By Red Rock Nevada

These are two panoramas I've done by Red Rock Canyon. This is what I do on vacation.

You can click, hold, and move the mouse to look around. It might take a minute for them to load, especially the first one, I didn't spend much time optimizing them because I'm a bum like that.

Click on each image to go to the VR Pano.

Doing It For Myself

I wish I could remember the number of times a photojournalist has told me to not focus on shooting for the office, for the paper and instead shoot what I want to shoot. I'm okay at this, not great, but okay.

So recently I acquired a phone with a camera and text messaging (my previous phone I bought around 99' and at that point was fancy because it was digital. This new phone will hereafter be referred to as the "iWife".) This has resulted in me texting all day long. It's like swapping notes in class.

Somehow in the mix of all this I got to talking to a friend who lives in the desert these days about fall colors, and started sending photos taken with my iWife of fall colors, and now other random things, mostly with greenery. Reminders of leaves.

The funny thing is about this, I tend to like more of the photos I take with my iWife than with my other cameras. There is something about doing it for someone, doing it for fun, doing it for myself which makes it more rewarding.

At first when I made those images I didn't put much work into them, point the iWife and push the button. As I've done it more I've started putting more effort into the images, why make a crappy image when I don't have to? Why isn't this photo for a friend as important as any other photo? Why isn't it more important?

It's fun. It's really out of my norm. It's not the kind of camera I like. It doesn't give me the control I like. No shutter speed, no ISO, no white balance, no place for me to decide, for me to decide anything and while that encourages laziness, there is no reason I need to be lazy about the images. No room to crop later. Just shoot it, and send it right from the phone. Imperfect everytime and the better for it.

Now, mind you, the photos don't have to fit a story or purpose like my stuff for the paper so they tend to be more "pretty pictures". They tend to be images that will mean something to me and my friend, nothing more, but in that, I think they mean more than a lot of the other images I make.

Kind of sad that all my work can't mean as much, but I'm proud that some of it does.

Wilderness in the City

As much as I'm a city boy, and I am a city boy, damn, I just want to go hide in the woods most days. It always amazes how much of an option that really is in this city though.

Over the last umpteen years I've gotten to know a lot of little wilderness, or wilderness-y hideouts in the Chicago-land area. From the likes of some of the Forest preserves, to Northerly Island, and little odd spots here and there this city has some often surprising little hideaways.

Now, I'm not calling any of these a real replacement for the real Great Outdoors, but they are an escape from the city, a brief respite. I look for a lot of these places.

This is why I have to say I was a bit suprised to find a bird sanctuary right by downtown that I didn't know about. This is by an area that I have biked past about 5 times so far this summer, and probably over 50 times in my life. It's just south of McCormick Place and is called, shockingly enough, the McCormick Place Bird and Butterfly Sanctuary.

It's actually a green roof for a parking garage, though you'd never know that unless you were told or were looking for the scattered air vents and emergency exits. From the surrounding areas it doesn't look like much, just a grassy slope. Because it's a plains/grassland environment this is enough to obscure it from sight. It's not till you get into it that you lose most of the city, and get lost in high grasses.

Unfortunately or fortunately it's closed off to people to protect the habitat, or at least much of it is. Regardless, it's a nice little escapist gem in this city.

Now...back to work and driving. Ugh.

Ah, the Repetition of It All

I've been to this event, I think, 9 out of the last 10 years. Regardless of the exact number, it's a lot.

On one hand there is the sheer repetition of shooting the same things, year after year after year after year. In all likelihood you just end up with small variations on the same images year after year.

On the other hand there is a kind of lazy comfort, you can get your job done easily and quickly, and there is an opportunity from that to try some new things because once you're covered, why not ?

Things to Remember

I got to set-up the strobes more often. It just helps out so much sometimes. (I'm not saying it's a good photo, it is a business portrait after all, just that it would be so much worse without the additional lighting.)

I don't know

Some things in this world defy descripition, especially easy descripition. There are more things I want to say here than I know how to say, or even put into words. Hell, I don't think I can take a picture that can even start to describe my thoughts and feelings, much less encompass them.

At the end of the day, "I don't know" is a great statement, especially when you know it's all good. And you know what? I know it's all good, at least in this part of life, it's all good, so good. And it makes me happy, peaceful.

Another Day on the Job, III

Where's Josh?

Yeah, I've disappeared, I may stay disappeared for a while. Life is just busy. Good busy. Lots of biking, I'm hoping to add lots of kayaking, lots of living, which means less time to talk about living. I'm good with this, quite frankly.

You want to know much more? Drop me a line, drop me an email, or better yet, let's go hang out, get out, and enjoy life. I'm around, I'll just be around this particular locale less for a while. Later.

(having said that, watch, I'll update every day for next month. Isn't that just how it works?)

Celebratory Moment

I want to take a moment to celebrate my many amazing friends.


There is the Strange Tree Group, which comprises many wonderful friends. They have put together a show that is getting rave reviews left and right. Go see it, it's worth it. (I would also like to note a member of that social crowd, or two actually, who have agreed to legally become one. Rock on! She wouldn't answer me when I asked if she was pregnant. Hmmm...) (And for those who expressed an interested in going with me, I believe I'm going to go on the 10th, next Thursday.)

There is Chicago Tap Theatre who also has an awesome show up at the moment, also receiving high marks and reviews, as always for them. You should see their show also. Not to mention they are just incredibly kind and wonderful people. Really, just unnaturally nice. It disturbs me. (For those who asked, I'm going to try to be going this Saturday, but I'm not sure yet, of course.)

A friend who is about to leave for Texas to slack, I mean write poetry for three years. If I knew I could do that and call it grad school earlier I would've applied.

Another friend fighting back from surgery that stopped her work. She thinks she's more alone than she is, which sucks, but she fights hard all the same. She will win, at least I know she will. I also know someday she'll look at me and say, "Josh, you were right." But I know that is true with most of you.

A friend who is taking a chance and starting a band. Lawyer by day, tap dancer by night. My kind of person, good human being, and pushing the bounds of what can in any reality be considered reasonable. Good stuff.

Another who is going to get the results of an important test tomorrow afternoon. Cross your fingers.

A friend I mentioned a while back, Peter "George" Ksander, who recently won an Obie for scenic design. Apparently in the theater world this is really big, as I'm not in that world, umm...okay, rock on George.

A friend who is building/re-building her life after a really hard year. One of those times when it's not about winning awards, but just about being happy. It's truly amazing, and wonderful to watch. Love is beautiful, I've known that for a long time, but she has shown me that on a level that is difficult to appreciate, express, and fills me day after day.

A friend who is (I guess it should be a "they" but really, are his hormones going nuts? Nope, it's all about her) pregnant with her third. Cool stuff, though I'd never, ever, ever want to be pregnant, but I'm happy for her.

The list just keeps going and going and going. I can't even remember off the top of my head all the awesome things all my friends are pulling off these days. In the world of problems, what a great problem to have.

I really do have the best friends in this world. And I keep finding more. I guess I'm just greedy.

Philosophical Honesty

The photo is from the Belmont Arts and Music Festival (BAM), and is totally unrelated to the pointless point that follows. Thanks. Hell, it's not even related to BAM really either, it was just there.

I've been debating the difference, on a philosophical level of 4 colors, white, black, chrome (oh, shiny) and clear. See, none of them are colors, in fact, most every color you think of as a color isn't a color. Sorry, accept this, accept that your brain is making all these things up, you only see red, green and blue (RGB), as colors, you also see brightness with rods. Hope I didn't burst your bubble, but teal, it doesn't exist, neither does purple, orange, yellow, or any color beyond RGB.

So, if your favorite color is white, you aren't actually choosing a favorite color as it's an equal mix of RGB. You are being indecisive. (though further thought must be put into what a "color" is and the contrubution of rods to this whole thought and not just cones.)

Black is just a lack of light, so hence, it's not a color, it's actually a lack of color. You like black? You like nothing. Kind of explains some of my friends teen years actually.

Chrome, while shiny, and hence wonderful, is a reflection, it shows you nothing except what's reflecting off of it. That's actually where this all starts, The Bean (or Cloud Gate). It's impossible to take a photo of the Bean, all you can do is take a photo of the reflection which infers the existence of the Bean, but the Bean itself does not absorb and re-emit light, it just directly reflects light. When you look at the Bean you are not seeing the Bean, you never see the Bean, you are seeing the reflections the Bean creates. (I kind of wonder if the reflection an object makes is enough to prove the existence of an object, I think so, but...)

Clear, clear is the most honest of these four "colors". It doesn't pretend to be a color like white or black, or a color in a Crayon box like chrome. It acknowledges it's lack of color and embraces it.

Product Placement Time

I don't do much advertising, but time to do some.

You got some free time an upcoming weekend, this weekend, some weekend nearby? Good, I knew you did. Go see some theater. And if you ask me what you should see, and you're still reading so I'll assume you are asking, there are two productions I would see currently, and I will see both of them.

In this case, go see the Strange Tree Group's current production, "The Mysterious Elephant, And the Terrible Tragedy of the Unlikely Addington Twins* (*Who Kill Him)."

It's getting good reviews, it's a fun show, a fun night, and more importantly, I like it. (FYI - I have good taste in theater, maybe not clothes, nope, not clothes, but definitely in theater.) Should you want a "professional" review, go here (I'm still cooler though). And if you doubt that it is worth it, realize I give them my time, happily, to photograph their shows to encourage their work. It's time well spent. I think they're worth watching.

Tickets here.

It's in the Eyes

I'll trust the look in someone's eyes before the words out of their mouth. This is the pitcher checking first base during the Oak Park South Side Little League Championship Game. (I'm still debating between vertical or horizontal.)

Urban Golf

So, as I've already established, Monday was just incredible, on so many levels. Well, not to rub it in, but this was Sunday.

Sunday started at the loving time of 5:30am, for leaving the house at least. I spent from about 6am till 10am covering Bike the Drive, the annual closing of Lake Shore Drive so that bicyclists can takeover and enjoy it. It was harder to photograph than I expected, but I got a couple of okay images out of it. Suffice it to say, it got covered.

Later in the day was urban golf, through Cudgel. Basically the idea behind urban golf is you get a golf club, a tennis ball, a series of alleys, dress like a 70s golf rock-star hero, and drink your way through the course. It's a good time, it's utterly, and totally ridiculous, hence good time. So I got to spend a few hours hanging out with some awesome people, who were fabulously dressed ("I want to look very meticulously terrible.")

I also decided, that besides wanting to cover this again in the future, when I do so, I'm playing next time. It's not so rushed that I can't, and hell, my journalism has to get more gonzo. (If you don't know what Gonzo-journalism is, first and foremost I hope you aren't a journalist, if you are a journalist and don't know that term I'm kicking your ass. The wikipedia entry is pretty good. I tend towards being a bit more factually accurate, but the whole getting into the middle of events thing I'm all into. While I may be an observer of life more than a participator, I'm at least going to observe from pointblank range. I believe that I can only truly portray a situation if I feel a situation which means being absorbed by the situation which done by being totally and wholly in a situation. Got it?) I need to be more gonzo. I'm doing better, but I must get more involved, almost every image I'm happy-ish with comes from a situation I'm totally absorbed by and in.

Live and learn.

(and the dork in the yellow, is the reporter I was working with. For a reporter (which sets the bar pretty low) he's pretty good all around.)

Wonderful, Strange

I had the strangest experience on Monday. I had a common holiday off. For the first time in 8-10 years, maybe more, I had Memorial Day off.

See, Memorial Day has a lot of parades and similar, and normally, I'm at those parades making photos. This year, my boss decided to give me the day off and give all that work to freelancers. This was a surprising gift.

I spent the day with two amazing, beautiful women. We picnicked, in spite of the risk of rain, we goofed off, and goofed off some more, and talked enough to write a book or two. Our blankets were covered in food, drink, piles of cameras, clubs and balls and other things for juggling, and wonderful friends.

It's a strange experience for me to have a day off that other people have off. To be able to enjoy the company of friends so thoroughly. I want to repeat it. I want to repeat having the day off, but more than that, I want to repeat Memorial Day 2008. I want that happiness, that inner warmth, every day. It was amazing. (If I keep talking, all I'm going to do is ramble on about how good it was in a very repetitive manner.)

The photos, some of them are weird, we're three odd people, but I just like these images. We were just having fun, being us, through and through. There are, quite literally, a hundred more I like also, but I can't post them all.

I just want you to know, right now, I'm smiling.









Update: Sarah's blog post, and if you don't know Sarah, you really should, trust me. Also, her post is so much better than mine. Read it, you'll get a feel for the day better than from me and discover you want to hang with Sarah also, but I have dibs. Just sayin'.

I Live a Hard Life

It's all about the food

I just get to have lunch/dinner with the coolest people. This is, yep, I'm calling you out on stage for a minute, Peter "George" Ksander, according to Time Out New York, "the most ingenious set designer working downtown." And the whole serious look thing makes me laugh hysterically.

I'm becoming a stronger and stronger believer in the value of surrounding yourself with the most creative, kindest people you can. I think it will only encourage those things, help you grow those things, in yourself. I'm not sure if that's how it works, but it's a happy experiment to try.

Mapplethorpe

You can say many things about Mapplethorpe, and personally there is much of his work I don't think is artistically all that impressive. On the other hand, there is much of his work that I that I think is spectacular. The man could make a print that would make your mouth water just on the pure technical qualities. Don't believe me? See some of them, then see if you disagree with me.

And if you think Mapplethorpe was only pictures of gay men, well, there are plenty of those, but his body of work is much more diverse and impressive than just the images that pissed off conservative Senators.

At the same event I got to view many Mapplethorpes, Artopolis, a gathering of hundreds of the worlds high end galleries, I also got to see some Salgados, Warhols, Greenburgs, some of the best and worst of modern art, "Ohhh....look....another painting in a single solid color, how innovative!!!" There seems to be something of an interesting movement to get 2d art to reflect and incorporate 3d art. Interesting trend.

An inspiring day.

A Moment of Silence

I knew coming into April that April was going to suck. It has. Royally.

On Monday I lost one of my closest friends, a friend who I'd spent literally 4 or 5 hours with a day at least a few times a week. Rarely would I not spend at least an hour a day with this wonderful friend. My beloved white 97' Ford Escort is no more.

I didn't treat it right. I wasn't as kind to it as I should've been. It had a rough existence, just like everything that is close to me, it was used, abused, thoroughly beaten, but loved. I should've cleaned it more, lots more. I should've taken it in for maintenance quicker, for the last two months it had a tire that had to be filled up every week because of a "slow" leak. It had a dent that was never dealt with. It was in serious need of a car wash, serious need. The windshield had been cracked for the better part of a decade, it had leaks in multiple places (I'd laugh and swear as it rained on me while I drove), it liked to pull to the right, just a little, the windows were manual, and the number of times I had to tell people to lock their door as they got out I can't count. Who besides me has...had...manual locks? And manual windows? The drivers side door would freeze shut on and off all winter, usually just the lock, but at least a few times every winter I'd be cursing as I climbed over the passenger's seat to get in, and sometimes out.

It always got me where I was going, reliably, until Monday. I was pissed when it busted. I was supposed to be having a picnic with a friend of mine. An event that would probably have been the highlight of my week. Instead I was sitting on the trunk of my car in a community college parking lot, which I had mistakenly gone to because I screwed up where my shoot was at. Sitting on the trunk, waiting for a tow truck, thinking the fuel pump was busted. I was annoyed. I was supposed to be having a picnic. It was over 70 and sunny. It was going to be such a good day.

I had, by some weird quirk of chance left my bike in the trunk of my car. At least getting home from the mechanic's was going to be easy. A little before 4pm I got the call. I don't cry. I just don't. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just me. But I couldn't handle that one. I only had a few minutes before I had to get running to my next shoot, but I shed a few for my Ford. The engine needed to be rebuilt, and, well, it's a 97' Ford Escort. The work was more than buying a new one. Nothing but dumb bad luck. Something involving the 4th piston and a lot of words I don't quite get. Nothing I could've done. I can't even feel guilty that it was somehow "my fault", it wasn't. It was just gone. It had seen it's last trip.

137,000 miles, 90,000 of those with me.

It was my first car, my only car to date. I need to get a new one, this week or next. But I'm going to miss my white 97' Ford Escort, affectionately known in my own head as the "411".

You'll always have a place in my heart.

Another Night Out II

From my buddy JB's B-day party. His lady friend was having a good time.

Infra-Red (IR) Afternoon

As the weather was nothing short of gorgeous today, I figured I'd go for a bike ride. Ride the IPP (Illinois Praire Path) from Wheaton to Aurora and back. Would've helped if I had thrown my bike shoes in the car. Yes, along with all my other snobberies, I have clip-in shoes for my bike. I like them.

So, after a few minutes of pouting, yes, I pouted, I decided to go for a walk instead. The plan had been to bike, exercise and take some photos with the IR camera I got back in December but haven't had much chance to use yet. Slowing down gives you more time to look, walking is the best way to see your surroundings. Since I was walking, I shot a lot.

It was fun, relaxing. They're pointless pretty images, but they make me smile, and some of them are very Rorschach inkblot test. I know what I see, what do you see?