you’re trying to explain how there is this beautiful decay in the organization of repeating values about an old warehouse door, you feel kind of stupid.
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May 24, 2013
I’ve been unable to watch as much baseball as I’d like this season. It’s weird not doing something you love. Here’s a shot of Wrigley Field from late last season. I pushed it way to the left field side in order to catch the lights spilling off the standards on top of the stadium. Almost every shot you can take of Wrigley is interesting. It’s quaint and colorful.
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May 23, 2013
Though I normally don’t post two photos from the same location on back-to-back days, this is a rare exception. Yesterday I made a photo looking in the opposite direction from this same position. On my way back through the intersection at night, I decided to see how the backdrop worked at that hour. It didn’t, but my gear was out and looking north on Canal is a good thing to do. The arc of this overhang against the buildings works in nice contrast against the architecture. I’ve seen a couple of photographers shooting it in the past, and it would work in an abstract way in the daylight. I might go back to get that one.
One other note – I’m always surprised that police don’t hack locks off of bicycles chained to street signs.
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May 22, 2013
I’ve been here before, tried this before, failed at this before. This is a tricky intersection. There are lots of ways to go with it, and previously I was setting up for it to be a vertical shot. In the end it needed to be more of a landscape, and it also required a guy hailing a cab… and failing miserably at that. I think he crossed over to the far side of the street and tried a few times over there. I tried that side once, too. For me, it finally worked out with this one.
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May 21, 2013
Due to the weather, I took a cab and two trains home. I had walked two blocks to take one photo, but when I got there the sky opened up. I thought I had a space of 15 minutes, but I’d only had five. I stayed under a covering and waived down a cab to drive me in the downpour to a train that would take me to another train I could’ve caught just three block away, but my camera gear would get soaked going that way, even in the bag. There’s no covering to get to the train, and my phone lit up with “Flash flood warning for your area,” it was coming down that hard. So, the cabbie had to take me to a different train that travels for about 18 minutes and then links up with the train I should have originally been riding. Confusing? I was impressed with myself that I figured out how to put this little trip together in the space of just a couple of minutes.
This connection point is an intermodal transport center with everything from buses to taxis to the two trains I switched between. As you go from one platform to the other, you encounter these ramps. I think they’re just for wheelchairs and such, but they kind of reminded me of a line to a roller coaster the way they snake back and forth between one another. I can’t imagine anyone queuing up to stand around here. The trash over there on the left side was a nice touch, and it smelled like pee. Still looks cool in black & white! It took me an extra 15 minutes to get home this way.
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May 20, 2013
While I was standing here I realized that these water fountains probably provide the best free-water view of Chicago. Think about that. Just a thought. Naturally, I blurred out the view to put the attention on the water fountains. They deserve their day in the sun. It was cloudy.
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May 19, 2013
From time to time I find people taking photos of me taking photos. It’s rare. I’m not really sure that the guy on the bow of the boat was shooting me, but if you zoom in (and you can zoom way in and get a lot of detail in this photo) he’s pointing his camera straight at me. There wasn’t much of a view in this direction, so I do seriously wonder if he was shooting me shooting him shooting me.
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May 18, 2013
Upon entering the Chicago Botanic Garden I couldn’t help but notice the white and yellow color hugging the many hills running through the first section of the grounds. Unfortunately, you get a much better view of them from your car on your way to the parking. By the time you get into the main grounds the flowers are across the water from you, and there is no way to get there but to walk around… or by camera.
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May 16, 2013
I have less than 30 posts to go to complete a full year of blogging daily. That’s kind of crazy. I’m not very good and repeating anything for more than a week, though I’ll acknowledge that I actually slipped up five times this year, missing my midnight deadline. One wasn’t my fault, however, as WordPress sent one of my posts to “draft” rather than publishing it, and I’ve added one new photograph no later than every 30 hours for 338 consecutive days. It’s fairly exhausting, to be honest. This blog is technically more than a year old. My first post published on May 10th, 2012. On June 14th, however, I’ll hit that magic moment of 365 straight days with a new photograph – if you count the five published hours after their deadlines.
This is the third installment of Calder’s Flamingo in that time period. The other two were night shots from the opposite side of the sculpture. On this afternoon I counted no less than four other people shooting their own versions of the subject. I trust their blogs are coming along well.
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