This week, Cee is looking for outdoor ways to move up and down for her Black & White Photo Challenge. Here are a few of the more unconventional methods including maintenance platforms hanging from Marina Towers in downtown Chicago, a maintenance lift at the mall in Mount Prospect, the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago and grandson bungee jumping at the Renaissance Faire.
miscellaneous
Here are a few lines from Temple Square, Salt Lake City in Utah, for Becky’s Square Lines Challenge.
Here are a few lines for Becky’s Square Lines Challenge that I found in Green Bay, Wisconsin. These images were captured at the Green Bay Botanical Garden, The National Railroad Museum (note the line of geese taking a tour), Lambeau Field (home of the Green Bay Packers) and Heritage Hill State Park.
Today, I invite you to Pull up a Seat on Maxwell Street. And, as my daughter pointed out, it rhymes too. We were there a few weeks ago for the puppet show at Maxwell Street Market in Chicago, but this part of Maxwell Street is geared more towards sit-down meals at various restaurants, with a little bit of artwork thrown in for good measure.
For today’s Square Lines Challenge I’d like to share these images from Ashland, Wisconsin. The Veterans Mural, which took two years to complete, was dedicated in the summer of 2005. These portraits on Vaughn Avenue and Main Street honor those men and women from Ashland who served in the armed forces during various wars and conflicts. The artists referred to photos of the actual people in order to make the mural as accurate as possible.
Becky has returned with a new subject for her Square Photo Challenge which this month is Lines. The season is almost over for the Chicago Cubs and sadly Wrigley Field left field line will not feature in any of this year’s playoff games. The numbers on the score line just didn’t add up to enough wins to take the boys in blue through to a repeat of the 2016 series. Not only that, but they are now looking for a new manager. After taking the team to World Series victory three years ago, Joe Maddon will not be returning for the 2020 season. Hard lines!
On a Sunday morning, under the watchful eye of Chicago’s tallest building, Willis Tower, (I still think of it as Sears Tower) stands one of Chicago’s oldest outdoor markets, Maxwell Street Market. Admittedly it has moved half a mile east from its original site but it still retains much of the atmosphere and content of the old market.
As interesting as it is to poke around the flea-market type stalls, look at and sample the various foods on offer and generally soak up the ambience of this historic market, our main purpose for being here on this particular Sunday is to see the puppets. And they are totally not what we expected! I think we envisioned the more traditional glove puppets, my mind going back to the days of the old Punch and Judy shows. Were we wrong!
This is way more entertaining! Especially since after each performance, the audience is invited to try out the puppets for themselves, much to the kids’ delight. Cool! I was wondering if our 15 month-old granddaughter would stay engaged enough to keep in one place for more than a few minutes but this definitely holds her attention.
This enterprising troupe of puppeteers, called The Puppet Wonder Wagon, uses a mobile performance platform made from a converted trailer, to visit various Chicago Parks and venues. The idea for these performances was conceived and created by Will Bishop and Grace Needlman and has in the past been supported by a grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
This week, Patti has chosen Silhouettes as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. I should probably state at the outset that I don’t think I’ve ever taken a picture of something or someone specifically as a silhouette. They’ve just turned out that way, either due to my woeful inability to manually set the camera to cope with the stark contrasts of light and shade or the failure of my camera’s auto mode to do the same. The following ‘silhouettes’ were captured, however inadvertently, at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Volkening Heritage Farm at Spring Valley, Old World Wisconsin and the Stephenson County Historical Museum in Freeport, Illinois.
We found several places to Pull up a Seat while walking around St. Charles the other day and so, apparently, did some other characters. The first shot was taken outside Hotel Baker, the next two along the Fox River and the last at the Flea Market at Kane County Fair Grounds.
This week, Amy has asked us to Frame the Shot for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Occasionally, when I’m taking pictures I make a conscious effort to compose a framed shot. Sometimes it happens without me even realizing it. The first two images were captured earlier this year at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The next two were taken at the Milwaukee Art Museum. And the last two in downtown Chicago.