Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category
Photos on your screen are nice, but photos on your wall are better!
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A Mansion in Lincoln Park
A Mansion in Lincoln Park, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Richard Parrillo’s place.
”It got away from me, but it’s a labor of love for my wife,” insurance tycoon Richard Parrillo says of his wife, Michaela, who is overseeing the painstaking design and construction of the mammoth home, reportedly costing $40 million, on Burling Street (their property takes up seven city lots)
The lavish French-style mansion will feature an outdoor iron pavilion acquired from an Atlanta estate sale, a chandelier by Argentine ironworker Jose Thenee, a Louis XIII fireplace in the wine-tasting room and a drive court with loose gravel imported from France.“It’s finer gravel and crunches a certain way when you walk on it,” explains Chicago architectural consultant and interior designer Anthony Michael, who declines to talk prices on such lavish finishing touches.
We were able to figure out that the chandelier alone cost $35,000.
Ms. Parrillo, a Francophile, also requested imported French marble for the floors and triple-vaulted ceilings inspired by the stables of Versailles.
via Crains
Also:
Topping the list in the 2011 tax year was insurance magnate Richard Parrillo, who paid nearly $246,780 last year on a new 15,533-square-foot limestone mansion in Lincoln Park
My Favorite Uploads to Flickr in April 2013
I thought last month’s total was light, but I only worked on 51 images in April, probably my least productive month in a long, long time. Although, two of these made Flickr Explore…
Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in April 2013.
I was fighting off a few illnesses1, plus my birthday, plus general slackitude. C’est la vie.
Without additional blah-blah, here are my personal favorites processed in April, 2013.
Constitution of the United States
Hail To The Thief Redux
Byrrh
I have only had this once, at the bar at Arami while waiting for my table. I’m going to find a bottle of my own eventually.
Drink to the Men Who Protect You and I
While Your Traces Disappear
I’ve mentioned this photo before. I made myself a 16″ x 20″ print mounted on bamboo from The Darkroom. Turned out nice.
Peel Back the Sky
Your Arms Were Shaking
I wonder how many photos of the West Loop at sunset I’ve taken? A lot, I’m sure.
My first ever Vesper
James Bond doesn’t have the best taste in cocktails. Martinis should really be shaken, not stirred, so he got that right, but vodka and martini are two words that should never be joined in the same sentence.
Each Has His Burden
Lovely white birch in front of the lovely Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette.
We Have Never Been Very Pure
Manhattan Beach, LA. I’ve mentioned this photo before. I should make a print of it too.
Feel of rain in the face
Manhattan Beach, LA.
Birthday Pie
I wasn’t kidding, I did have a birthday this month. Cherry pie, of course.
Pinhole Self Portrait Circa 1994 I scanned this recently, unfortunately, the print is fairly damaged. Some friend of a friend who was a grad student at the ARTIC back in the mid-90s built the pinhole out of a coffee can, and brought a flash. I just posed.
Trust In Your Calling
Science Won’t Change You
Take A Walk Through The Land of Shadows
An Approximation of the Anticipation
A Harmony Not Rarefied
- yes, plural [↩]
State Property No Trespassing
East Pilsen
not including the interstate itself, presumedly.
Click to emiggen
Science Won’t Change You
No You Cannot Use My Photo for Free Part 89
A/k/a Black Card Magazine wants free Photos.
Chicago Dog
I’ve gotten lazy about blogging the periodic requests to use my photos in a commercial setting without compensation. I have no concern with websites or blogs using my photos, even quasi-commercial sites like Chicagoist, Curbed Chicago, or the like, as long as these usages don’t require payment to view. In my reasoning, I get benefit from such exposure, not to mention I read most of these sites anyway, or could. However, printed use is different: the targeted audience has to pay a fee to read the magazine or book, thus I should get a slice of the pie. Does this make sense?
There have been several such inquiries since I last mentioned the subject, such as yesterday, when I received this email, marked URGENT.
I work as a writer for Black Card magazine. We are doing a feature on America’s Best Street Foods and we want to feature The Wiener’s Circle in Chicago.
They don’t have any images of their hot dogs, but I found the one on your flickr page. Was wondering if you might be willing to let us publish it in exchange for a photo credit in the article and a free copy of the magazine?
We are on an urgent deadline.
[redacted]
My first reaction was irritation at the forced urgency. Why do I have to rush to respond? I’m not the one who waited until the last minute to secure photographic rights for a story assigned months ago. An admission: I’m that guy on the highway who slows down when drivers tailgate me. Especially if I’m driving by myself, I’ll block irritating drivers from passing me for twenty minutes (alternatively slowing down and speeding up, as traffic changes) or longer. Unless you have a flashing siren on your vehicle, I doubt sincerely your time is any more valuable than mine, and no, I won’t get out of your way if you are rude. Of course, if Illinois caves in, and allows concealed handguns to be carried, I may alter my behavior. Probably not though. I hate being told to hurry up. I have enough deadlines of my own without incorporating yours as well.
Secondly, Black Card Magazine is a trade publication solely for the upper echelon – for instance, American Express’s Centurion Card, which requires cardholders willing to pay an annual fee of $2,500 just to have the card, plus a $7,500 application fee. Not for the peons, in other words. American Express had an operating income of $33,800,000,000 last year, I think they could afford to pay photographers if they chose to.
Wieners Circle Rages at the Dying of the Light
So I replied that I would be happy to allow one-time usage of my photograph for the fee of $800. I’m not holding my breath for a response (it’s been 24 hours).
the Wieners Family Crest
Mmm Crunchy Chicago Dogs
While Your Traces Disappear – Explored
While Your Traces Disappear
Cool! Another photo has made it into Flickr Explore, and with even more favorites than the last photo got. I take and process photos every day, or attempt to, and I always do the best I can to transform the images into art. But prior to these two photos making Explore, I hadn’t been selected since April 2012. I realize the Explore algorithm is mostly computerized, and that there is an element of chance in making the cut – but still. Odd. And nice.
Funny, as I only sort of randomly selected this photo of the CTA tracks near Graceland Cemetery as a means to test new perspective tools in the Lightroom 5 Beta, and then tweaked the image a bit using the Google Silver Efex Pro plugin. The subject is a bit of cliché to tell the truth – high contrast black and white image of shadow perspectives, yadda yadda. I’ve taken many similar photos that didn’t get so much appreciation from Flickreenos. Still, I am happy with how this one turned out…
Click here for an embiggened version.
Or here to purchase a print for your own wall.
Flickr Favorites Uploaded in March 2013
I processed and uploaded 113 photos in March, much less than February’s total. Probably my ear troubles ate into my productivity, but that’s just an excuse.
Anyway via Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in March 2013 here are my 22 personal favorites created in March. Click image to embiggen.
Go Back To Where You Have Been Again
Take What You Have Gathered From Coincidence
Money Isn’t The Only Answer
Devil’s Paintbrush – Upper Yurtistan
Butterfly – Upper Yurtistan
Wine is Good For You
Minister of Design and The Future, Blue
Somebody Please Tell This Machine I’m Not A Machine
Ready For Take Off
Guardian of Marfa East
Assembling Tian
Fanoenix by Debbie Mullins
Heracles Shoots the Sun
Cold Was the Ground
I don’t love all of this photo, but I do like how the clouds were filtered.
Where The Air Is Fresh And Clean
George playing the piano
Let True Love Win
Garfield Park Conservatory
Fulton Vortex
West Loop weirdness
Not A Simple Binary Choice
Loyola Campus
Off The Grid
Lake Michigan beach in Wilmette, IL
Towers
Bahá’í Temple, Wilmette, IL
Eliyahu Was Thirsty
Hipstamatic closeup of Elijah’s cup, a few days after Passover
We Have Never Been Very Pure
We Have Never Been Very Pure
Click here to view larger on black.
Venice Beach, last February.
Hasn’t happened in a while, but this photo made it into Flickr Explore April 9th1, reaching into the lower 200s. Funny, I spent less than ten minutes processing it in Photoshop (tweaking the contrast, cropping, then converting into black and white), and yet it became a hit. Go figure. There isn’t a prize or anything, just satisfaction in knowing that this photo is popular with the masses, and humbling, when you look at all the other great photos also contained in that day’s batch. I would not say each of those photos are my favorites as well, but a great number are super images.
I do like my own photo, don’t get me wrong. And in fact, I like it better viewed at a larger size.
Shameless hucksterism, prints are available for purchase.
I don’t have a clever story as to the photo’s title: probably a willful mishearing of a song lyric or something. Titles are a challenge, as we’ve discussed before.
Footnotes:- top 500 photos uploaded to Flickr on a particular day [↩]
Frozen Head of Rhaegal
or similar beast.
Lake Michigan
Ice, Lake Michigan
C&O FDRY Co – Christensen and Olsen Foundry
Corpse Reviver No. 2
So excited to finally try this – took me a long time to find Lillet Blanc
via
chicagoist.com/2011/09/28/properly_sauced_ken_burns_prohi…
Basically: The cocktail is simple enough, if you have the ingredients. Quality ingredients are usually worth it – saves your brain for later (i.e., cheapo Triple Sec made with high fructose corn syrup and orange-esque chemicals will hurt you the next day).
1 oz gin
1 oz Cointreau or Orange Curaçao. (My current favorite is Pierre Ferrand Dry, but I need more experimenting before that is definitive. I’ve tried Grand Marnier, Cointreau, and Pierre Ferrand, all taste great in this cocktail.)
1 oz Lillet Blanc
1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 or 2 drops of Absinthe. Not a dash, just enough.
Mix in a cocktail shaker with ice, and shake vigorously, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. You could add a cherry at the end, but I never have.
much better than a Bloody Mary, trust me…
Flickr Favorites Uploaded in February 2013
In January, I only uploaded 83 photos to Flickr, however in February, I took a vacation in a new-to-me city (Los Angeles), so of course, I took and subsequently processed lots more photos. Seriously, lots more. I haven’t even finished going through all of my LA photos, but I’m close. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites, roughly in date order.
Archives / Posted in / 2013 / February (191 items)
(click here to continue reading Flickr: Archive of your uploads to Flickr in February 2013.)
Click a photo to embiggen…
You Could Get Used To It
Times Passes Slowly
Strolling on the Sand
–
more below the fold, mostly because I have entirely too many favorite photos this time. 38 by my rough count, or nearly 20%. And there were a couple others one the cusp…
Eureka! was uploaded to Flickr
http://flic.kr/p/aEzroD
I took Eureka! on October 19, 2010 at 01:32PM
It Matters Less Than One Might Think was uploaded to Flickr
Hill Street (?), Los Angeles
embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/dXHxan
It Matters Less Than One Might Think was taken on January 31, 2013 at 05:00PM
I liked how my folks and my LA hosts turned bokeh in the background while the plant leaves crossed their proverbial legs in the foreground. I tried a few variants (black and white; stark, high contrast black and white; and over-saturated color) before settling on this toned version. I’ll probably revisit later, and try other versions too.
Gape at the Thoughts Which Others Have Thought was uploaded to Flickr
John C. Portman, Jr
In his book Postmodern Geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory (1989), Edward W. Soja describes the hotel as “a concentrated representation of the restructured spatiality of the late capitalist city: fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packaged yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate. Everything imaginable appears to be available in this micro-urb but real places are difficult to find, its spaces confuse an effective cognitive mapping, its pastiche of superficial reflections bewilder co-ordination and encourage submission instead. Entry by land is forbidding to those who carelessly walk but entrance is nevertheless encouraged at many different levels. Once inside, however, it becomes daunting to get out again without bureaucratic assistance. In so many ways, its architecture recapitulates and reflects the sprawling manufactured spaces of Los Angeles” (p. 243-44).
embiggen by clicking http://flic.kr/p/dX7d1g
Not to mention:
It has been featured in many movies and television series over the years including: Strange Days, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Blue Thunder, Breathless, This is Spinal Tap, Hit the Booty Do, In the Line of Fire, Nick of Time, True Lies, Midnight Madness, Showtime, Hard to Kill, The Lincoln Lawyer, Chuck, Moby Dick, The Fantastic Journey and was destroyed (via special effects) in Escape from LA and Epicenter. The television series It’s a Living was set in a restaurant atop the Bonaventure. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel is also showcased in episodes of CSI and its exterior can be seen in Americathon, Mission: Impossible III, Almighty Thor, Hancock, and at the beginning of the Lionel Richie Dancing on the Ceiling music video. You can see it being constructed in the movie The Wilderness Family.
Gape at the Thoughts Which Others Have Thought was taken on January 31, 2013 at 04:57PM
