[Click on the photograph to enlarge and for additional commentary]
On the corner of Welles and Ontario in Chicago's River North neighborhood sits Al's Italian Beef, just 4 doors north of the Flamingo Rum Club.
The Pit
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional information]
Soon it will be impossible to reproduce anything that looks like this photograph. The finished building will yield images that are largely differentiated by atmospheric conditions. The building will the same in every image.
Fire & Fury II
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
Chicago is shrouded in dense ground fog. It is difficult to identify buildings just two or three blocks down the avenues. Fog obscures, but it also amplifies colors, which brings a certain clarity to the urban landscape. It creates a mysterious whirl in the air.
Fire & Fury I
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
So when the Lord blesses us with a day or two of January temperatures in the forties, we hit the streets. Today, it was Grant Park and the Women's March. Some 300,000 people showed up, breaking last year's attendance number by about 50,000 people.
René Marie
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
Earlier today, I listened to René Marie's new album Sound of Red in anticipation of tonight's concert at the University of Chicago's Logan Center. Last year, Marie was scheduled to appear at the Logan Center, but had to cancel.
Winterlude
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
My hands are warm, then they get cold, then they burn, and then it's not so bad. Winter in Chicago. Headed north today along the lakefront. The sky was bright, thin blue. By the time I headed back about 90 minutes later the sky had already clouded over. Snow is forecast for the early evening hours.
Roy Hargrove
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and a short review]
Gutsy Protest
[Click on the photograph to enlarge is and for commentary]
I was headed downtown today to photograph the cold. As the 146 bus approached the Wrigley building I noticed, to my delight, a demonstration across the Michigan Avenue, in the plaza that abuts the Tribune Tower and the international style building just south of the Tribune.
Frozen Shards
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
At 1PM, the temperature is down to 5-degrees Fahrenheit, but the wind chill makes it feel like 10 to 15 degrees below-zero. Layers are essential, but unfortunately, I have not found a pair of gloves that allows me to operate at camera without taking them off.
Day and Night
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for 22 additional photographs and commentary]
Today I had the opportunity to photograph the contrast between old and new when I visited a furniture and fixture manufacturing company and a metal grinder and fabricating plant, both located within a block of each other on Chicago's far west side.
Parasite or Love?
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for an ode on digital technology]
Two days after the Apple store moved several blocks south on Michigan Avenue to its new riverfront location, I stopped by the old Apple store to see what remained. I was greeted by an all-black wall where a sleek glass storefront once welcomed me, with what was for me an intriguing statement stenciled in white: "We would never leave you."
Venetian Gothic
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
The Chicago Athletic Association Building now houses a boutique 241-room hotel, with a ground-floor Shake Shack, the Cherry Circle Room on the hotel's second floor, and Cindy's, a rooftop restaurant and bar, with an outdoor terrace. The interior is pretty snazzy.
Chilling in the Park
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
Not much to say about this one. That's the Prudential Building. If you doubt me, read the sign at the top. It was completed in 1955--the first skyscraper built in Chicago following the Great Depression. I am standing in Millennium Park's Lurie Garden.
A Wet Fall Day
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
I am standing dead center on the BP Bridge, which connects Chicago's Millennium Park with the newer Maggie Daley Park. The bridge is one of the most frustrating photographic subjects in Chicago. Designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, its stainless steel parapets and hardwood planked floor slithers across Columbus Drive, bringing children and their parents to the two gigantic climbing walls, an ice skating ribbon, and the playground areas that makeup much of Daley Park.
Winter's Arrival
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
No snow today. The temperature was well above 32F until sunset. Yet, for me, today marked the start of winter. I was still after that elusive photograph of the new Apple store that overlooks the Chicago River.
Apple of Concord
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
Finally, after at least a year and half, Apple's new flagship store opened tonight at 5PM, with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the premises. The hordes were out there, worshipping the glass monolith just as the apes worshipped the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. From the monolith comes knowledge.
Taco Tragedy
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]
The Cubs will not be repeating this year thanks to a powerful LA Dodger team, but that is not the only tragedy befalling Wrigleyville, Cubs fans, and late night drunks at bar time. News broke in early August that the much beloved Taco Bell at 111 West Addison would be closing, to be replaced with a shiny new 39,755 square foot three-story retail development.
Butterfield Blues Reunion
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional photographs and commentary]
Mark Naftalin, who added high octane playing to one of the original incarnations of the Butterfield Blues Band, offered a dazzling two-hour solo piano recital. Why this guy has not issued albums of his great blues piano playing is totally beyond me, particularly because runs an independent record label.
Buckingham Fountain
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it, and for additional commentary and photographs]
This photograph is either a two or four-minute exposure at F32 and ISO 100. I was using the iPad wireless app to trigger the shutter, and the camera appears to have recorded the shutter speed shown on the dial rather than the one I inputed into the application. My camera was fitted with a 10-stop neutral density filter, which explains the silky water and fuzzy clouds.
Air and Water Show
[Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional photographs and commentary]
I spent much of the day at the 59th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show. I take in some of the show every year because it takes place right out my front door, but I am not a fan, particularly from a photographic standpoint.