Spreading confusion over the internet since 1994
Photos on your screen are nice, but photos on your wall are better!
Framed, ready to hang prints, as well as licenses for reproduction in print and online, are available for order from my photography site — click here.
I liked how this Hipstamatic snapshot of the sun setting over Fulton Market turned out. I don’t recall using this particular set of lens/film1 previously, but it resembles a woodcut to me, especially if you embiggen by double clicking on the image.
Hipstamatic 367 / iPhone 13 Pro
9mm f/2.8
John S Lens, Uchitel 20 Film.
Footnotes:
Fleet Street, London, August, 2010. According to my brother, this loosely translates as, “I begin to prosper starting right now”
Nikon D80
ƒ/5.6 200.0 mm
shutter 1/100
250 ISO
Oak Park, Illinois. Too lazy to look up who the sculptor is.
Photo taken December 23rd, 2019, and processed in my digital darkroom October 31st, 2022.
For some reason, I was exploring photos I took during a visit to Frostpocket, circa 2014. I wish it was more accessible, and friendlier for drop-in visits, because Frostpocket really is a beautiful hundred acres.
Anyway, all of these photos were processed in my digital darkroom today, but taken in September 2014.
Click to embiggen, if you wish…
Red Maple In the Rain
It did rain many of the days I was there, but not hard enough to keep us inside.
Stories We’ve Heard So Many Times Before
Leaves in water is a cliché, but still fun to photograph.
Act As If You’ve Never Been Away
Easier said than accomplished. Especially when the wind blows your subject around and you can’t get a proper focus quickly enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Moss And Rock
and George’s shoe…
Wingham Classic
In Phil’s house. Presumedly wood burning, and presumedly worth something now that it is such an antique.
Birch Root and Rock
I didn’t get a great photo of this but it was nonetheless impressive. Life is for the living, even birch trees attempting to get nutrients out of a rock.
One Door Will Open
The lovely colorful chaos of nature.
Mycology Test
I have no idea what this fungi is, nor would I attempt to eat it, but it is aesthetically appealing.
I took this photo in the Cook County Forest Preserve somewhere in 2015, and processed it in my digital darkroom on October 22nd, 2021.
I like some aspect of all three versions, and instead of discarding 2 of the three, decided to publish all three as a sort of triptych. If and when I print them, I’d like to make a 3d triangle sculpture, and hang it on a thread so it can rotate.
These are the thumbnails, but the image is better when bigger, imo.1
The original version of the photograph. I especially like the golden reflections of tree trunks in the pond. Also the faint reds of the leaves at the bottom right.
The tinted version speaks a different emotional language, achieved by using cross-processing2 of Ektar film. Maybe I’d use this as my LP album cover, when I release that sometime in the future.
The black and white version, using Fuji Neopan 16003 is more stark, yet beautiful because of it. There aren’t quite enough visual clues to ascertain exactly what this is a photo of until the viewer studies it for a moment.
Footnotes:
I took this photo on August 6th, 2021, and processed it in my digital darkroom on August 12th, 2021.
ƒ/1.8 at 1/160
35.0 mm prime lens
ISO 125
I think this was embedded in a church wall, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was a former priest’s apartment? I cannot recall. Somewhere in the Gold Coast, probably on Dearborn, if memory serves.
Is the face a Christ? Seems like it could be, though the broken nose reminds me of the Egyptian sculptures, and the conspiracy that the noses were broken off because they were African, or other reasons.
I liked the inherent decay of the sculpture1 and the expression of this man. So seriously sad.
I was listening to my vinyl collection; tonight I played Bob Dylan’s often disparaged album, Street-Legal, which I happen to think is pretty good. By the way, Jerry Garcia recorded a good cover of Señor (Tales of Yankee Power), as did Willie Nelson with Calexico, if you are keeping track.
Senor, senor, do you know where she is hidin’?
How long are we gonna be ridin’?
How long must I keep my eyes glued to the door?
Will there be any comfort there, senor?
This seemed appropriate for a Christ embedded on a stone wall…
Footnotes:
…click to embiggen
There is a short story waiting to be written about this moment in time. The dog walker’s expression is one of surprised guilt, but why? Is the smoker following him? His bodyguard? Or an innocent bystander?
Alleys are the beating heart of a city.
I took this photo on on March 2, 2018, and processed it in my digital darkroom on March 11, 2021.
ƒ/4.8
60.0 mm
1/125
Above Ground Sounds was taken on January 7, 2016, and processed in my digital darkroom December 22nd, 2020 at 4 AM when I couldn’t sleep.
Click here to embiggen. You probably should.
Approaching Northwestern University campus from the south, in Evanston one sunny winter day, I liked how the over-turned dumpster echoes the buildings in the background. Everything1 is technically wrong with this photo, but I like it nonetheless. The cropping is weird, the angle is a little off, who cares. I think it would make a great album cover – there is even some empty space for lettering.
Footnotes:
LaSalle Street.
Click here to embiggen, if you want.
I had to dodge cabs long enough to stand in the middle of the street to focus and snap the shot.
1923 standards are different…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Biltmore_Hotel
embiggen by clicking
https://flic.kr/p/2jZnF92
I took Lobby Ceiling Millennium Biltmore Hotel on January 31, 2013 at 12:37PM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on October 26, 2020 at 09:32AM
or something
embiggen by clicking
https://flic.kr/p/2jKPfRp
I took Confutatis Maledictis on September 24, 2020 at 03:23AM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on September 24, 2020 at 08:50AM
Obviously, didn’t take this photo at 3:23 AM in my local time, but there is some bug in the system that insists upon subtracting 5 hours from this automated time stamp. Usually doesn’t matter, but this photo is not of a moon.
confutatis maledictis
According to Google Translate, this phrase means, “Doomed”, but I don’t think that is completely accurate.
Wikipedia has two translations of this phrase from the Dies irae:
| When the wicked are confounded, Doomed to flames of woe unbounded, Call me with Your saints surrounded. |
Once the cursed have been silenced, sentenced to acrid flames: Call me, with the blessed. |
Truthfully, Mozart’s Requiem came on my iTunes shuffle this morning, and I liked the phrase. Only later did I wonder what confutatis maledictis really means, and researched a bit (including asking my brother who studied Latin in school).
embiggen by clicking
https://flic.kr/p/2jGABiX
I took Name The Thing Without Naming It on April 09, 2017 at 05:42AM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on September 14, 2020 at 12:41PM
embiggen by clicking
https://flic.kr/p/2jFEwyV
I took The Streets Are Filled With Vipers on September 26, 2015 at 12:28PM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on September 11, 2020 at 05:32PM
Rain, Chicago.1
Tri-X 400, in emulation.
Nikon D7000
85.0 mm f/1.8
Aperture: ƒ/4.5
Shutter: 1/50
ISO: 400
I took this photo December 22, 2014, and processed it in my digital darkroom on August 16th, 2020.
I’ve taken many photos of the Lake Street bridge over the Chicago River over the years. I should collect them all in one place. Maybe later…2
Footnotes:
Does the orange paint symbolize anything? The only orange thing I can think of is the current resident of the White House. This did happen after Trump promised that Saturday night was going to be MAGA Night, whatever that means.
embiggen by clicking
https://flic.kr/p/2j7QBQz
I took Random Acts of Malevolence Against the Haymarket Riot Memorial on June 01, 2020 at 03:35AM
and processed it in my digital darkroom on June 01, 2020 at 10:34AM