’cause my arm hurts, and I don’t wanna type anything…
Grand, Erie or vicinity
[view large on black www.b12partners.net/photoblog/index.php?showimage=17 ]
Category: Photography
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.
Vacant Thoughts
Can’t seem to focus today, have desultorily picked at the newspaper, have stopped and started my current book (The Great Influenza) half a dozen times. Getting a bit of cabin fever, healing. Almost able to walk normally, I think I have to jump on my trampoline or something. Can’t even focus on working on my screenplay, feel a bit like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, except that I cannot see anyone’s activity in the apartment buildings nearby (still under construction, or bad angle).
Even the cats are hiding from me…
Photographers Are Not a threat
[Architectural Photography Forbidden – at Riverside Plaza aka The Daily News Building, built 1929]
One of these days, I’m organizing a Flickr meetup to take photos of the ‘forbidden ‘ buildings. Photographers are not terrorists.
Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.
Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.
Given that real terrorists, and even wannabe terrorists, don’t seem to photograph anything, why is it such pervasive conventional wisdom that terrorists photograph their targets? Why are our fears so great that we have no choice but to be suspicious of any photographer?
[From Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat? | Technology | The Guardian]
For instance, check out these Flickr groups –
flickr.com/groups/photography-is-legal/
flickr.com/groups/forbiddenchicago/
flickr.com/groups/photography_is_not_a_crime/
(see also here, here, here , here, for more news stories about this topic, if you have time to read). Irks me to no end.
[Photography is not legal at Boeing either – the guy on the left probably a Blackwater employee]
Do Not Enter My Butt
click to embiggen
Wrong (way).
Totally stole this from Joe M500’s photo
www.flickr.com/photos/m500/2490405020/
but looks like a slightly different location.
Super Thick
even though drinking milkshakes like Daniel Day-Lewis might be a bit played out.
Everything to be Condoized
Even the USPS sorting office, apparently.
Roberto’s Mens Clothing and Leathers
They couldn’t decide which font face they liked better, so they tried all three.
WordPress notes week 2
First oddity: a double post of the same entry. Oh well, hope it isn’t too confusing.
Mostly, though, no complaints about moving to wordpress. Much easier to configure everything.
[Golden Confidence]
Chicago Hieroglyph
Bonus if you can translate into Chicago-ese
(I’m curious – does this extra large photo mess up the sidebars? Doesn’t on my screen, but I have a large monitor. Just curious.)
City Hall Stairs
Blaze of Glory
another Merchandise Mart post-carder. From last summer.
River City Condos
South Loop
River City Condos, originally uploaded by swanksalot. A building one could recognize anywhere.
www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/1054/River_City.php
Republished:
www.chicagoist.com/2007/09/18/more_housing_ma.php
Alleys are life, embodied
Alleys are life, embodied, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Alley, West Loop. Maybe Randolph St., not sure yet. Slightly Photoshopped.
emotional response here
www.b12partners.net/mt/archives/2005/06/alleys_are_life.html
—
Ladybug Cow
Still there, last I looked.
Cows on parade, the leftover edition. Talbott Hotel, E. Delaware, Chicago
republished
Breakfast Drinks Selfportrait
Not really for breakfast, more of a brunch item. Self portrait only if you view the ‘large’ version. Also some buildings reflect in the glass. Lightly photoshopped, to add a little depth. Updated to www.flickr.com/photos/swanksalot/26046688/ via the magic of Illustrator and Photoshop