Heaven or Hell

Heaven or Hell

digital photo, 2019

I shot this with my iPhone while wandering around downtown Chicago a couple days ago. The sign is from someone standing just out of frame handing out religious tracts. Seemed an appropriate one to post on New Year's Eve, when people tend to reflect back on the year.

Madison Rainy Night

I was in Madison, Wisconsin for a weekend getaway over Thanksgiving this year. The weather was terrible the entire weekend, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the sleepy college town vibe. Holiday weekend and no home football game meant the town was pretty empty. The bad weather actually worked in my favor on Saturday evening. We were about to walk the few blocks from our hotel to the restaurant we had chosen for dinner, when we noticed it was pouring. Really pouring, with periods of hail as well. I grabbed my camera, and made a couple shots right as we were leaving the hotel (the first shot at the top of this page), but then waited until after dinner, when the rain had slowed some, to make the rest of the photos you see here. Rainy nights are really fun to shoot, and it rarely happens that there's a rainy night when I'm in an interesting location, have the time to shoot, and actually feel like sloshing around with wet feet to make some photos.

Offering

Offering

collage on wallpaper, 2012

A collage made a few years ago, just getting around to posting it now. This one didn't excite me too much when it was finished. I didn't hate it, I just wasn't moved by it. Looking at it now, while it may not be the most interesting collage I've ever made, and it's certainly not where I'm at creatively right now (I'm not doing much hand made collage at all), it's not a bad one.

Posters

Poster #1

iPhoneography, 2019

Poster #2

iPhoneography, 2019

Poster #3

iPhoneography, 2019

Exactly one year ago, on December 13, 2018, I was doing some shooting in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood and saw these posters stuck to plywood covering the windows of a vacant building. I liked the way the tears in these old posters simultaneously degraded the image yet added texture, visual interest and mystery. I tried working with the photos a couple of times, but never ended up with anything I liked. 

Earlier this fall, I gave it another shot. I imported them into my iPad, and giving myself the instruction to make them look as different from each other as possible, started working with them using various apps (mainly Procreate, but also Snapseed, Fragment and Halftone). This time, I liked the results.

元気ですか'

元気ですか'

iPhoneography, 2019

Apps used: Phonto, Circular, Snapseed

I made this piece in about ten minutes a couple days ago. I was basically revisiting some photo apps on my iPad that I hadn't used in a while, and this was the result. The layout and main construction was done in Phonto, an app I quite like, even if I don't use it much.

The title, 元気ですか' (pronounced genki desu ka), is Japanese for 'how are you?'. Well, it kind of is, anyway. Translation can be difficult at times, and there's a lot of nuance lost when translating '元気ですか'' as 'how are you'. If you want a lengthly discussion that goes into all the nuance of that Japanese phrase and the ways it is used, look here. The pronunciation link above actually is for 'お元気ですか' (o-genki desu ka), which is the formal version you would use when speaking to a coworker or someone you don't know too well. I just liked the basic, Japanese 101 phrase with the rather grotesque photo in the piece, which is why I put it there.

Chillaxing

Chillaxing

iPhoneography, 2017

Another of those pieces I made, and liked, but never got around to posting anywhere. I have a decently large number of these, and am trying to start posting more of them. This is a collage made in my iPad, mainly with the Procreate app. The background photo is an original image I shot. I can't remember where, but likely someplace in Chicago. The woman in the foreground is from a big, old hardbound catalog of hospital supplies. She's demonstrating a drinking straw that allows you to imbibe while supine.

Electronics

Electronics

iPhoneography, 2019

A photo shot from an ad in an old magazine, messed around and collaged with various iPad apps.

ping!

ping!

collage on paper, 2017

Made this one a couple of years ago, just getting around to posting now. The title is just one of those things that pop into your head, in this case, the machine that goes ping! from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

Golden Idols

Golden Idols (v.1)

iPhoneography, 2017

Golden Idols (v.2)

iPhoneography, 2017

Made these a couple of years ago. Just getting around to posting them now, for basically two reasons. Firstly, I couldn't decide which version I liked better. I couldn't decide if the background was too busy in the first version, or too empty in the second version. Second, I couldn't think of a good title for the piece (always an issue for me, I semi-jokingly tell my students that titling work is that hardest part of being an artist). 

I settled on the first version as my preferred one maybe a year ago (version two seems to be missing something), but a title eluded me until this morning. I was looking through some older work made on my iPad, saw this, and the title just popped into my head. I googled 'golden idol', thinking it had some sort of biblical reference I was missing, but what turned up was the opening scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, so I figured I wasn't bringing up any distracting or unwanted associations with the title.

The photo was shot a few years ago through a shop window on Devon Ave. in Chicago, in the middle of Chicago's Indian/Pakistani neighborhood. The tentative plan for today is to visit Devon Ave. for groceries and dinner. Haven't been there in quite a while, and looking at this inspires me to bring the camera along as well.

Spiderman

untitled

iPhoneography, 2019

Found this toy in my backyard a couple months ago. It was probably tossed over the fence by a kid in one of the neighboring houses. I shot a photo, then tossed it over the fence of one of the houses where kids live (hope I got the right one!). Later, I started playing with various apps and arrived at this. Apps used: Snapseed, Halftone, Procreate.

Any Port in a Storm

Any Port in a Storm

Digital Photo, 2019

We were tired, and didn't feel like doing anything. But we also wanted something sweet, so we drove to a nearby paleteria. It started pouring as soon as we were in the car headed back home. I shot this with my iPhone through the rain splashed car window while stopped at a red light.

Diet and Exercise

Diet and Exercise

collage on paper, 2018

Diet and Exercise

collage on paper, 2018

A couple more entries in the Diet and Exercise series of collages. These were made in April of last year.

Playing Catchup

I post photos, collages, and other work to my Flickr account pretty regularly. I'm also trying to post to this blog regularly, but I'm trying to write a bit about what I post and get away from just throwing images up like I do on Flickr. The result is that a lot more gets uploaded to Flickr than appears here. I'm fine with that, if you are reading this and want to see lots of my work with little or no discussion, go to my Flickr page. Occasionally, I play catchup, so here's a few things I recently posted to Flicker, with just a bit of discussion.

The Upstairs Window

digital photo, 2018

This was shot while wandering around Quebec City last year. Quebec is beautiful and very photogenic, I was having a blast shooting there. I was originally interested in the building and people dining on the sidewalk, but when I noticed the light in the top floor window, I had to shoot this.

CDMX Street Life

digital photo, 2018

Shot while in Mexico City over the holidays last year. This was made with my iPhone, I was wandering around at dusk, maybe returning to my room after dinner (can't remember), and hurriedly snapped this while crossing a busy street.

Fence and Puddle

digital photo, 2017

Shot in Boston a couple of years ago. We had already returned to our room for the night, but it was raining, and shooting urban lights and reflections on a rainy night in an unfamiliar city was irresistible. I went out to shoot, underdressed on a cool, wet night, and got some good shots. It was well worth getting chilled.

untitled

digital photo, 2019

I shot this last week, while testing a new LED light table at work. I do an abstract assignment in my intro digital photo classes, and was seeing if this light table would work well for shooting that assignment. A couple of plastic straws from a dollar store thrown on a lit surface and hastily shot, and voila-abstraction!

Five Faces

digital photo, 2019

This past summer, I challenged myself to get out of the house at least once a week to go shooting someplace. While I didn't always hit that goal, I did get out several times, sometimes to neighborhoods in Chicago that I don't get to that often. This was shot on the last of these excursions for the summer, about a week before I had to gear up for fall teaching duties. This is an ice cream shop in the Gold Coast, an upscale Chicago neighborhood that I rarely find myself in.  

Drinking in the View

digital photo 2009/2019

This is an old photo, shot ten years ago while in San Francisco, with post-production done a couple weeks ago. I sometimes revisit old photos to see if anything captures my interest that didn't before. It's a view out of the kitchen window of my sister's old apartment. The title (I'm horrible at titling work) is supposed to be a bit of a pun, referring to the sippy cup and the wine glass as well as enjoying a nice view.

Go-Go Mod!

Go-Go Mod!

iPhoneography, 2019

Echolocation

Echolocation

digital collage, 2019

Sunset

45th

digital photograph, 2019

Orange and Blue

digital photograph, 2019

Pork

digital photograph, 2019

Tan/Green/Tan

digital photograph, 2019

I was in San Francisco for a few days last month, and while there started on a project that had been in the back of my mind for a few years: making photos in the Outer Sunset district. I've always liked the Outer Sunset. It has a casual, homey feel, different from some of the better known neighborhoods in the city, which project more hip, upscale and precious vibes (which can also be enjoyable). 

Most of the Outer Sunset photos I made on this trip were shot in the morning, while wandering around this quiet neighborhood on my own. Shooting here was enjoyable and relaxing, and I'm hoping to do more of it in the future.

Pareidolia

Pareidolia

digital collage/scanography, 2015

Made a few years ago, just getting around to posting now. The background photo was shot in Quebec City in 2013. The image in the clouds is a scanograph of a statue in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Pareidolia is interpreting random visual stimulus as recognizable imagery, like seeing Jesus in a tortilla.

Road Food

Road Food

Hand made collage rephotographed and manipulated with iPad apps

2019

City Sun

City Sun I

iPhoneography, 2019

City Sun II

iPhoneography, 2019

City Sun III

iPhoneography, 2019

City Sun IV

iPhoneography, 2019

City Sun V

iPhoneography, 2019

City Sun VI

iPhoneography, 2019

Sometimes when I make a piece, I'll keep trying new things, and end up with a few different versions of it. When I do this, I often am not sure which versions I like best, so I keep them all. This is one of those. These were made a couple of months ago, and after sitting on them, I think numbers I and VI are my favorites, but they're all ok.

Night Canal

Night Canal

digital photo

Amsterdam, 2007

Fences

Lanterns

Bridgeport, Chicago 2018

100% Organic

Outer Sunset, San Francisco 2019

Reserved Parking

Blue Island, IL 2019

Fence

Marin Headlands, CA 2019

Frazil 4

Eureka, CA 2019

Reserved Parking

Reserved Parking

digital photo, 2019

Color Blocks

Color Blocks

iPhoneography, 2019

Made this a couple of months ago. This is one of those pieces where once it was finished, I was unsure about it. I thought it had kind of an '80's look, which isn't what I had in mind. So it sat in my digital files until today, when I looked at it and thought 'hey, it's not so bad'. So here it is. Does it have an 80's feel? Maybe, but the 80's are apparently hot right now (which is both amusing and disconcerting for someone who remembers when the 80's actually occurred), so maybe that's a good thing.

Atomic Beauty

Atomic Beauty

Scanography/digital collage, 2015

Stormy

Stormy

iPhoneography, 2019

I was walking someplace after a rain shower when the raindrops and reflection of a tree on the hood of a car caught my attention. I snapped a photo with my iPhone, and did post production on my iPad using various apps, mainly Procreate.