(Sony A7rii, 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS at 24mm, Exposure 4 minutes @ f/20, ISO 200) I’ve always thought the lift bridge in Houghton, Michigan looked really cool, but I had not seen it in person since I was very young (and I don’t remember actually seeing it, but we had to cross it to get the […]

My wife and I recently took a trip to the far northern reaches of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is an area of the state that I had not visited since I was very young. On the way up to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, we found this really nice waterfall called Canyon Falls. The falls are located a short walk down from a roadside park on Highway 41 south of L’Anse, Michigan.

This is a picture of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. The building was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2003. The design involves so many different shapes, textures and patterns that you could spend days (or more) shooting the building at different times/different angles and continue to come up with unique images.

(Olympus OM-D E-M1, 12-40mm f/2.8 at 40mm (2x crop factor), Exposure 1/1250 seconds @ f/7.1, ISO 400) On a recent trip to California I had the opportunity to spend a little time (too little) at the Disney Concert Hall located in downtown Los Angeles. The building was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2003. […]

One of the distinctive features of Chicago, Illinois is the elevated portion of its ‘L’ transportation system which includes a section of elevated tracks which encircle the area known as ‘The Loop’. This particular shot shows the junction at Lake and Wells streets. The photograph was taken from the rooftop deck of the Randolph Tower City Apartments. The building was open to the public during Open House Chicago 2013.

The top floor of the Jeweler’s Building was, at one point, a location known as the ‘Stratosphere Lounge’. This location has a commanding view of the city of Chicago and during prohibition was rumored to be a speakeasy run by Al Capone. The shape of the building made it easy to station observers who could keep an eye out for cops. Turning to today, the top floor is used by the architecture firm JAHN for special events. One of the changes made to the space was to raise the floor. The ceiling is quite tall and with the original floor height, the windows were quite high and harder to look out of. With the new floor height, there is still plenty of headroom and it makes looking out the windows a much more enjoyable experience.

Chicago has more than its fair share of interesting architecture. This particular building, currently known as 35 Wacker, was originally built as the “Jeweler’s Building”, since it was home to many businesses in the jewelry trade. In fact, for the first 14 years of the building’s existence, there was a car elevator in the center of the building which would allow deliveries of precious cargo to be driven into the building and taken directly to one of the first 23 floors to ensure security. The top of the building has an interesting history as well. At one time this portion of the building contained the ‘Stratosphere Lounge’ and during prohibition was rumored to have been a speakeasy run by Al Capone. This space is now owned by the architectural firm JAHN who have their offices on a lower floor. This firm’s lineage dates back to the original architecture firm of D.H Burnham & Co., which has had offices in this building since it’s construction in 1926

This past weekend the Chicago Board of Trade opened it’s bank vault to the public. The bank vault was one of many places in Chicago that were open to view as part of the 2013 Open House Chicago event, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Not surprisingly, the vault was a popular destination for photographers and non-photographers alike. What attracted my eye the most was the enormous vault door with its intricate locking mechanism. I also found the use of the contrasting metals to be quite attractive. I don’t know if there is an engineering reason for the selection of metals, or whether it was just an example of great combination of functional and aesthetic design, but the end result was wonderful.

(Nikon D800, 16-35mm at 16mm, Exposure 30 seconds @ f/13, ISO 125) I really enjoy visiting Millenium Park in Chicago, Illinois. It’s got a great location and there is always something interesting to see. One of the centerpieces of the park is the Jay Pritzer Pavilion. The Pavilion consists of the stage, some fixed seating […]

I’m not typically a ‘truck’ shooter, they generally don’t do anything for me, although I am starting to appreciate some of the design work of earlier trucks. When I visited the Concours d’Elegance at St. John last year I was struck by this particular truck. It is a 1936 Terraplane Express Cab Truck manufactured by the Hudson Motor Car Company. The Terraplane name replaced the earlier ‘Essex’ nameplate as the lower priced companion car to the Hudson. This particular truck was used on a dairy farm to haul milk cans and then used at an upstate New York garage. It was found in the basement of a house where it had been stored and underwent a 3 year restoration.