Photo of the Week: Oh Bokeh Tree

"Oh Bokeh Tree" © Andy Marfia 2014 All Rights Reserved. Nikon D7100 w 55-200mm lens, 1/100sec at f4.5, ISO3200

Happy Holidays from Chicago!  I took this week's photo at the Daley Plaza Christkindlmarket.  The Christkindlmarket is a great place to visit for last minute Christmas presents, gluhwein (a very tasty German mulled wine) and, of course, out of focus Christmas tree photos.  I'm pretty sure I've never met an out of focus Christmas tree that I didn't like.

The Thompson Center - A monument to 1980s excess

"Atrium" Copyright Andy Marfia 2013 All Rights Reserved. Nikon D7100 w 16-85mm lens, 1/100sec at f8, ISO400.

I've never much cared for the Thompson Center.  If I'm feeling charitable I'd say we have a love/hate relationship-- I enjoy photographing it, but I don't enjoy the building as a whole.  I consider it a monument to 1980s excess, the architectural equivalent to hair metal, insider trading, and oversized cell phones.  It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but not great science fiction, like Blade Runner.  No, this is more the cheesy action flick that you enjoy in spite of itself.  This is Total Recall.

Designed by Helmut Jahn, the Thompson Center opened in 1985 as the State of Illinois Center.  Its most distinctive features are a curved south wall made entirely of glass, and a colossal central atrium (pictured above) which opens fully to each of its 17 floors.  Taken by themselves these would be great features, but unfortunately the architect went with a color scheme-- salmon and sky-blue-- that would look garish even on a newborn baby, and the atrium has far too many reflective surfaces for my tastes.  The open design has also been an engineering nightmare, and has proved much more costly to both cool and heat than expected.

I've avoided the color scheme in the top photo by converting it to black and white (except for the flag), but you can see it in the two abstracts below.  I was surprised to learn after a recent visit that I didn't have a single photo of this building in my flickr photostream.  So, here it is.


"Legoland" Copyright Andy Marfia 2013 All Rights Reserved. Nikon D7100 w 16-85mm lens, 1/160sec at f5.6, ISO800.


"Layers" Copyright Andy Marfia 2013 All Rights Reserved. Nikon D7100 w 16-85mm lens, 1/200sec at f7.1, ISO800.

Update 05/28/13: the third photo is featured on Gapers Block today.

Photo of the Week: Time Dilation

Nikon D90 w/ 16-85mm w 35mm lens, 1/3200sec at f4.5, ISO200. © Andy Marfia 2013 All Rights Reserved.

I'm as tired of the winter as everyone else, so I pulled this week's photo out of my archives.  This 30-foot sculpture by Tony Tasset stood at the corner of State and Van Buren during the summer of 2010.  I remember not being all that impressed with it at the time, and in retrospect, I'm not really sure why.  It's a giant eyeball!  What's not to like.

For more information, check out this Chicago Tribune gallery.

FYI: in the background of this shot are the Old Colony and Fisher Buildings, both Chicago landmarks.

Photo of the Week (News Years Edition): Daley Plaza

Nikon D7000 w/ 50mm f1.8D lens, 1/60sec, f2.8 and ISO200. © Andy Marfia 2012 All Rights Reserved.

This week's photo is an abstract take on the Christmas Tree in Daley Plaza, and also the Daley Center, which is on the left.  This shot is intentionally defocused.  I always feel like I'm cheating when I create a photo like this, but every once in a while it makes for an interesting effect.

The seven sided polygons are caused by the aperture blades of the Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens.  At f1.8 these would have been circular, but with this lens you start to see the shape of the aperture blades as soon as you stop down even to f2.0.  This is an older lens design-- newer Nikon models have rounded aperture blades which don't produce these sharp polygons.  Most people think that's a good thing, but I rather like this look.

I hope everyone reading had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  I still have to post my Best of 2012 photos, and then onward to 2013!

To Market To Market Video - 1940s Billboard Advertising in Chicago

I recently stumbled upon this amazing video of Chicago.  It's part of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur video from 1927 and 1987, freely available to the public via the The Internet Archive web site.  The video, called "To Market, To Market", is from 1942 and details the "science" behind billboard advertising in the city.  It contains some great shots of Lake Shore Drive, in addition to the L and the long lost Chicago street cars.  This is the city of Chicago that my grandparents would have occupied as young adults, riding the street cars and visiting the shops depicted.  That's pretty cool.

Plus, the voice over narration is hilarious.  I especially love, at 3:38, how the narrator refers to the science of advertising placement as an "immutable law".  Enjoy:



A few things to note about the video:

1) The elevated platform depicted at 1:35 is the current day Wilson stop on the Red Line.
2) The Paradise Theater, shown at 2:08, was torn down in 1956.
3) Street Cars in Chicago stopped running in 1958.

Aqua (Skyscraper) Abstracts

I have to admit, it's taken me a while to warm up to Aqua.  If you're unfamiliar, Aqua is one of Chicago's newest skyscrapers, located at 225 N Columbus Dr. and completed in 2009 as part of the Lakeshore East development.  It's 86 stories of luxury condos, apartments, and a hotel, but its main claim to fame is a series of curved, cantilevered balconies that cover just about the entire structure and give the building a unique, wavy appearance.  The word "undulating" keeps popping into my head.

The key to Aqua is, you have to walk around it, view it from different angles, and then walk right up to it.  From a distance I just don't find it that compelling a building.


Nikon D7000 w/ 16-85mm lens, 1/320sec at f9, ISO400. Copyright 2011 Andy Marfia.

But once you get up close, especially if the light is hitting it right, it really becomes a bizarre and fascinating creature:


Nikon D7000 w/ 16-85mm lens, 1/400sec at f9, ISO400. Copyright 2011 Andy Marfia.

Of course, it also helps if you have a decent zoom lens on your camera:


Nikon D7000 w/ 55-200mm Nikkor lens, 1/160sec f8, ISO800. Copyright 2012 Andy Marfia. Note: this photo was taken at a later date than the others in this set-- it replaces a previous version.


Nikon D7000 w/ 55-200mm Nikkor lens, 1/160sec f8, ISO800. Copyright 2011 Andy Marfia.

Another notable fact about Aqua: it was designed by Jeanne Gang and Chicago based Studio Gang Architects, and is the tallest building in the world to have a woman as lead architect, at 859 ft (262 m).  Neat.

Transformers 3 Trailer Eats Chicago

There's a new trailer out today for the ridiculously named "Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon":



On a scale of 1 to 10, things that I dislike and like:

Mindless Hollywood action movies: About a 1.
Mindless Hollywood action movies that depict my home town of Chicago: Hmmm, I'll give that a 6.

For those unfamiliar, Transformers 3 was filmed in various parts of Chicago (but mostly in the loop) throughout 2010.  I took a few photos last year of the filming, as did many of my flickr contacts.

Thanks to Gapers Block for pointing this out.

Foster Ave Beach Winter and Summer (?) Photos

While it won't technically be summer for another 2 months, it sure felt like it yesterday, reaching temperatures of about 85 degrees in Chicago.  I took this photo in the early evening on the Foster Ave Beach:


Nikon D7000 w/ 16-85mm lens, 1/100sec at f3.5, ISO400.

This is roughly the same location, less than 2 and a half months ago:


Nikon D7000 w/ 16-85mm lens, 1/1000sec at f8, ISO200.

Quite a difference two months can make, isn't it?

Cabrini Green Demolition - The End of an Era

Nikon D7000 w/ 16-85mm Nikkor, 1/800sec at f9, ISO400

The building above is at 1230 North Burling Street, near Halsted and Division.  It's the last of the Cabrini Green high rises and is being torn down as I write this. (check out this live video for the status).  They started tearing it down late last week and the photos here are all from Saturday, April 2nd, 2011.

If you're from Chicago, this is nothing new, as we've been in the process of dismantling Cabrini for about ten years.  If you're not from Chicago, this Wikipedia page will give you a better overview than I can provide right now.  In short, Cabrini Green was a massive public housing project, built with good intentions in the 1940s and 50s and once home to over 15,000 people.  It was ultimately neglected by the city and became the poster child for urban blight, racial segregation, and gang violence run amok.

I made a special trip here on Saturday to photograph this.  I wasn't alone, as there were several other photographers wandering around.  At one point I was approached by a man who told me that he used to live there.  He said he lived on the 12th floor and had helped install the boilers in the basement.  He wanted to know why so many people were photographing the demolition?  I told him that while it probably wasn't a great place to live (which he affirmed) it was still a part of Chicago.  For over 60 years these buildings have stood on the Near North Side.  Sixty years of residents living and dying, hoping and dreaming.  It's for the best that it's all coming down, but that doesn't make it any less significant.


Nikon D7000 w/ 70-300mm Nikkor, 1/800sec at f9, ISO400


Nikon D7000 w/ 70-300mm Nikkor, 1/640sec at f9, ISO400


Nikon D7000 w/ 70-300mm Nikkor, 1/1000sec at f9, ISO400

Update 4/8/11: I've posted a followup to this post with a four additional photos.  I've also put all of these into a set on flickr, if you prefer to view them there.

The Ever Shrinking Chicago - Census Results

One of my favorite past times while riding the L is to read the random newspapers and magazines that people leave lying on the seats.  Lord knows, I would never pick up a copy of the Red Eye otherwise, and I rarely read the Sun Times.  I find that I learn a great deal about local news this way.

Today’s headline is that Chicago has lost more than 200,000 people over the last decade, according to the most recent census data that’s been released.  I find that kind of fascinating, because this same time period (2000-2010) also coincides with one of the largest building booms in the city’s history.  I think it’s a testament to how much the housing bubble truly was a bubble, that all this construction occurred at a time when the city, it turns out, was losing residents.

Apparently the largest losses were in the African American community, and particularly middle class African Americans, many of whom have fled to the south suburbs.  The Sun Times points to the destruction of Cabrini Green and other public housing projects for this loss, but this doesn't entirely make sense-- middle class African American's were not living in public housing.  Regardless, this is not a good statistic for the African American community or the city as a whole.

Here's how the demographics break down (from the Sun Times):

White non-hispanic: down -5.8%
Black or African American: down -16.7%
Hispanic or Latino: up +3.3%
Asian: up +16.8% (still only 5% of the population though)

Our total population dropped -6.9%, erasing gains made in the 1990s when the population of the city increased by 4%.  Of course, we still have 2.6 million people living in the city limits, so it's not like Chicago is becoming a cow town.

Interestingly, the outer suburbs are booming, with cities like Round Lake and Plainfield having over 200% population growth.  Really, Plainfield?  To each his own.

Further reading: Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune.

Now, for no reason in particular other than it fits the shrinking theme, I'm including a photo of the model train set at the Museum of Science and Industry, showing part of the Loop:



Photo Details: Nikon D50 with Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens, 1/100sec at f2, ISO800.  Taken in 2007.  The top photo was taken with a Canon S95.  I carried the two newspapers off the train with me and photographed them on my desk.

Chicago rated as 8th most stressful city

Chicago has been rated as the 8th most stressful city in the US, according to the Sun Times and an article at Portfolio.com.  I don't have a lot to add to this-- just thought it was interesting and wanted to share the links.  Portfolio provides a PDF which breaks down all the stats.  Detroit and LA are #1 and #2, New York is #6.

Photo Details: Nikon D50 with 18-70mm lens.  This was shot in 2007 in the west loop.  I'm not really sure it's "stressful", necessarily, but it is one of my favorite photos, so I thought I'd use it again.

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.

Is Capture My Chicago a good deal for photographers?

I'm posing that title as a rhetorical question.  I don't think it is, but I'd love to hear what others have to say?

Capture my Chicago is a photography contest / social networking site / fine art book in the making.  It's a collaboration between CBS 2 Chicago and Pediment Publishing, which has published other books in this model, such as "Capture my Colorado" and "Capture Cincinnati".  In essence it works like this: you submit photos to their web site, the photos get voted on by the other users of the web site, and ultimately some combination of the highest vote getters and the editor's choices make it into the book.  Capture my Chicago isn't paying the photographers anything, although a select few will receive prizes-- all they're really offering is exposure and credit in the book and on the web site.

I found out about this after someone left a comment on my flickr stream.  I have to admit that it's a clever idea, but after some thought I've decided not to participate.  While I've submitted photos to contests before, and been published without payment (ie: the Chicago Reader last year is a good example), I draw a distinction between a local, free publication and a fine art book that will be sold for $39.99 at your local Barnes and Noble.  I think that pushes the boundaries of what can be considered in good faith a contest.  Capture My Chicago intends to publish a book with 100-250 photos.  Let's say that 150 photographers take part-- only 18 of those people are getting paid anything in the form of prizes.  They're not even giving the contributors a free copy of the book-- you have to buy it yourself!

JPEG magazine has been doing a similar, user generated publication for years now, yet they manage to pay each photographer $100 bucks.  That's always seemed fair to me. 

In the end, I guess this boils down to what one expects out of their photography?  For many people, I imagine the exposure of being in the book is enough.  And if that's the case, please don't let this blog post rain on your parade.  To each his own.

Trump Tower Crane Photography by Ken Derry

I happened to be flipping channels last night when I came across a story on Chicago Tonight about Ken Derry, a local tower crane operator & amateur photographer.  Ken spent 36 months working the tower crane for the construction of the Trump Tower and captured some truly unique images on the way up.  The whole set (over 500 photos) can be viewed at his smugmug account.  Here are two of my favorites:





He has quite a few photos like the second one, looking down at the city engulfed in clouds.  The Trump Tower rises over 1300 feet (including its spire), and is the second tallest building in Chicago after the Sears Tower.

Ken also took photos of the construction crew working on the tower, such as this one, which reminds me a little of Lewis Hine's photographs of the Empire State Building under construction in the 1930s.  Now, I don't want to push that comparison too far-- the Trump Tower is no Empire State Building.  Nonetheless, it's now part of the Chicago skyline and is going to be here for a very long time.  So will these photographs documenting its rise.

In the Chicago Tonight interview, Ken said that he plans to put out a coffee table book in the future.  In the meantime, please visit his smugmug site and buy one of these photographs if you like what you see here.