Travel!

Sorry I missed blogging in April. And now I'm heading out for my first plane trip in over two years, first trip out of O'Hare in I don't know how long, first time out of the country since summer 2001, and first time overseas since my one trip to Paris in...1999? I have to interrupt my finally going through my archives of photos and getting serious about posting, to go take many thousands more photos...See you soon! (Internet access is questionable while I'm away, but we'll see if I can blog from another country.)

more from 2008

At the risk of being in the past like my February post, here's more from 2008, two shots from March with bits of Chicago skyline, in the midst of my project to shoot every CTA station. I've spent a good chunk of March organizing my stuff, both digital and 3-D, and get ever closer to the reboot of this blog I've long promised. I looked again at my 2008 photos, but turned up digital photos from 2003 I'd forgotten I even took. The potential once I start sorting my pre-Flickr photos of Chicago and elsewhere--Chicago from 1995 on, with a few earlier photos--is quite exciting. Except for the fact that I wasn't nearly as competent at lighting, composition, etc., then.  Not that the above shots are that stunning, but they're an improvement.

a look back at Leap Day 2008

I'm committed to posting at least once a month in 2012 (unfortunately that's all it's been so far) and to posting on every February 29 because it's Leap Day (and because it's my half-birthday; yes, I know that's not nearly as exciting as a Leap Day birthday). Early 2008 was when my Flickr and blog were starting to go somewhere, so I checked to see what I'd posted on 2/29/2008 and was surprised it was only two photos on the KofC account. One is one of my most popular, a photo of the now-demolished Cabrini-Green highrise...but I knew I had more, and finally after searching my badly labeled 2008 archives on an external drive, I found the following. I present with minimal editing and almost in chronological order, what I did in Chicago on our last February 29:

  

 

 

The above includes a construction shot from somewhere (Halsted between North and Division?); the now-completely-gone Cabrini-Green public housing, scenes from Wicker Park on Division, including a visit to the short-lived coffeeshop Blend, a recipe on a Treasure Island window, the vacant-but-now-rehabbed Cedar Hotel, construction next to the Chicago Theatre, and the aftermath of the late 2007 car crash into ABC 7 studios on State Street. So, a mix of long gone, recently gone, and still there. Unfortunately I didn't find these till late in the evening, or I'd have reshot them today (I took a few photos closer to home, while the weather was still an amazing 55-60F, before it plummeted 25-30 degrees and kept me in for the night).

January in Chicago

 

Anything I could say about the year past or the (rest of) the year ahead is as dated now as the scene in this photo (dying Christmas decorations), but at least the photo is recent...January 29. And this is Roosevelt Collection, a fairly new development. Late-January holiday decor tends to be confined to shabbier locales, so this was a bit strange. (Also...it's been close to 60 degrees out at the end of January.) Taken on a short, fruitful trip to a few spots along Roosevelt Road in Chicago the other day. Anyway, I haven't managed to blog at least every week of the year but at least I'm off to posting every month. It's a start! Big things ahead!

happy holidays

It's still the holiday season. It's still the 12 days of Christmas, for that matter, and thus okay to post my Christmas photo a little late. (It's on Flickr, too, with my incredulity that my transparent attempt to post a specific photo that everyone would say "Merry Christmas!" or whatever on, didn't work.)

A photo store in downtown Belleville, IL (which still has small businesses: an office supply store, a sporting goods store, a hardware store, a craft supply store--as well as chains), seen on Black Friday 2011. (There's a photoessay waiting about the gingerbread display contest there! And on the CTA Holiday Train, and on shopping mall decorations...)

Just a fond message to the many great photographers I've met through the Internet and in person (especially the one who made it possible for me to take photos in Belleville) and to anyone who supports any of the work I do.

(And now to see if I feel like writing a 2011 wrap-up piece.)

waiting for the train

Waiting to catch my first CTA Holiday Train of 2011 on the Cicero Green Line, abandoned Brach's factory in the background, multiple rush hour Metra trains going by between the platform and the factory, I got a couple quick and fuzzy videos. Really just posting this to see if I remember how to include video properly, and because I'm still in the habit of blogging daily (if not promising to do a NaBloPoMo for December, too):

and day 30

...and I'm trying to end this National Blog Writing Month on a good note, but I stayed in (well, after catching the CTA Holiday Train for the first time this season, that was cool) when there were some great events going on, hoping to get iPhoto and blog things done, and ended up dozing off and catching up later. Oops.

I'm still happy I did this project, even if it was a bit of uh, quantity over quality. Especially because traveling to Detroit, Toledo, St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis again, and Cincinnati in November meant I didn't have much time for posts. And I got virtually no response to this on social media (heard from a couple friends in person/via email, at least) and I'm not so great at pursuing projects without external feedback. (I guess hitting the 200th post on my blog is unimpressive in the Tumblr era. People still like a blogiversary, but I don't know when to say I started this blog!)

Also, I haven't looked, even once, to see if I got any comments on the blog all month. That's kind of a problem I have, too. But if anyone did comment in a non-spam manner, thank you! I signed in and posted to the blog ten times as much as I did in the previous six or so months--that counts for something, right? I may even get going on the blogroll, design, and profile overhaul, in time for a 2012 relaunch of sorts. Yes, you've heard this before...

Because I'm too overwhelmed with which new photos to post, here's an old favorite (taken 2006, South Chicago) posted very, very early in my Flickr stream:

away in Cincinnati

Yes, yes, a Megabus trip (and Greyhound return) barely 24 hours after I got back from the St. Louis Thanksgiving one. However, StL was unplanned. Since I had no way to tweet from the road and haven't yet tried scheduling posts to post later, this is written/dated after the fact. And of course, still no way to post new photos, so here's an alternate version I liked from photos of my Cincinnati trip a little over a year ago:



My Flickr set of Cincy photos.

as seen on the Red Line

I am back from the mostly wonderful St. Louis Thanksgiving trip, filled with gratitude for having been able to take it and good memories and a camera card I still can't upload from yet, so I must do another quick NaBloPoMo post of photos. These were taken on a recent night out using the near north CTA Red Line, and show old and not-so-old signs and advertising there.

Sunday in St. Louis

Even slower and weather's even drearier than Saturday's (about a thirty degree drop from the fantastic Friday) and I will just note this: the bar we impulsively chose on the way back from Small Business Saturday shopping for a quick dinner, local institution the Bleeding Deacon, turned out to be having its second to last night before an indefinite hiatus? closure? closure before relocation? that night. I am so glad I went: good beer menu and impressive food menu (vegetarian and non-, gourmet touches, probably lower prices than a similar place in Chicago--and embarrassingly, I couldn't think of an equivalent place in Chicago). And I'm glad I took a few photos, even if I can't upload and post them yet. So I will take the extremely rare step of posting someone else's photo, since I actually got to ask permission in person and all. Here's one Darren took two and a half years ago:



Flickr link to it here. I also recommend his other photos of the bar, including him hugging the jukebox, an entry in the GroupHug St. Louis photo contest earlier this year.