Doorway to the future

Posted on 18 March, 2014 by Eric

Until recently, this was our neighborhood grocery store. It’s in the process of demolition (as you can see), to be replaced by a new, much nicer grocery store by the end of the year.

This building is one of those old ones that was added on to multiple times, given some cosmetic touch-ups here and there, but still couldn’t avoid looking a bit dumpy. So we’ll be happy to see its replacement, but it still feels odd to watch a local fixture get ripped down after decades of service.

BTW, as an experiment I made this photo with an Olympus 8mm “body cap” fisheye. As soon as the weather improves, I’ll do a photowalk with it and its 4/3-mount predecessor for comparison’s sake (short version: not as good optically as the old lens, but far cheaper and more portable).

Enter the Bean

Posted on 15 March, 2014 by Eric

I almost titled this one “Self-portrait of Tripod,” given that I made this shot on self-timer so I wouldn’t be in it. As a result, though, you can see over a dozen reflections of my camera on its tripod.

The reflector in this case is, of course, the “Cloud Gate” sculpture (a.k.a. “The Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park. This is taken from under the middle of it (officially called the omphalos, Greek for “navel”). You can also get distorted shots of the weather and local architecture by using Cloud Gate’s exterior reflections.

Loads of fun, but you need to get there early unless you want to make photographs with lots of people in them. Remind me to do a full writeup on photography of / with The Bean some day…

Frosty mirror

Posted on 22 December, 2013 by Eric

A few nights ago, we took advantage of a warmer night to check out the “Blossoms of Light” display at the Denver Botanic Gardens. They put on a nice show, as always, and it hasn’t been as warm since — so, fortunate timing.

I took this shot toward the north end of the gardens; with the lens closed down to f/22, a nice long exposure erased the slow parade of other viewers along the path…

Waiting for breakfast to come along…

Posted on 4 September, 2013 by Eric

We managed to sneak away for a few days’ vacation this past holiday (in the U.S.) weekend — for its cultural amenities, we chose Chicago. But this little guy (gal?) was just waiting for breakfast outside our hotel room window our first morning in town:

It must have been a good judge of real estate, as its web was littered with the remains of past meals. I thought the local buildings made a nice colorful backdrop (not too cluttered, though, when you put them out of focus):

If you’re working on your own case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), I took these with an Olympus E-M5 camera equipped with a Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm lens. A potent combination, if you ask me…

Steamnocchio

Posted on 6 August, 2013 by Eric

Another excellent piece of art from the 2013 Denver Chalk Art Festival:

It’s a chalk interpretation of “Steamnocchio” by Fabricio Moraes — his award-winning 3D CG steampunk adaptation of the Pinocchio story. Â Check out Fabricio’s other work, too — he does some great stuff!

Last (?) shot of winter

Posted on 10 April, 2013 by Eric

We got hit by an odd late-winter storm the other day, and here’s what we woke up to:

This was the result of a storm that was supposed to dump a foot or more of snow on us, but wound up leaving us maybe an inch. And since the storm hit town quickly (temperature dropped by 40 degrees F in a matter of a few hours), it landed on warm pavement.

So for at least a few hours the next morning, I could play with my camera (in super cold temps) with this unusual snow pattern — only surviving over the joints between our patio pavers.

Licensious

Posted on 12 October, 2012 by Eric

I photographed this little bit of mountain culture up in the “ghost town” of St. Elmo, Colorado a few years back:

I put “ghost town” in quotes because, although it’s officially a ghost town, St. Elmo is the summer home of quite a few people (and year-round home of a few). Â Sure, it’s not the hopping spot it was back in its heyday — but it’s still fun to visit!

If you were curious, here’s the collection of license plates in its native habitat:

Flowing

Posted on 16 September, 2012 by Eric

Seen at the Embarcadero in San Francisco, California:

Crown of thorns

Posted on 16 August, 2012 by Eric

It’s ‘Roid Week on Flickr, so I thought it would be a good time to post this shot I made in Wichita a few weeks back:

This is part of what used to be a roller coaster at an abandoned amusement park called Joyland. The place was closed, then sold, then re-opened, then closed again, and finally abandoned. Now it’s slowly decaying while the rides and other structures gradually (occasionally…) get dismantled and torn down. Apparently it’s quite the magnet for urban explorers in town, but I didn’t really want to deal with the legal issues involved with hopping the park’s fence, so did my photography from outside the barriers.

I made this shot with a Polaroid OneStep Express camera and Impossible Project PX 600 Silver Shade film — a combination I’m really warming up to. It seems to be particularly good for street and decay shots (although, at $3 per exposure, a bit pricey for everyday use). Given how far this place has fallen from its heyday, the black border on this film seemed appropriate, a way of both commemorating and mourning this decay.

Morning comes to Victoria

Posted on 22 July, 2012 by Eric

Another shot from our Puget Sound air-/road-trip. This one’s looking back toward Victoria, BC from the ferry headed south to Port Angeles, Washington.

This shot would have looked about as nice if the sky had been clear and blue. Still, I like the smooth background light that the light overcast gave the scene. For those of you taking notes, I made this image with an Olympus E-M5 camera with the 12-50mm “kit” lens.