The 4th of July is a low key event around here. We go to the town parade (which consists mostly of politicians in convertibles as well as various businesses) and enjoy the abbreviated high school marching band (most of the musicians are gone for the summer), the Shriner bagpipers, etc... There's always a children's parade at the beginning where brightly decorated bicycles and children move in a pack over the parade route- safely out of the way before the parade proper begins.
Later that week, after seeing the John Singer Sargent show at the Art Institute, a little cool-off in Millenium Park.
Another week is beginning... If you feel as I do about our current political situation, then you might have dark thoughts as well. Uncle Sam might well be weeping.
Went out to dinner in the West Loop area. Rick Bayless has a new restaurant there called Lena Brava that's quite nice. Temperature was in the 90's but dropping as the sun went down so we elected to sit outside where the crowd was thin and the people watching better.
On the way back I saw an art shop pop-up located in a shipping container-
A vacant parking lot- fewer of these around as new construction takes over the area-
And, under an Amtrak viaduct, a forlorn flag...
On a more cheerful note, I shot some more infrared-filtered digital landscapes at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The sky was blue with puffy clouds!
All for now... Have a Glorious 4th!
Flood warnings and intermittent storms today... Yesterday I walked to the Lincoln Park Zoo and took a look around to see who was awake. The camels were busy trying to eat their enclosure, but not in an interesting way. Zebra's are cool, if only for their stripes (apparently the pattern confuses tsetse flies). The apes were sleeping (they seem to do that a lot, but then there's not a whole lot of other things for them to do). The flamingos were standing around as usual- some sleeping Lions were awake too- in their moat for a nicely different angle. Almost looks like they're in the wild! And that's all for now!
A day in the city running errands and sightseeing. CT and CM visited the Gold Coast Art Fair after Zumba. I wandered over to the Art Institute to see the new Ivan Albright show... I can't say I like his work much (I'm not sure anyone can actually 'like' his paintings) but he was a great artist. Apparently a meticulous one as well. He made a complete drawing on the canvas before beginning to paint in a patchwork fashion. In this image you can see the charcoal drawing along with the painted sections...
Later I ran across the beginning of the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade forming up on Columbus. Lots of flags and interesting cars. Also a large number of flag decked jeeps. Is that a thing?
A slightly overcast day- not ideal for infrared photography, but when you're at a garden it still gives an interesting effect. I take IR photographs by placing an IR filter (only passes infrared light) in front of my camera lens. The exposures are much longer than without the filter, but the results are often worth it.
During the film camera days infrared photography was often used for architectural photography (blue skies are rendered as nearly black) but IR is also strongly reflected off the chlorophyll in leaves, grass, etc. Click here for much more information from Wikipedia.
A recent skyline image, taken from the Michigan Avenue DuSable bridge. The bridge house is visible at the lower left. The black and gold Art Deco Carbide and Carbon building (1929) is just visible, followed by the London Guarantee and Accident building with the small domed structure (1923), the Mather Tower (1928), and the Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront (1960), The domed structure standing alone is the 35 East Wacker Drive building (1926) followed by a series of newer buildings- the Kemper building (1962), the Renaissance Hotel (1991), the 161 North Clark building (1962) just visible, the Leo Burnett building (1989) and finally a fragment of the shorter 55 West Wacker building (1968), and the new/classical 77 West Wacker building (1992).