This is one of those lucky shots whereas we pulled up to a red light and I managed to grab it before the light quickly turned green. I can’t help but remember what a beautiful day it was, clear blue skies reflecting off the glass of this shiny new building, I can almost feel the warm breeze even though we are in the middle of winter here in Chicago.
©Rena Katinas
The word shadowed can bring to mind, that which is elusive or unknown. Though I’m approaching this theme very loosely, the shadowed area of this image gives balance to the filtered glow of sunlight in an early summer’s afternoon.
©Rena Katinas
I would suggest this may be more creepy than unusual, but there hasn’t been a Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy, as of yet. I will let you, the reader, decide where the fine line between unusual and creepy lies for yourself.
I found dear, sweet, 85 year old Betty hanging around at Crane’s Pie and Pastry Restaurant in Fennville Michigan. Thankfully she was not served with baked beans, nor did she personally prepare or serve the pie and pastries, though if she were put on a cart with our cherry pie slices between her front legs… well that alone would’ve been worth the three hour drive. Clearly, Betty’s claim to fame is that “She’s from Chicago!!” which is all the emdorsment this pie eating Chicagoan needs.
©Rena Katinas
Yellow, a color I’d never wear or dye my hair, but I do like it in this photo, because it is totally unexpected.. The yellow cast from the street lights can be pretty ugly and normally I would remove it from night photographs with glee. It works here though. lending it’s garish cast on the already garishly beautiful CTA “L” structure.
This is another iPhone panoramic night shot. I think what keeps bringing me back to the panoramic function in my phone is the illusion that the lens is whatever “length” I choose, depending on what information I wish to include and how I choose to present it. The downside is the amount of noise, especially at night, so print worthy they may not be.
Obviously one of my last photos of 2014, I guess it twinkles in a quiet sort of way.
©Rena Katinas
I just like this photo.
©Rena Katinas
©Rena Katinas
I intended to post this before Christmas, but as it is for most people, I was busy, busy, busy. This is the tree at Richard J Daley Center, and to be totally honest, I don’t like how the tree has been set up off to the side like an afterthought in a cluttered room, with this horribly ugly barricade.
Many moons ago the tree used to be set up centrally in the plaza, with a visually less offensive, gate-like barricade. The spatial harmony with the Picasso and wide expanse of negative space was a major contributor to it’s beauty. As someone who has always loved Christmas trees and trees strung up with lights in general, the Daley tree was something magical to behold, especially when I was a child. I don’t know who thought this was a good idea. They should’ve talked to me. I would’ve told them, “This is a less than brilliant idea.” I was not consulted.
Oftentimes a negative will go hand in hand with a positive, and this is no exception. I have made statements to the effect that I have been just a tiny bit obsessed with the panoramic feature on my iPhone. I said I was going to knock it off. But I can’t. I tried. So there I was, giving in to my panoramic obsession, when I realized that the tree paired up with the Chicago Temple Building quite nicely in size and beauty. The Chicago Temple Building is a lovely example of an early twentieth century neo-gothic skyscraper and contributes to the wonderful variety of Chicago architecture.
So, though for me, the Daley tree has lost it’s essence of installation art achieved through it’s juxtaposition with it’s surroundings I’ve at least found photographic harmony in spite of it.
©Rena Katinas
I started to play around with Topaz Glow in Adobe Lightroom and ended up with this energetic image. Though it magnifies the downside of live panorama shooting and if it looked like this in real life, it might just damage your retinas, the tree looks pretty darn cool!
©Rena Katinas
My literal interpretation of the word “down”. This is a subway entrance down to the Blue Line. I think this may be the nicest subway entrance on Dearborn. I love the contrast of delicate light under the signage, against the industrial materials of granite and metal, very lo-fi.
Rena's Not Dead Yet 