Days 267 - 275

Playing catch-up again! Today we had a fabulous Photo Walk in Chicago. I had a fabulous time hanging out with my friend, laughing like we were in junior high again, and just snapping away at whatever caught our eyes! 

I love to capture our urban life, as that is what we know and have grown to love. Such a kaleidoscope of cultures, hobbies, and people, are what draw people to Chicago. We have our street bums, high end stores, theaters and old historical buildings. We took so many images today, I am happy to announce that I will have photos up once again! 

At first I was pretty rigid for myself trying to follow a "one photo a day or else" type routine, then realized... it's not even logical! I think walking around town finding all different sorts of angles, lines, people, buildings and more.. I must have switched from one lens to another at least 100 times!

Here is the beginning to our walk. I will post many more in days to come.

Day 267

Every city has a "bird lady." She must have been our token bird lady in the park today. She sat there and fed the pigeons, so I how could I resist?

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/60, 120 mm

 Day 268

A walk in the park by the Art Institute. Their pathways were beautiful.

ISO 400, f/5, 1/200, 75 mm

 Day 269

Reflections were so much fun today! This was a huge puddle underneath the el train. I caught the building across the street, that's why it's "upside down." 

ISO 1600, f/3.5, 1/4000, 50 mm

Day 270

Anyone up for some breakdancing? It hurt just watching them, but very cool!

ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/200, 40 mm

 Day 271

Okay, the "fire department" in me had to take this one. I love it!

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/4000, 120 mm

 Day 272

Self explanatory. I just love signs and lights. 

ISO 400, f/8, 1/125, 60 mm

 Day 273

Marshall Fields clock mixed with a Joffrey Ballet sign. Now, that's Chicago! 

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/800, 28 mm

 Day 274

Transformers, anyone? Did you see the movie? Remember where they had the four reactors? This is one of the 4 buildings on each corner of the top of this building. Just a closer look.

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/4000, 230 mm

 Day 275

Playing a little music on State Street.

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125, 180 mm

Day 266

More turning colors.. it doesn't bore me, so I am proud to throw a ton of foliage shots into my 365. I just think this is a beautiful process.  Some are all orange, some are all red, then colors throughout.. ah I just love it! Since I posted the orange last, here are the green turning red. LOVE it!

I am also including my settings because sweet Kim said she liked to see them included. Thanks, Kim! That always helped me seeing other's photo recipe as well. And again, these are almost always SOOC unless stated or has some crazy texture that you'd notice anyway! :)

Day 266

ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/60 75 mm

Day 239

I have no idea what this sort of tree is, it looks like a little mini tangerine tree. :) So, if you know, please enlighten me. 

I pass it almost every day, and have been so busy I couldn't stop. Today I made sure I stopped, because you never know when a tree you're not familiar with drops all it's berries!

How are you all doing in 365 land? I'm a little behind, but I'll catch up soon! Thought I'd at least post what I had today. 

Inch by inch, right?  

Day 239

ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/15, 50 mm 
texture

updated: Mountain Ash Tree

Day 238

I actually don't know who this is, but she stood right in front of me and how could I let this moment go?

Day 238

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/125, 22 mm

b/w

Day 237

My how the skies can change in a few minutes. I also love our flag, the colors, the meaning... thank you to our military families! We don't take lightly what you do every day for our freedom.

Day 237

ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/320, 24 mm

Day 236

Simple Seagull

I miss Seattle... but these little guys help remind me of the ocean. Lake Michigan is not quite the Pacific, but I'll take what I can get.

Day 236

ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/2000, 50 mm

Days 228-235

We had a great last of our summer hurrah in Michigan City, IN with some friends. They rented a lakehouse with their family and invited a couple other families. We had a blast swimming, waverunning, playing games, family devotions and everything in between. Have you ever played Signs, Silent Football, or Set? 

We also enjoyed watching where the kids would fall asleep. Everything from curled up on the bottom of the stairs, to out cold on cusions in the living room. So much fun! 

I took so many photos, but this should let you know the setting of where we spent that week. It was also my birthday, it was very relaxing.

Day 227

I'm pretty sure I love everything nautical. Maybe I could live on a sailboat, because I love all the details!

Day 227

ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/160, 230 mm

Day 226

The storm had ended the great sailboat race early. They tethered the boats together, and rescued the sailors. I love the sky behind rapidly swirling, the rain in the far background, and the CHICAGO lettering so bright. 

The heavy rain and crazy winds started seconds after taking this image.

 Day 226

ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/160, 180 mm

Day 225

The Tall Ships Chicago 2011 event was here this weekend. I'm pretty sure every year we've tried to go, my husband is working, and it never works out. I'm infatuated with ships! The lines, the colors, flags and cool details.. just everything! I'm also thankful the skies cooperated. They couldn't have been more perfect.

...until they turned almost black, and the heavens opened up and poured! If that wasn't fun enough? We got hail out at Navy Pier today! I have photos to prove it. 

I took so many photos today. I really should have waited until today to make up for the nine days I was out! I will probably be posting several more of these over the next few days.

Day 225

ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/4000, 18 mm

Days 216 - 224

I've been SO bad lately. I've been taking pictures, just none that I thought were very good. So, you know what happened? The next day I would take some, and not like those! This continued on for several days until I realized that I had to get over it, and post what I had! 

So here we have, Days 216-224. Nine photos at once! I am catching up if it kills me! Just bare with me, because I'm not posting the recipes tonight. I just can't do nine of them at once. I will update later.

Day 216 - My street. I've always thought it was sort of pretty as we pull in. Tonight I had to grab that while no cars were driving by. I had to wait for a while til the last of the lights had turned.

 

 Day 217 - Union Station downtown Chicago. It's a pretty cool building. I could only fit the one word in my lens that I was using. I was cool with that, I liked how it turned out. 

Day 218 - If you know Chicago, you know summer construction! This was a must due to driving by all of them everyday wherever we go. These construction workers were totally unfazed as I opened my window, stuck my head and camera out of it and took a couple photos... at the stoplight! What? C'mon, it's not New York, you haven't seen everything here! Okay, maybe you have....

 Day 219 - Beautiful old bridge! I loved this. I originally stood in the middle of 2 lanes and snapped away at the gorgeous lines and shapes on top, but settled with loving this photo.

 Day 220 - This part of town has a lot going on. I thought this was a great scene, the bucket picking up the gravel and putting it in the huge containers to the left.

 Day 221 - A family party. They always have the cutest lights up year round. I never think of this, but every time I'm there, I want to remember..

 

 Day 222 - This crazy climbing clematis. The coloring is beautiful, especially at night.

 Day 223 - More climbers! I love the chipped paint, and these little guys fighting for the top.

 Day 224 - Plumeria has to be the best smelling flower in all the world! We bought these little stalks for my MIL while we were in Hawaii in 7 years ago! She still has them growing in her backyard during the summer. She brings them in for winter, but they are in huge planters now!

Day 215

Waiting til morning! What are your favorite coffee flavors? I'd have to say I'm a caramel macchiato or Dunkin' Donuts fresh ground coffee beans with vanilla creamer kinda gal. 

Day 215

ISO 400, f/1.8, 1/60, 50 mm

Day 214

The maple leaves with the summer sun highlighting their details. The lighting here was amazing, and I loved the way it accentuated the leaf it was surrounding. The leaves are really big, it made for some fun shots! 

Happy Summer!

Day 214

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/500, 150 mm

Day 213

So I was talking to my friend today on the phone. We were discussing how far behind we were on our 365 journey that we started together. We fall off the wagon, get back on again, and repeat. Living in the city, but not close enough to downtown where all the character and fun are, what's left for us? Flowers, sidewalks, curbs.. haha we were laughing, because our inspiration is just gone! 

After I hung up, I went out front to sit and watch 3 squirrels fighting for territory of our coveted maple trees as I throw stale peanuts out there or extra what not from snacks every once in a while. I grabbed my camera and just started snapping off what I saw. Needless to say, as I came back out with my camera, the squirrels had gone to acquire new lands, and I was left with.. yep, you guessed it. Sidewalk. 

I took pictures of leaves, tree trunks, grass, etc. and then I saw it. Sidewalk art! Real live sidewalk stamps! Okay, I'm getting artsy here, but the reflection of the branches and leaves on the sidewalk looked like stamps. 

 

Day 213

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/250, 160 mm

Day 212

Lightening storms are awesome in the midwest. I had my camera out the window for about a 1/2 hour taking everything I could possibly get. I had several cool images, but I kept coming back to this one.

I know, I'm behind...again. I'm also frustrated with blogger in that when someone asks you a question, you cannot answer back unless you go to their blog and post on their photo and it's completely unrelated. So, I will try to answer back on my posts as much as possible. It beats chasing everyone around and they might not even know what I'm talking about. So... from here on out, I will reply on the same post.

Have a great rest of the week! I will try to catch up!

Day 212

ISO 200, f/1.8, 1/5, 50 mm

Day 211

Every day is a beautiful planting day!  Scavenging around for photos, I remembered the seed packets and trowel I was using, grabbed my favorite well worn gloves, and snapped away. 

This is one of my favorite things to do.. anything outdoor, anything planting, anything green!

Day 211

ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/640, 50 mm

Day 210

Memories of Days Gone By.. are right in our backyard. Here's the sandbox right beside the pool. Every once in a while, my youngest and her friends will play (or have a mud pit style moment). But other than that, it's only friends with little ones, or the toys hang out and we look over and have flashbacks of the now teens playing with the Tonka trucks and Fisher Price little people as kids. Where does that time go?

Day 210

ISO 200, 1/2500, f/2.2, 50 mm

(muted colors)

Day 209

My tomatoes are doing marvelously! But, it helps when you look on the plant's label to see what kind they are. I didn't realize I had two cherry tomato plants. 

Oh well. The youngest one uses a bowl of them to "train the dog" (our 8 yr old American Bulldog). She tells her "sit," (she gets a tomato), "stay" (tomato), "paw" (as she grabs her leg near knocking her off balance as she's sliding on the hardwood floor - gets a tomato). 

So see? They were so worth it. *frown*

Day 209

 ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/1250, 50 mm

 

Day 208

Tiger Lily! Do you also think Disney when you hear things that remind you of it? All I can think of is Peter Pan and Captain Hook fighting over Tiger Lily. But, the main thing that goes through my head is Captain Hook growling, "Mr Smee??!" I don't know why, but everytime I walk by these tiger lilies, I think of that.

Day 208

ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/2500, 50 mm

Day 207

This was fun, the straight down slide at Wisconsin Dells. The weather was hot, the lines were not too bad, a ton of kids from teams all over the midwest, it was great! This is our middle one with his 3rd or 4th trip down this slide. I figured I had to capture it one of these days. 

Day 207

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/800, 75 mm