Chicago Street Photography

I recently completed my second business related trip to Chicago in as many months. I was fortunate enough to have a few hours here and there that were not entirely scheduled. The weather was gorgeous for several days. Even a walk out to breakfast is a pleasure when it is sunny and 60+ degrees!

I have to admit cheating on the Typosphere. I've come to enjoy Google+ communities as a means to share my photography. We are also at the end of a school year with a seventh grader and a Freshman. Almost every evening is scheduled. Anyway, here are a few photos until my next installment on our scheduled trip to Duke University this weekend.

The World on Time

Yeah, I love fast and politically incorrect cars. This almost makes up for my daily 70 miles in a Prius. Being a large metropolitan area, it is not surprising that the preferred color for transit is basic black (enhanced with Picasa 3).

And kids will always be kids...

Jump!

This is one of those joyous moments in street photography. In this case, I wasn't in good light and the camera was turned off. I saw the kid on the wall and two friends goading him on. I turned on the Sony NEX-6 and swung it up just in time to get this shot. Sure, a half second later would have been more dramatic, but I would have been more likely to miss the shot altogether.

Just five minutes later, the teen boys had moved on and the same spot was occupied by a couple in love.

Love and Flowers

I opted for a simple and compact setup for this trip. All of these images were shot with a Sony NEX-6 equipped with a Sigma 30mm f2.8 lens. I love the color and contrast from this lens and sticking to a prime helps me see compositions as I walk around.

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy watching people take photos of people. Tourists and their cameras are ubiquitous on the Magnificent Mile. I am also guilty as charged!

Just Another Flat Stanley

A tripod means you are serious!

Spring Tourists and Tulips

Tablet, Tulips and Towers

A Photographer on the Clock

One reason I enjoy pivoting LCD screens.

And moving on, here is a little bit of street life I enjoyed. I wasn't out at prime Busker hours, but I did get a couple of shots I like. Always tip the Buskers if you enjoy their work (or take a photo).

A Little Early

Making Music

And now for something completely different...

Um, don't ask me about this one. She had a tripod, that's about all I can confirm.

And more street life...

There were at least three officers every block, but only one team on horseback.

Birthday Fixings

I try to avoid taking photos of the homeless street people. That is a general principle in one of my favorite Google+ street photography forums. Still, the visible homeless population has mushroomed along the Magnificent Mile. When wandering with a camera, sometimes compositions appear.

Different Speeds

Different Worlds: Cropped and modified in Picasa 3

Lastly, I will depart from street images to something from the Chicago and Picasso exhibit at the Art Institute. It is an amazing exhibit and I recommend it highly along with the Othello, Remixed show playing through mid-June.

As always, thanks for looking and reading!

Copyright Notice: All images and words on this blog are copyright DwayneF of Vintagetechobsessions. While copyright is a concept viewed by some as antiquated, I am also well aged. You can always buy your own camera and visit Chicago and see what you can see. I highly recommend it.

Washington, D.C.: A Tourist Taking Photos of Tourists Being Tourists

At the end of February, I made a two-plus day trip out and back to Washington, D.C. for meetings. I had a few hours scattered here and there that weren't totally programmed, so I took walks with my Panasonic LX-7. Over the years, I've spent quite a bit of time there with bigger and better cameras in tow. This time, I kept it simple and decided to focus on the tourists being tourists.

That would make me a tourist photographing tourists being tourists. It's like a hall of mirrors that never quite ends. If someone looks at this post, they will have added a layer of voyeurism that stops several steps short of actually taking a photo.

I've spent enough time in D.C. that I can navigate the streets on foot and the subway system without getting lost. I stand to the right and pass on the left. I have a favorite Asian restaurant (Rice), a favorite Vegetarian restaurant (Science Club), favorite walking routes and people watching zones and a favorite bookstore. I talk to people in D.C. daily and have dark suits that blend in. I don't really think of myself as being a tourist when I am there.

That is an illusion. My rambling is just another kind of tourism.

The people above might as well be me: lone street photographers out looking for something interesting to shoot. Were they in D.C. for work? Did they travel for pleasure and let the rest of the family hang out someplace warm? I personally hate being trapped in a hotel room and I am not a coffee house or sports bar kind of guy.


The truth is that I like wandering alone with my camera. I enter a flow state in which many hours pass until I notice that I am tired, thirsty and hungry. I love my family, but we get along better when they don't have me setting the pace with my meandering.

I'm aware of the paradox that I enjoy watching people interact at monuments more than I enjoy being with people interacting at monuments. This is a side effect of having spent hundreds of hours wandering and watching. It is nearly impossible for me to not frame images even when don't have a camera in hand. And so I watch and enjoy.

And sometimes I actually get around to reviewing my images and post them for the world to see. Ultimately, I've decided that other people seeing my photos really doesn't matter that much. I could try and compete with the flood of amazing and sometimes enhanced photographs floating around Flickr, Google+ Communities, DPReview, Instagram, etcetera; but ultimately I would judge my images as coming up short.

No matter. I experienced taking the photos and remember what it felt like (cold and windy with no warmth from the February sun) and a few souls have come along for the ride. If you have read this far, thanks for being one of them.

Thoughts on Greenbuild 2012 and San Francisco

Welcome to my post Greenbuild 2012 blog entry!  Scroll on down for the typecast...

This is probably the most touristy thing I took a photo of other than looking back on the Ferry Building from an adjacent pier.

This hybrid Fisker Karma is about 3,000 times cooler than my hybrid Prius.  Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.

This is USGBC Founder and CEO Rick Fedrizzi delivering a message to the anti-LEED lobby during the Opening Plenary session.  I work for a construction product company, but I also help write and maintain LEED.  Politics is a complicated beast.

Fast forward from Tuesday to Friday for the Closing Plenary.  That statistic on the screen is accurate: the entire number of volunteer hours that have gone into building and curating Wikipedia are equal to three weeks of Angry Birds play.  This statistic makes me a bit more prone to be focused on life and learning.

The Closing Plenary was a bit more dynamic than last year's, but they all tend to seem long after several days and nights of sessions and receptions.  The speaker, Jane McGonigal, is a TED favorite.  She presented a variation of her TED talk on harnessing the problem solving and creativity of gamers to crowd source solutions to difficult problems.

The next speaker is a prominent architect and proponent of regenerative design, William McDonough. Among others, his most widely known project is the redesign of the Ford Rouge Truck Plant.  From the perspective of moving towards a Net Zero future, he raised the fundamental question of "What's Next?"

William McDonough has very strong opinions on materials in design.  His consulting group has worked with a number of Fortune 500 companies.  His TED talk tracks many of the concepts brought forth at Greenbuild.

This cursive typeface is unique to Royal portables from the 1960s.  Mine is a grey on grey Futura 800/

And the last Greenbuild related photo below is the view from the Google Green Team lair.  The food was fabulous as well.

Here are a few scenes from around San Francisco.  For anyone who is curious, all shots were taken with a Sony NEX-3 with the kit lens or 16mm f2.8 pancake lens.  Many of the street photos were taken by pointing the camera in the right direction without looking at the view screen.  The auto-focus is quick enough to shoot from the hip and capture casual scenes.

Public skating rink at Union Square.  The sight of palm trees and a giant Christmas tree together was only a little disconcerting.

The homeless fleet massing across from the Ferry Building.  In my limited experience, I found the panhandlers to be far less aggressive here than in Atlanta, Chicago or Washington, D.C.

Public protest is a way of life in San Francisco.  This is across from the cordoned off entrance to the Federal Reserve building.

Again, public protest is a common event.  However, this guy was angry, loud and semi-intelligible.  Even the locals were giving him wide berth.

This much vacant sidewalk at midday is a rarity.

At the very end of Greenbuild week, I found myself with no meetings or working meals.  I hopped the bus to find the Super7 Store.  The fact that it is located in Haight-Ashbury was a happy coincidence.  The food was great and cheap.  The stores were great for browsing and I was able to bring home some Super7 merch straight from the source!

Yeah, it was sunny all week while I was in the convention center (sigh).  This gives a little bit of the flavor of the area.

One of the cool specialty stores.  Well, cool if you enjoy irony.  They even had an Underwood 3-bank portable for sale!

But the main reason I took the bus to Haight-Asbury is the one and only Super 7 Store!  Imagine, a store full of giant robot, Star Wars, giant monster and urban vinyl paraphernalia.  Nerd heaven!

Unexpected bonus:  the first Kid Robot store was just up the street!

And with one last awesome storefront, we shall bid the fair city of San Francisco adieu.

 Hmmm...let us see if I can think of something creatively snarky to say about my Copyright to the text and images contained herein this little blog of mine.  Well, I own it all!  Bwa, ha, ha.  Yes, so greedy of me in this open-source world; but that is just the way it is.  Images may be used for non-commercial purposes with attribution pointing back to this blog or to my Picasa collection.  They may not be utilized for commercial purposes without express permission from the owner - that being Dwayne F.  I know:  that which can be published digitally can be hacked.  Go ahead.  Just see what happens.  I happen to have a fleet of giant robots and monsters at my command.  Remember what happened to poor San Francisco in my last post.  I repeat:  bwa, ha, ha.