Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – The Ordinary

This week, guest host, I. J. Khanewala, is looking at The Ordinary as the topic for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Whilst walking round the track at our local gym last week, I couldn’t help thinking that this ordinary piece of exercise equipment bore a strong resemblance to the praying mantis in our garden, only on a much larger scale. Once the idea got into my head, it persisted until finally I had to stop and whip out the phone to take a picture.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Seen Better Days

This week, Tina is looking for things that have Seen Better Days for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. The first two images were captured in Marion, Illinois. Some parts of the city definitely looked like they’d seen better days, as had the sink in the jail at the Williamson County Illinois Historical Society Museum.

An old wheel outside the cabin and a rusty piece of farm equipment at Spring Valley Nature Center must have seen better days.

I took this picture on a whim as I was walking through a parking lot. It seemed like it might come in useful for a photo challenge, and it did.

Finally, a picture, taken recently at the Duluth Train Museum, of an engine that had probably seen better days.

Photographing Public Art – In Skokie

Cee is hosting the Photographing Public Art Challenge this week and featuring some interesting art finds in Oregon. I didn’t go quite so far afield for these shots, just a 30-minute drive up the road to the Northshore Sculpture Park in Skokie.

The Gandhi Memorial Sculpture is actually located in Heritage Park which adjoins the Northshore Sculpture Park. I thought I’d photographed the name of the artist but apparently not. I tried Google to see if I could find it but none of the articles that I read mentioned his or her name.

Inside Plant by Andy Zimmermann

Trinity by Fisher Stolz

Trunnion ll by Dale Graham

Baile de Alacran by Ted Garner

The parkway, that runs parallel with the north branch of the Chicago River and McCormick Boulevard, makes a pleasant walk and the sculptures give it an added interest. It’s been a few years since we were over this way so there were one or two new pieces to see, along with some familiar ones.

Reverie by Sheila Oettinger

Lazarus and the Rich Man by Aaron Lee Benson

International Leader by John Himmelfarb

Shadow by Lucy Slivinski

Clio by Sharon Loper

Fairy Circle by Mark Chatterley

La Souterraine by Robert Smart

Shown here are just a few of the sculptures on view to the public in the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park here in Illinois.

Photographing Public Art – In Rockford

This week, Cee is featuring metal art as she hosts the Photographing Public Art Challenge. I found some interesting pieces of artwork, some of which were made of metal, at Sinnissippi Gardens in Rockford the other day. I don’t know if the last image qualifies as artwork but I like to think of it as such, with the artist using flowers as their medium.

Photographing Public Art Challenge – In Colorado

This is my first entry for Marsha & Cee’s Photographing Public Art Challenge. Buried deep in my ‘places’ photo files, I came across these two images that I captured some years ago at the Grand Junction Visitors Center in Colorado. I don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to show them before so, thank you, Marsha, for this challenge. Unfortunately I didn’t make a note of the artist’s name. We only made brief stops in Colorado as we were on our way home but I thought these two pieces merited a few shots.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – Gates

This week, Cee is looking for Fences and Gates for her Black & White Photo Challenge. We came across an interesting set of gates leading to the Fabyan Villa Museum along the Fox River in Batavia. Colonel and Nelle Fabyan’s 300 acre country estate was called Riverbank and included a working lighthouse, a windmill and a private zoo as well as gardens, a swimming pool and tennis courts. They hired Frank Lloyd Wright to enlarge and re-model the existing farmhouse in 1907 and the Villa then became their home until 1939. The museum is open to the public on Wednesdays and Sundays from 1pm – 4pm.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – Bridges

In response to Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge, I go under and over the mighty Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Feet And Shoes

This week, Ann-Christine has chosen Feet and Shoes as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. There was some fancy footwear and footwork at the 63rd Annual Chicago Powwow In Busse Woods, Illinois.

For those of you who are interested, the 68th Annual Chicago Powwow will be held on October 8/9/10 2021 at Schiller Woods, Chicago. If you’re in the area and are looking for something to do, I can highly recommend seeing this event.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Yellow

Some Yellow beauties from the Chicago Botanic Garden and Volo Auto Museum for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Black and White

This week, guest host, Anne Sandler, has asked us to look at the world in Black and White for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. She also asks us to describe the process by which we convert our pictures to black and white images, so I thought it might be helpful to show both the original picture and the processed image. I don’t have an expensive camera or a lot of fancy software for doing this kind of work but what I have seems to be sufficient. For the first two b/w images I opened the originals in Microsoft Digital Image, converted them to black & white then made lighter and darker versions of both pictures. After that I sent them over to Canon Digital Photo Professional and put them through the HDR processor then sent the resulting images back to Digital Image for a final spruce up. Do I really know what I’m doing? Heck no! But I like the results. I find that the lack of color helps to focus the eye on the bold lines of the architecture.

The next two images were converted solely with the Digital Image software. I’ve used this program for years and it’s done the job remarkably well. Of course there are some things that it can’t do but I can live without all those extra features.