Progress – Photo 52 Project [Week 43]

Memorial Hospital is adding a huge addition and Mari Ann said I might be able to get a good shot. As you can see, a lot of my photos are at night. That must have something to do with my proclivity towards procrastination. Really, I have always enjoyed the beauty that only nighttime can show. Other than star photography, most of what you can photograph is man made. We can only see what we are meant to see, or what we have chosen to make visible. Everything else is covered in the shadows.

I can’t help but think about the view from a plane at night. Everything appears so orderly, and so peaceful. Most of the Midwest is dark, peppered with concentrations of amber luminance. There are cars slowly moving around inside towns, like they are being drawn via Etch-a-Sketch.

The Memorial Medical Center Expansion Project will add new rooms, ORs, and other features to the hospital while also managing to piss of my girlfriend while she struggles even more to find a parking place. The thing I find most interesting is their initiative to move to all private rooms. When you are sick, that last thing you need is to have a shitty roommate to make things even worse.

Skyline – Photo 52 Project [Week 41]

I have been going to Chicago a lot more than usual lately so I had to take advantage of that for my photo 52 project. My deadline for getting my picture for the week is every Monday and published by Friday. I drove up instead of taking the train and unexpectedly found myself working until about 10pm. Having only 2 hours to get a shot, I had to think fast. Earlier in the day, I had to stop at a Best Buy to get some DVD-Rs (don’t judge me) and parked in a free garage. I am always up for free parking in Chicago so I couldn’t help but make a mental note.

I drove to the top of the garage, and I had a pretty decent vantage point. Of course when I don’t bring a tripod I would end up needing it. It was not a big deal though, I just  steadied the camera on the ledge and it seemed to work pretty well. Apparently there is also a yoga studio on the top of the garage and I think I looked like a little creepy with my big camera up there. Wouldn’t be the first time I guess.

I am just tonight getting around to editing because my parents were kind enough to give us some furniture they no longer wanted. I can’t say no to free stuff so I was busy getting it all moved in this week. On top of that, we are giving away some of our own stuff we no longer need so it has been a busy week.

Stars – Photo 52 Project [Week 31]

Mari Ann and I went on a float trip in Missouri this weekend. We had never been on one before and didn’t quite know what to expect. We arrived early afternoon on Friday and setup camp. There were 8 of us in our group so we had several tents and a decent amount of manpower for pooling supplies and getting things done. Several of the guys, with more man points than me, went to gather firewood. We also built a force-field of tiki torches to keep the bugs at bay. There were dozens of large groups with big camp sites, and people would wander from site to site to see what was going on. There was music playing almost the whole night and people were having a good time, away from civilization and away from their normal responsibilities and expectations.

It was cloudy for most of the day and night on Friday but after midnight, the stars came out and they were as bright as I’ve ever seen them. I setup the tripod and began shooting. I could barely see the milky way with my naked eye and I used a long exposure to bring its hidden colors out into the frame. The sky was clear except for right above the horizon. There were storms in the direction where the camera was pointed and that area would intermittently pulse with milky light. This shot was actually the very last one I took before packing the gear in for the weekend. For some reason that seems more satisfying than when I capture my best shot in the first few photos.