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.

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.

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

Okosheizu

Okosheizu

digital photo, 2019

Shot in Japantown in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I've been (very) slowly making my way through Zen Spaces and Neon Places by Vinayak Bharne, a collection of essays about Japanese architecture and urbanism, an area of study way outside of my knowledge area but interesting nonetheless. One of the essays in that book discusses the almost Mondrian-like aspect of two dimensional spaces in Japanese interiors. According to the author, many traditional Japanese interiors were designed through a process called okosheizu, wherein individual walls were designed independently then fit into the existing roof and framework of the building. None of that was in my mind when this photo was made (and the Japantown mall was obviously not designed utilizing okosheizu), but the linear, flat aspect of Japanese interior space was in my mind when I hurriedly shot this while waiting for my nieces to finish their purchases at a nearby stationary store. The interaction between 2D and 3D space (or the 2D photographic surface and it's relationship to photographic space) has long been a creative interest for me, and this serves as an example of that interest.