Tag: photography

  • Sacramento Living

    I don’t usually think about chickens when I think of Sacramento, but my girlfriend Joanie has a veritable miniature farm in her beautiful back yard. Everything in her yard grows so beautifully, I have no hopes of ever attaining this kind of thing. I’m much better at painting plants than tending them, but I can…

  • Northern California Farmers Market Love

    I have been staying with my parents in Davis and a friend in Sacramento, really getting a feel for the area, since this is where I’ll be moving in the fall. Can you tell I am in love with the farmers markets? I love the amazing variety of fresh, ripe fruits and vegetables available in…

  • Texture and color in the city

    To change things up a bit I’m posting images from a photo safari I took with my daughter Indigo to an area just west of my neighborhood in Chicago, underneath the Metra train tracks. I like how this graffiti artist worked with the structure of the staggered block wall. I am particularly entranced by the…

  • Unusual clouds over Chicago

    Last week we had some amazing clouds pass over Chicago, they were very ominous and threatening and had that slight greenish tinge that no one feels comfortable seeing, unless maybe you’re a storm chaser. It was really wild to see the undulations and circular rotations in the clouds. I couldn’t help wondering what might come…

  • An Urban Naturescape

    I have lived just west of downtown Chicago almost 5 years now and I am always amazed by the things I see. While walking my dog this butterfly flew right into my hands then fluttered out and landed on me, staying there for several minutes. My neighborhood is an industrial area of old brick factory…

  • Signs of fall in Michigan

    Signs of fall in Michigan

    This weekend my son and I went on a teen retreat with several other families in Michigan. The weather was cold and rainy, but there were wonderful breaks in the rain for peaceful walks with camera in hand. I really enjoy living in downtown Chicago, but I do miss the sound of crickets, rustling leaves…

  • Garfield Conservatory

    Garfield Conservatory

    On Saturday, I took my son to his origami society meeting at Garfield Conservatory here in Chicago and decided to take a walk around the botanical gardens and green houses. Many of the plants look like things you typically see in yards and gardens in California, so even though there were many pretty plants there…

  • Beautiful Rusty Things in the Neighborhood

    Beautiful Rusty Things in the Neighborhood

    There seems to be a lot of copper and iron around Chicago. The metal work is so colorful, with the iron colored from golden ocher to almost aubergine and the copper taking on lovely green and turquoise patinas with some soft mauve tones as well. Even the concrete sidewalks become stained with color. I love…

  • Watermeter

    In Chicago there are so many interesting colorful rusty metal and concrete things with such lovely aged patinas. I often forget to bring my camera along with me when walking, but yesterday Nina reminded me about using the cell phone, duh, why don’t I think of these things, I guess that’s why we have kids.…

  • Photo of a rose

    This is the original photo.Using Photoshop I cropped the photo, created two duplicate layers of the image and made adjustments to each. I increased the saturation, adjusted the contrast, selected individual colors and adjusted them for color and saturation, then erased parts of one layer to reveal parts of the other layer.With this photo I…

  • A Rose

    Sometimes I think flowers can be more beautiful as they droop and dry out, curling, twisting and changing color.

  • 136 Years Young

    I wonder what this building has seen in the last 136 years. Chicago has some of the coolest buildings, this one is a block away from ours. It has had a sign on it that it would be renovated for as long as we have lived here.I am amazed at how many old buildings and…

  • Sonoma County

    I took these photos at a friends home in California a couple years ago, they have a lovely property filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens. Sunday, I am off to the Chicago School of Fusing opening in Bloomingdale, IL.

  • Vintage Thistles

    Vintage Thistles

    On the left is my original uncropped photo. Once again I played with layers. I had my original as the bottom layer and placed a duplicate image on top. I desaturated the top image (turned it black and white) and then colorized it green. Using the eraser tool I erased the thistle flower from the…

  • Making new things look old

    Making new things look old

    More photoshop play, with a photo I took of a moth that unknowingly came inside on my shirt. The photo on the right is the original, on the left is the photo that I manipulated the color and contrast. My daughter taught me how to create the effect on the top photo.

  • Fun with Photoshop

    I took these photos yesterday evening in our neighborhood. I have been enjoying taking photos and messing around with the editing in Photoshop. There is so much to learn. Both my kids are really good at using Photoshop and so I often consult them on how to do things.           Yesterday…

  • I Love Looking at Bugs

    When my son was little he adored bugs. For him, moving to Texas was like taking up residence in an exotic zoo. Every day there was an encounter with something new to put in his bug box and study. There is so much variety in the shapes, colors and textures that insects come in, I…

  • Weekend skies

    Saturday SundayWe had buckets of rain come down a couple times today. The second time the clouds opened up while the sun was still shining in the late afternoon. When it stopped there was a great big rainbow in the dark sky right over the Sears Tower.