Thunderbirds Are Go!

I just got home from two days at the Sun N Fun Fly-In up in Lakeland. It's the second largest airshow in the world, and it is BIG. But the big draw for me this year was the USAF Thunderbirds. I shot them twice, and I think I got some really nice pictures. The shot above is from the Friday show, which was technically a practice, but they went through their whole show flawlessly, so they obviously didn't need the practice. I'm too tired to post much now, but I wanted to go ahead and get this teaser up. Lots more to come! Oh, and any of you who are fairly close to Lakeland, they are performing again tomorrow (Sunday). It's worth your time and effort to go see these guys. Trust me.

Not The Top Of The World, But Close

You've seen a shot I took from the top of the Sears Tower, but you haven't seen any of the pictures I took from the top of the John Hancock Building. I managed to get to the top of that one a couple of hours after sunset, and it's quite the different view at night. The Hancock building is near the northern end of all the skyscrapers in Chicago, so the money shot is looking back south, with the lakefront being to the left, and the loop district being towards the right. Standing above everything on the right is Sears Tower. The big North-South road you see near the left center of the picture is Michigan Avenue. Somewhere a couple of miles south on that road is my hotel. It was a long walk, but well worth the trip.

Hmmm, I thought the Hancock building was the second tallest in Chicago, but it looks like I'm wrong. The second tallest is the Aon Center, which I think you can see above just left of center. If I had known that, I would have tried to get to the top of it, too. Oh, well. Wait, I guess it depends on if you count the antennas or not. With the antennas, John Hancock is still second tallest. I tell you what, just nevermind. They're all tall buildings. I live on the second floor, and that's high enough for me!

Ye Olde Water Tower

Continuing on with more pictures from my trip to Chicago, I bring you the Chicago Water Tower. I believe this was one of the few structures in Chicago to survive the great fire of 1871. It's an interesting building, stuck in the middle of other buildings that look nothing like it, yet mirroring the appearance of the pumping station across the street. If I hadn't known it was a water tower, I'd have guessed it was an old church, or maybe some eccentric's castle.

That Miro

Here's something I shot in Chicago without having any idea what it was. I took this in the near-darkness, so it's not the best picture ever, but it turns out to be the only shot I took of it. Well, one of two, but they're both about the same. This is by Joan Miro and is called Chicago. Or maybe it's called The Sun, The Moon And One Star. Hard to tell. Anyhow, it's due south of the Picasso I shared earlier (Literally on the other side of the street), but I didn't know what it was, I just shot everything that looked artsy.

Under The Loop

I tried to get a decent picture of the streets that run under the El in the Loop in downtown Chicago. None of them came out. It's too dark under there, and I didn't want to stop in the middle of traffic to shoot. But I did get this shot looking down into the theater district from under The Loop. I think you get the idea.

I Can See My House From Here

For those of you that might be curious, here is a view of the hotel I stayed at while in Chicago, as seen from the top of the Sears Tower. Look close near the exact center of the picture, and you can see the words Congress Hotel in reverse. They display out towards Michigan Avenue, so you're looking at the back of them here. Just to the right of the top of the red CNA building is Buckingham Fountain, which was not in operation while I was there. Top of the picture is Lake Michigan. It wasn't frozen over, but there was ice in the water in some spots. The road you see going left to right through Grant Park is Lakeshore Drive, aka US 41. I could not have asked for a hotel located in a better spot, let me tell you!

Always Use Your Spell-Check

Just a warning to those of you in charge of anything that's going to be seen by the public. What you see above is a sign on the observation deck at the Sears Tower (on floor 103). Note that #7 is Buckingham Founntain. My hotel is also visible in the picture, and when I walked over to the fountain from the hotel, it wasn't spelled founntain. (It also wasn't on, but that's another story...) That's the sort of thing that annoys me. I paid about $13 to ride the elevator to the top, so they have plenty of money available to make a corrected sign. Someone should write a letter. I just hope there aren't any typos in this post...

That Calder

When day two of my Chicago stay turned out to have nice weather, I decided to get out and shoot after work. I left my hotel with directions to the Sears Tower and figured I'd see plenty along the way. Guess what? I was right. I stumbled onto both a large Calder sculpture, and a peace protest that was to follow me around the rest of the evening. I think the protest was in the gathering stage when I stumbled across it (Turns out it was the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq). They were gathering in front of this large Alexander Calder sculpture called Flamingo. I didn't remember it at the time, but I recently noticed it in the background of a shot in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I guess I should have watched that again before I travelled to Chicago. To my eyes, this sculpture is very much influenced by the Picaso just a few blocks away, which, by the way, was where I ran into the peace protesters next.

That Picasso

I know it's taking forever for me to share my Chicago pictures, but I'm hoping you'll find it worth the wait. Here's another great landmark I spotted while I was in the windy city. This large statue is an untitled work by the great Picasso. I remember seeing this statue in The Blues Brothers, and I'd always wanted to see it for myself. On the taxi ride in from the airport, I made the driver take me past it so I could make sure I saw it during my stay. Turned out I walked by it twice more during my trip, so I was able to get a picture or two. It's in a dark canyon between some pretty tall buildings, so I don't know how often, if ever, it gets direct sunlight. So that's why it's only about half illuminated in this shot. But at least I got a shot.

Not The Best View Of Chicago

I spent most of my time in Chicago at McCormick Place, a giant convention center that takes up hundreds of acres alongside Lake Michigan just south of Chicago. At the end of my second day there, I walked to the far end of the complex to see what I could see, and got my first view of the Chicago skyline. It's not the greatest view in the world, and certainly not the money shot, but you get the idea. To the left is the Sears Tower, tallest building in this hemisphere. Towards the right is the John Hancock Building, second tallest building in Chicago. In between you can spot Soldier Field (which is obscuring the view of my hotel), The Art Institute Of Chicago, and of course, a marina that's empty for some reason in March. Sharp eyes will be able to pick out dozens of other landmarks, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader. (There's a really good panorama at the Chicago Wikipedia entry if you want to know what's what. Go check it out.)

Here There Be Lions

I've brought you pictures of lions before, but nothing as big as these guys. The fact that they are stone and guard the entrance to The Art Institute Of Chicago doesn't enter into it at all. A little internet research reveals that these two lions were created the same year as the hotel I stayed at while in Chicago, 1893. They stand at the edge of Michigan Avenue, one to the north of the museum, and one the the south. The northernmost lion is above and below, and is called "On The Prowl". The southern lion, at right in the bottom picture, is called "Stands In An Attitude Of Defiance" I'm not sure what all that means, but they sure do look cool. I've got some daytime shots of these guys I hope to share with you later, but these nighttime shots from my first evening in Chicago sure are neat. Tough to tell in these pics, but the lions are actually bright green. Oh, the artist for these fellows was Edward Kerneys.

Chicago's Leading Lady

It's hard for me to believe that I was in Chicago two weeks ago. So much has happened in the interim that it seems decades ago. However, I was able to take some time to myself and get out with my camera while I was there, so I have some digital memories that should last for a good long while. This lovely lady is one of the things I saw that intrigued me. She was planted in the median of Congress Avenue right next to my hotel. You could see hundreds of little bulbs just starting to peek out of the ground, so I'm sure that by now this statue is surrounded by greenery. I think this was part of an exhibition of pieces made from recycled auto parts, but I'm not sure. Let me do a little research. Well, the exhibit I'm thinking of was called Artists + Automobiles and was on display in 2006. So I've no idea what this piece might be from.

UPDATE: Someone found out who this lovely lady is for me. Her name is Magdalene or Magdaline, depending on where you look, and she is sculpted by Dessa Kirk. Turns out that she is the same artist who did the Artists + Automobiles pieces I saw, but I think those are a different exhibit.

The Whole Arc, Such As It Is

I happened to catch this odd rainbow this afternoon at my parents house. I don't know if you can tell just how odd it is by looking at the picture. See how low it is to the ground? This was created by an oncoming rainstorm at around 4:30 in the afternoon, more than three hours before sunset. That made the sun quite high in the sky, and this the rainbow was low to the ground. You don't see these very often, and this one only lasted about 5 minutes. I figure I'm pretty lucky to have seen it, and even more so to have photographed it.

Whoops, Missed It

While I was out sick, I missed the three year anniversary of the blog. Seems like it's been a lot longer than three years, but the 21st of March is three years to the day. Well, not exactly to the day, since there's at least one leap year in there, but I suppose we can overlook that. If you want to see what you missed way back then, you can click here, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and start reading your way up. It's not as exciting as I might have hoped, but it's grown into a nice little diversion for me. I've gathered a few regulars over the years, and quite a few folks who stop by almost frequently. I appreciate all of your support, and here's to another three years! 526K visitors is pretty successful if you ask me.

The End

Here's your picture for today and tomorrow, the very end of March. This is also the end of the picture book from 2007, which as you can see has spilled 3 months into 2008. I shot this furry fellow at Ft. Desoto some time back. He was hanging out near the picnic tables hoping for a handout. I didn't give him anything he wanted, so he beat a hasty retreat not long after I took this shot.

The Missing Week In March

I know it's Saturday already, and posting the calendar page at the end of the week doesn't really do you much good. But give me a little break here, I've been sick. At least you get a great picture. This is a heritage flight at one of the airshows I went to back in 2006, I think. They roll out a vintage WWII fighter plane and fly it alongside current US military fighter jets. It's terribly impressive, and shows you how far we've come in so little time. This reminds me that airshow season is coming up, and I need to start keeping my eyes open for MacDill Airfest and Sun-N-Fun.

Why Fly When You Can Drive?

When I was in Chicago, I realized that Lakeshore Drive, right on Lake Michigan, is US 41. That runs right by me here in Florida, and it was right by my hotel in Illinois. I could have avoided all that flying and just driven there. Silly me.

Hello World

Hi. I'm back. When last I posted anything on here, I was in Chicago at a trade show. As that event wound down, I started to get a little sick. I was coughing a bit on Thursday before I got on my flight home, but nothing too bad. A disastrous flight out of Midway got me to Atlanta ten minutes too late to catch a connecting flight Thursday night. Luckily I was able to get in touch with friends in Atlanta and stayed at their house for 24 hours before I could get a guaranteed seat on a flight back to Florida. The longer I stayed in Atlanta, the worse I felt. But I thought that if I could just get home and sleep in my own bed, I'd be OK. I finally got home a little before Midnight Friday. I spent all day Saturday in bed and never got any better. Sunday I called the ambulance and spent Sunday night in ICU. Turns out I had the flu. If that's the flu, then I don't think I've ever had the flu before. On top of that, I had what they call diabetic ketoacidosis. That means that my body was breaking down fat to use as energy to fight the infection, but once the fat turned into sugar, I didn't have any insulin in my body for the cells to utilize it. So even though I wasn't eating anything, by the time they got me to the hospital, my normal sugar level of 120 had turned to 771. My meter wouldn't even read that much, it just kept coming back saying HI. So, suffice it to say I was in a bad way. I got out of the hospital Tuesday afternoon and I've been recovering at home ever since. I left the house for the first time Friday to go get some little bit of food, and I might do the same thing today. Today is the first day I've felt like I could sit at the computer and type for a while. So that's why I'm sharing my story with you now. I've spoken to some of you in the past week, and I thank you for your concern. I'm sure that the rest of you might be wondering, and now you know, but at least I'm on the road back to well-ville. One cough at a time. Excuse me a minute, I have to go hack up the rest of this lung...

Top O' The World

My adventures in Chicago took a turn for the better today when the heavens cleared and the sun came out. I got out of my convention a few minutes early, caught a train right in rush hour (Thankfully I was going against the grain, which meant the train I was on was relatively empty, but I had to wait 45 minuted for it to come...), dropped my bag off at the hotel and headed out on foot with my trusty camera. The shot above is from the 103rd floor Skydeck at the top of the Sears Tower, the tallest building in this hemisphere. I was afraid I wasn't going to make it up there during my trip, not because I didn't think I'd get the free time, but because they close at 8 pm. But I got there well before that, even on foot and after joining a peace rally for a few minutes. I spent the rest of the day, and a big chunk of the night, exploring my way across town, moving from landmark to landmark on my quest for a decent picture. I'll share plenty of them when I get home, but for now, I gotta get some sleep.

Chicago Is Cold. And Foggy

Yes, I'm in Chicago. I just now figured out how to connect to the internet, but I'm on my way out the door, so I don't have time to post much. Got an hour or two last night to go shoot, but it was foggy and dark. Still got some good shots of Cloud Gate, which was one of my goals. It's got to be the coolest thing ever in the whole history of the world.