Giroux Daguerreotype for sale, only $280,000 plus change!

A rare example of the world's first commercially-produced camera, the Giroux Daguerreotype, will go up for auction in May of this year.  For the camera collector with deep, deep pockets, the starting price is a measly €200,000 ($280,000), with an expected sale of over €500,000!  The Giroux Daguerreotype was named after Louis Jaques Mandé Daguerre (who invented the Daguerreotype in 1839-- one of the earliest photographic processes) and Alphonse Giroux, who manufactured the camera.  I can't find any information about how many of these were made.  It's possible no one knows.

Of course, were you to buy this, good luck finding the copper plates (coated with iodized silver) necessary to make images, not to mention the mercury vapor to develop them.  Kodak and Fuji stopped making that stuff in 1848... I'm kidding, Kodak and Fuji didn't even exist back then.  No, you would pretty much have to make everything yourself, which is no easy task.

Source: Engadget via RegHardware.

CTA to make "drastic" cuts on February 7th

Picture this: it's the middle of winter, the economy is struggling, the housing market remains fragile, and unemployment in Chicago is above 10%.  I know what will help: let's cut service to the CTA!  Yes, let's make it harder for people to move around and find new jobs, keep the one's they have, or stimulate the economy by actually going places!  If you think that's a brilliant idea, you'll be happy to know that the CTA is planning to "curtail 119 bus routes and service on 7 rail lines" on February 7th, according to the NBC Chicago and the CTA.

Apparently this stems from a combination of decreased tax revenue, and failed negotiations between the CTA and it's unionized employees, who are refusing to make concessions on a pay increase for this year.  CTA Tattler says the average CTA employee makes $74,000 a year, so I'm having a hard time feeling much sympathy here (and I'm normally pretty sympathetic towards unions).  The bottom line is, this is bad for everyone: it's bad for ridership, it's bad for the CTA and it's bad for its employees, many of whom will be out of a job soon.

Photo Details: Nikon D50 with 24mm lens, 1/60th sec at f3.5, ISO800.  I pulled this one out of my archives-- it's from December 2005.

Lollapalooza From Above (via Google Maps)

While doing some random Google Maps browsing today, I noticed something odd in Grant Park: swarms of people, like a giant ant farm in the middle of the city.  Evidently the satellite photos haven't been updated since last summer's Lollapalooza:



If you've ever wondered what a giant music festival looks like from above, here's your chance.  Who knows how often this gets updated.

UPDATE: as noted in the comments, these images are actually from 2007.  I guess Google updates their satellite photos even less often than I thought.

Photo of the Week: "the space between"

My photo of the week also happens to be featured on Gapers Block today.  This was taken earlier in the month during a snow storm, while standing on the Bryn Mawr elevated platform.  The train was just starting to inch away as I captured this shot.

Nikon D90 with 16-85mm lens, 1/80sec at f8, ISO400.  I had to crop this a bit to make the composition symmetrical.

29 for 2009: Chicago & Beyond

I've assembled a set of my favorite photographs taken in Chicago (and a few in New York) from 2009.  I was originally going to call this "29 for 2009", mirroring last year's set, but I'm having a hard time eliminating photos this year.  I don't think this means that my photos from 2009 are better, necessarily, just that I like more of them about the same.  Last year I think I had a better core of standout shots.

Click here to view the flickr set, or here to view it as a slideshow.  I still have some 2009 shots to post, but I think I'm going to call this set done for now.

Finally, some statistics that may interest only me: in 2009 I posted exactly 176 photos to flickr.  That comes out to about 1.16 photos per week. I thought this was low, but it turns out that I posted 178 photos in 2008 and 176 in 2007.  Weird.  Who knew I was so consistent!