Weekly Photo Challenge: From Above

Some time back, there was another Weekly Photo Challenge entitled Big, and for that challenge I posted a picture of the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois.  If you look very closely at that photo, at the very top of the building you can spot two small glass boxes that extend out from the building.  These boxes provide a view of the world unlike any you can see by just looking out some window.  So for this weeks challenge, I have stepped into the Way Back Machine and present a view from a small glass box.

The boxes are located on the 103rd floor as part of the Skydeck, and visitors can literally step out and hang above the city.

The pretty pink toes belong to my wife, Maureen.  As you can see, the glass boxes provide a unique view straight down to the streets 103 floors below.

The little glass boxes give a view from above Chicago.

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For more picture From Above, please visit:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/weekly-photo-challenge-from-above/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

First the rain came down.  Then the water came…….

Up.

And Up.

And UP!

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To see more pictures depicting Up, please go to:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/weekly-photo-challenge-up-2/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Color

I have been playing around recently with the whole idea of Black and White versus Color when taking picture.  So as I see an interesting subject, I will take two photos, one of each.  The process has taught me a lot about when color really helps to tell a story.

Recently, I took a walk around Downtown Chicago, and I found myself wandering the path that follows the Chicago River.  While on that walk, I took the following picture, looking back at the Wrigley Building and the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

I was very pleased with the photo.  I thought the framing was good, and I felt it really captured the personality of the city.  Then as an afterthought, a switched over to color, and took the picture again.

When I looked at the second shot, I could not believe the difference.  The color brought the city to life.  The blue sky from the setting sun, the yellow reflections in the water, and the contrast from the red light at the top of the building create a more complete story.  Even the more defined grey of the building, and the variation in color of all the different light sources, added a level to the photo that the Black and White was missing.

This was definitely a time when color won the battle.

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For more visions of Color, please visit:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/weekly-photo-challenge-color/

Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood

My neighborhood is boring.  Well, maybe not, but for the purpose of this challenge it is. So I have instead chosen to use my adoptive neighborhood.  The south side of Chicago, or more specifically, Beverly.  Because today was Parade Day.

The South Side Irish Parade.

The parade runs south down Western Avenue, and even on an overcast day like today, it draws a good crowd.

But the best part of the crowd are the families. The people of the neighborhood.

And the kids.

The kids in the parade.

And the kids watching.

A true neighborhood parade.

Celebrating the south side Irish heritage.

Welcome to our neighborhood.

And to our parade.

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All photos were taken with my hTC phone.

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For more cell phone photos of neighborhoods, please visit:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/my-neighborhood/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details

Yesterday I took a walk around downtown Chicago, and without even looking at what the weekly challenge was, I surprisingly took some photos that perfectly fit this weeks theme.

One of the most photographed spots in the city is the giant reflective sculpture located in Millenium Park.  The official name of this enormous, oddly shaped mirror is Cloud Gate, but the press and the local citizens have dubbed it, The Bean.

But the “details” of The Bean have nothing to do with the sculpture at all.  The details are in the city that surrounds it.

The details are Chicago.

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Looking for more Details?  Please visit:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/weekly-photo-challenge-lost-in-the-details/

Tom 365 – April 2012

Baseball season begins, and Tom 365 continues!

Tom 365 – March 2012

I could not believe I kept it going this long.  I honestly thought I would have quite by this point, but then I started to hear from people about Tom 365.  It had begun to gather a following, and now it almost became my duty to post every day.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Green

I know that the challenge asked for a gallery of photos on the topic of green, but in Chicago, green really has only one meaning, and that is St. Patrick’s Day.  And on the South Side, that can only mean one thing.  The South Side Irish Parade.

I have picked only one picture for this challenge.  The main reason is because this one single picture captured the whole essence of the day and the parade.  It is also one of my favorites.  Partly because the young man in the picture is my nephew, but also because it was taken with my cell phone, not my camera.  No editing, no filter, not even a good lens.  Irish eyes were truly smiling down on us that day!

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For more images that are Green, please visit:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/weekly-photo-challenge-green/

Tom 365 – February 2012

As February began, I decided to pick up that other missing picture from January, and I took two pictures for February 1st.  That combined with this being a leap year, gave me a total of 30 pictures for this normally short month.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreign

One of my biggest regrets to this point is that I have not done a lot of traveling.  Maureen and I have been making plans to change that.  It wont be a quick plan, but it does include trips to Paris and Germany over the next few years, as well as a return trip to Ireland this December.  But foreign does not need to mean a foreign country. In a large city like Chicago, foreign can be as close as the next neighborhood over.  In my case, it is just a few blocks north of where I work.

Welcome to Chinatown.

My intention when I took my camera into Chinatown yesterday, was to do a black and white collection of the main street, but as I got to the entrance to the main street on Wentworth, the batteries in my camera died.  These are the only two shots I was able to get.

I had left my case with the extra batteries in the car, and by the time I walked back to retrieve them I decided this adventure would wait for another day. Black and White Chinatown will be coming soon.

Check out other people’s interpretation of Foreign at The Weekly Photo Challenge page:

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/weekly-photo-challenge-foreign/