ADM silo, though I suppose it could be soy beans or other commodities.
from my first month with a wide angle lens
Category: Photography
Photos on your screen are nice, but photos on your wall are better!
Framed, ready to hang prints, as well as licenses for reproduction in print and online, are available for order from my photography site — click here.
Mictorate Surrogate
He was only faux-peeing – posing for his friend taking his photo.
I happened to be on my building’s roof taking a photo of the billboard when they walked by.
Connections
Chicago’s Loop, somewhere
possibly near Wabash
No Alien is Illegal
at the Haymarket Riot Memorial, 2009
Universal Human Rights
Yes We Cannabis
Remember that photo of Obama that looked like he was maybe smoking a joint? You know, this photo
of a jaunty, young Barack Obama? (Published as part of a Time Magazine photo essay after the 2008 election)
Well the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has appropriated the photo, without permission of the photographer, and made an amusing poster.
The folks at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws got there first. For their annual conference poster, they took an old photo of cool-dude college freshman Obama puffing away — on a regular cigarette, mind you — and tweaked it just ever so slightly to fit their message: “Yes We Cannabis.”
Think it might be a problem for the president (who opposes legalization)? It’s really a problem for the photographer. Lisa Jack, an Obama classmate at Occidental College, snapped the image in 1980, one in a series of photos that never saw the light of day until she debuted them in Time’s 2008 Person of the Year issue. She had no idea her photo had been appropriated by NORML until we told her Tuesday.
“They do not have my permission,” said Jack, a psychology professor in Minnesota. These photos “are absolutely not to be used in this way. … I really made a grand effort to do this properly, and I’m very irritated. If I’d wanted these to be used for political purposes, I’d have sold them to Hillary years ago.”
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre cheerfully acknowledged the lift by artist Sonia Sanchez, who summoned the psychedelic aesthetic of ’60s rock posters. “With very little adulteration, she placed what appears to be a cannabis cigarette” in the president’s hand, St. Pierre said. But she made few other changes: Obama “almost made the photograph for us.”
Everyone who attends the September conference in San Francisco will get a poster; NORML is also selling them on the Web ($25 for an 18-by-24-inch with St. Pierre’s autograph, $15 without). Can they do that? St. Pierre admits they didn’t get permission, but “our lawyers thought it was adulterated enough to comply with the fair use laws.”
[Click to continue reading Reliable Source – Furor Over an Obama Puff Piece ]
So is this kind of parody of a public figure that US copyright law allows? It isn’t quite as clear cut at the famous Larry Flynt -Hustler Magazine lawsuit with Jerry Falwell, but seeing as President Obama is on record as being against cannabis legalization, perhaps it is.
The Wall Street Journal Law blog wonders:
But is it “adulterated enough to comply with the fair use laws?” The standard, a copyright lawyer tells us, is whether there was a “transformative use.” And that doesn’t necessarily mean the image has to be transformed — an image can remain exactly the same and satisfy fair use if the picture is framed in a way that sends a message. In other words, its “use” is transformed. “For example, a Nancy Reagan picture on the poster would send a parodic message,” he says. “This one is a closer call.”
[Click to continue reading The Best Fair-Use Controversy Ever? – Law Blog – WSJ]
- well, via Marie’s twitter feed, actually, but twitter is down at the moment [↩]
European Totem
Not sure if this is supposed to be Seward (the Sec of State who purchased Alaska from the Russians), or a Russian from before the transfer.
I think it would be cool to have a totem in front of our building
Margot and Harold Schiff Residences
Walked by here the other day, looks like it is doing well still
Dorothy Barry says that she moved in to the Margot and Harold Schiff Residences on a “blue-sky, ain’t-nowhere-I’d-rather-be-than-Chicago” kind of day back in the summer of 2007. She says you can’t do much better than this sleek, new Helmut Jahn–designed building on the north side of the city: She gets a millionaire’s view of the skyline and is just a short ride from downtown and the beaches of Lake Michigan.
At Division Street and Clybourn Avenue, though, she’s also within blocks of the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing. Those towers are mostly torn down, replaced by mixed-income residential towers and townhouses—but their shells remind Chicagoans to do better when it comes to housing the less well-off.
Neighbors call the one-year-old stainless-steel Schiff Residences “the train,” and it does indeed resemble a polished railroad car cruising through the neighborhood. Its walls angle out as they rise up five stories, curving back over to form a roof before sliding down the other side. In a practical city raised on railroads this residential railcar is romantic. Strips of dark windows punctuate the walls, staggered to evoke forward momentum. In the ground-floor lobby, sunlight pours through great panes of floor-to-ceiling glass. Prada or Barneys could set up shop on the ground floor and no one would be the wiser.
But the Schiff Residences are permanent supportive-housing, with onsite case managers and other voluntary services. All of the 96 units are single-occupancy studio apartments. Residents here have struggled with physical and mental illness, substance abuse, and limited education. At the Schiff, you can stay as long as you follow the rules. It opened in March 2007, and already 300 people have expressed interest in moving in.
[Click to continue reading All Aboard – Ideas – Dwell]
Everytrail Photostroll in River North
River North
Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Trip Sharing with Google Maps
I don’t know what has changed, but EveryTrail is a total battery sucker: an hour walk nearly completely drained my iPhone 3GS battery. Hmm, have to look into that, or else find a similar GPS application that does what EveryTrail does.
Anyway, if the Flash widget doesn’t load, here are some of the photos I took on this stroll with Flickr-eeno, phule
Union Missionary Baptist Church
940 N Orleans Stmaps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari…
Hail to the Thief -July 30, 2009
update of this photo:
No Coke, Pepsi
Mr. Beef, 666 N. OrleansView On Black
Misdirected Remarks – Agfa Scala
West Loop, near Canal StreetBenefits by Viewing On Black
Recession 101 – Agfa Scala 200
Kingsbury. Sort of a strange advertising message, no?
Both panels read:
Recession 101:
This is the worst downturn since 1929.
According to economists who successfully predicted 14 of the last five recessions.”
wonder who the sponsor is?
Chicago 2016 Olympic
River North, sans graffiti, at least at the moment.
Chicago 2016 Olympic City
River North, sans graffiti, at least at the moment.
GNIKRAP ON
or something.
City Farm
Division and Laramie, or nearby.
www.resourcecenterchicago.org/70thfarm.html
Unknown building in the background with what look to be wind turbines for generating electricity
Flag Waving
River North areaView On Black
Riverbend Blues in the sunlight – 3 Millions dollars?
Polapan version
333 N Canal St #3702, Chicago IL 60606 3 br | 3 ½ ba | 4,163 sqft | Apt/Condo/Twnhm $3,100,000 www.trulia.com/property/1083824292-333-N-Canal-St-3702-Ch…
Riverbend in the sunlight
no way I’d pay $3,100,000 to live here
www.trulia.com/property/1083824292-333-N-Canal-St-3702-Ch…
Price/sq ft $745. Yeah, I don’t think so.
Sensational 360 vws from the Penthouse at Riverbend! See every significant bldg in Chgo, up the river & Lake Mich. Never before on the market! This home is beyond compare. 12′ ceil’gs w/flr-to-ceil’g wndws. All bdrms En-Suite. 2 enormous terraces perfect for entertaining. Kit w/Buter’s Pantry. Gallery for artwork.
a quickr pickr post
River Walk
Chicago River, North Branch, near Japonais.
former Montgomery Ward building
Faux Black and White in Chicago
I’m having fun emulating the use of film1 and converting photos to black and white. A few recent snapshots – weren’t strong enough on their own, and still aren’t “print” worthy, but at least they are good practice fodder. For larger versions, click image, natch.
Inescapable Rhythms
The color version for reference – actually used the Kodak 25 slide film emulation, which added contrast and richer colors to the image. View On Black
Inescapable Rhythms -TRI-X 400
black and white version, TRI-X 400, a film I used to use quite extensively in my Nikon N8008 35mm camera. View Large On Black
Conceptual Silence
Blue Line platform. Kodak T-Max p3200 speed film, another I used fairly freqently. I never owned a flash for my 35mm camera, plus was more frequently in nightclubs and bars in the 90s, situations that high-speed film was useful.View On Black
Intelligentsia Barista
www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/locations/view/Broadway+Coff…. More high-speed film – adds grain, and masks blurriness. Still a lame photo, actually, but not quite as bad.
Modes of Transportation Number 6832 –
T-Max P3200 added grain. I always use Alien Skin Exposure 2 in its own layer, and sometimes change the opacity to allow a little bit of color to shine through. View On Black
The Chicago Gallery 1973 – TRI-X 400
Union Pacific is slowly (and I mean slowly!) rebuilding this over-pass.View On Black
State of Mind – TRI-X 400
underneath the Loop train track (at Quincy, or nearby)View Large On Black
James H Sammons M.D Way – Agfa APX 100
random street scene. Who the hell is James H Sammons, M.D., and why is the street named after him?
Don’t recall ever using Agfa APX 100 film before, seems very fine grained. Again, let a small percentage of the underlying color to bleed through. Subtle effect though.
CLTV Truck
May Day, 2007
forgot which filter I used, but I’m guessing Ilford Delta 3200, based on the grain.
Unitrin Building – Plus-X 125
1 East Wacker, Chicago, IL
Plus-X 125 – used lots of rolls of this film.
Public Enemies – TRI-X 400
taxi in front of Chicago Cultural Center
WH Salisburn Since 1855 – Ilford HP5 400
www.whsalisbury.com/
Self Portrait Jan 2006 – toned
toned in Alien Skin, sort of emulating the Ilford black and white film that could be color-processed like C-412 and had this brown tonality.
Fulton Market
More 1049 Nostalgia – TRI-X 400
biked by my old apartment: corner of Cortez and Paulina. I rented the bottom floor (unfinished death trap that it was), something like 3500 sq. feet for $780.The neighborhood was slightly different in the mid-90s, but some structures are still there.
a quickr pickr post
Footnotes:- using the Alien Skin plugin, Exposure 2 [↩]
- and thus could be taken to any photo developing lab. Think it was called XP2 Super [↩]
Danger! X-Rated grocery stores and Gas Stations! Oh my!
so, one of these seemingly innocuous Apple iPhone applications could lead to adult material, and now requires a warning. Wonder which one?
Let us speculate.
1. AroundMe? a mapping program? are there porno theaters nearby? Bathhouses? Congress?
2. Cheap Gas!? maybe there are some perverted gas station restrooms. Or maybe the magazine section has nudie rags?
3.Grocery IQ -a grocery list application? There are *adult* things one can do with produce, or whipped cream.
4. Instapaper Free? a program that transfers webpages from Safari (you know, that web-browser program on your iPhone)
5. RN Dining? – a dining rewards /restaurant reservation app? Maybe certain restaurants haven’t paid their Apple tax recently?
[if you really want to know, the answer is answer number 4. Instapaper allows you to transfer John Yoo’s torture memos to your phone, and thus qualifies as objectionable content]
more Apple Store foolishness, in other words.
Anil Modi’s newspaper stand
Newspaper stand, Chicago Avenue.
since replaced:
arcchicago.blogspot.com/2009/07/wow-if-only-city-always-m…
Sometimes I am a Tourist
There are never enough Bean photos, are there? Ahem.
a self-portrait if you glance at the larger version
Glittering Vacancy
Chicago River, LaSalle Street Bridge
Taken at dusk a few years ago
Skate Boarding – Ilford HP5 400
Pulaski Park. Unfortunately, was not quick enough to get a clear shot of this dude, he was trucking on his skate board though.
the dudes lounging on their stoop is what makes this photo interesting to me (view the bigger version to get a good look)