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.

January Squares – Room Up Top

There is plenty of room Up top for Becky’s January Squares Photo Challenge this week. And the view is pretty spectacular from up on the top floor of these high-rise buildings in downtown Chicago.

Of course, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a high-rise in Chicago. You can catch a great view from up top these less conventional structures; the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the YMCA Leaning Tower in Niles, a lookout tower at Fort Snelling in Minnesota and the Moser Tower Millennium Carillon in Naperville.

Whether corporate or cute, there’s always room up at the top; Oakbrook Terrace Tower in Oakbrook Illinois, the Amegy Bank Tower in Houston, the James H. and Joann N. Collins Tower along the River Walk in St Charles and a lookout point in the rose garden of Olbrich Gardens in Madison Wisconsin.

January Squares Photo Challenge – Step Up

This month, Becky is asking us to Square Up for the January Squares Photo Challenge. So, here I am, Stepping Up with a few images to kick off the year.

Going Up! Steps along the River Walk in downtown Chicago, Naperville and San Antonio.

Some impressive steps leading up to even more impressive buildings; The Baha’i Temple in Wilmette, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Bartlett, McCormick House at Cantigny Park and the State Capitol Building in Minneapolis.

Stepping up to the sky or just up to the garden; the Norge Ski Jump at Fox River Grove, the Moser Tower Millennium Carillon in Naperville and the Chicago Botanic Garden.

And winding things up; stepping up at The Grove Redfield Estate in Glenview, McCormick House at Cantigny Park, Marion Cultural and Civic Center in Illinois and the State Capitol Building in Minnesota.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Capital

This week, guest host Viveka has given us the topic Capital for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.  We have visited a few State Capitals on our travels around the US so here is my take on the subject.  Living in Illinois as we do, Springfield would be the obvious place to start.

Madison, is about the halfway point between our house and where our daughter and her family live in Wisconsin, so we sometimes meet there to visit places like Olbrich Botanic Gardens and the Capital Building.

We have family living in Indiana so a trip to Indianapolis is usually one of our destinations. Just my luck, one of the sharpest pictures I ever took was one of the steam plant, which is the only reason I include it here. Also pictured, The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, White River Gardens and a fountain at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

A recent visit to St. Paul, Minnesota resulted in some pictures of the Capital Building, the Cathedral of St. Paul, and the Conservatory at Como Park Zoo.

Our youngest daughter and her husband lived in Salt Lake City, Utah for a brief period so we spent a week there taking in the sights which included the Capital Building, Temple Square and the College of Pharmacy.

Our visit to Cheyenne, Wyoming was only a short one as we were on our way to Utah, but we stopped long enough to visit the Capital Building.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Creepy

This week, Ann-Christine has chosen Creepy as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.  I’ve always had a fascination for visiting old houses, especially unoccupied houses that have a history. We have been to quite a few and there were some where I could definitely feel a presence as though past residents were watching us wander through the rooms, which at times can be rather creepy. One such house was the Lincoln Tallman House in Jaynesville, Wisconsin. We were the only visitors there at the time and although we were accompanied by a tour guide, I definitely got the feeling that someone else was there with us.

Stairways in particular have a strange feeling about them like this one at the Taylor House in Freeport, Illinois.

The chapel at the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills seemed like a place that might get a visit from a spirit or two.

Ghosts don’t wait until night time to make themselves felt, and Glensheen Mansion in Duluth, with its macabre history, was definitely a place where you might expect to feel the chilly presence of a restless spirit.

Another house that had rather a creepy feel to it was the Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake. It must have been a beautiful place when it was first build but when we visited it a few years ago it was badly in need of renovation and many rooms were inaccessible for safety reasons.

The Biltmore Mansion was too full of tourists to get any kind of feel for the place but I imagine at night you might come across one or two spirits wandering the hallways.

As you have probably guessed, I am still unable to get about owing to being on crutches, especially now that we have several inches of snow on the ground, so I had ample time to add a few ghosts to the images.

Train Lines

I suppose it was inevitable. I do seem to have quite a few train lines in the photo files so here are some for Becky’s Square Lines Challenge. The first set are all in Chicago. The second set includes lines from Bartlett, Milwaukee, Glenwood Springs in Colorado and Galena, Illinois.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – History

This week, Patti has chosen History as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Coming from a country so rich in history, I deeply regret not taking up photography while I was still living in England. From the majesty of London’s past with its towers, bridges and cathedrals to the Roman ruins of Verulamium in St. Albans and the mysteries of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, I saw all these historic places yet have nothing to show for it, at least no pictures for which I can take credit. A few years after arriving in Chicago my husband bought me my first SLR camera and ever since then I’ve tried to document all the places of interest that we’ve seen, if for no other reason than to look back at the images in the years to come, perhaps with the grandkids and hopefully their families, and say, “This is part of your country’s history.”

An important part of Chicago’s history was the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. It destroyed so much of what had gone before but led to one of the greatest revival stories in American history. The sculpture shown above is part of the southern bridgehouse of Du Sable Bridge or the Michigan Avenue Bridge as it is more commonly known. Entitled ‘Regeneration’ and created by Henry Hering, it shows workers rebuilding Chicago after the Great Fire. Below is the iconic Chicago Water Tower, the only public building to survive the fire.

 

On a recent trip to Texas we visited another of America’s famous historic sites, The Alamo in San Antonio. I don’t pretend to understand the rights, wrongs or reasons for many of the wars that have been fought, down through the ages but, as in all battles, men died at the Alamo fighting for a cause that they believed in.

South Dakota has its share of historic sites, even prehistoric ones, including the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs and the Indian Village archaeological site in Mitchell. Something a little more recent, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, designed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, depicts four U.S. Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln representing the birth, growth, development and preservation of the United States.

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, one of the first places I photographed when I got my Minolta film camera was the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois. Later images captured with a Canon EOS Rebel show the old State Capitol Building and Lincoln’s law offices, both in Springfield.

 

 

Spikes & Spires

After dabbling in architecture for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, I decided to look up for my 3rd entry in Becky’s Spiky Squares photo challenge. Here are a few spikes and spires from Chicago, Milwaukee, Asheville, Bartlett, Marion, Oak Brook and Green Bay.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Architecture

This week, Amy has chosen Architecture as the topic for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.  I like to visit historic houses when we go traveling so there are lots of building images in the photo files but for this challenge I decided to go with just a few examples of architecture close to home that, for me, stand out in the crowd.  The first building is the Ward W. Willits House in Highland Park, Illinois, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1901.

Next up is the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Bartlett, Illinois. This place always takes my breath away, it’s so beautiful! And the facts and figures involved in the building of this architectural marvel are mind-boggling. The limestone and marble stones were quarried in Turkey and Italy and shipped to India where 70,000 cubic feet of stone was carved by 2,000 craftsmen. 40,000 pieces were then shipped to Bartlett where they were fitted together over a period of 16 months.

I love the architecture in Evanston and especially on the Campus of Northwestern University. Perhaps it’s because it reminds me a little bit of the college towns back home.

Another impressive piece of architecture that incorporates all kinds of symbolism is the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.

One of the wonderful things about downtown Chicago is the diversity of its architecture, an interesting blend of the ornate past with the bold lines of present-day designs.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – From Tots to Titans

From mighty projects to children’s playthings, construction is in full swing for Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week.  You don’t have to go too far to come across construction of one kind or another in downtown Chicago.  Onward and upward!

It was an extremely gloomy day when we visited Heartland of America Park in Omaha and I was finding it difficult to get enthusiastic about taking pictures. I was desperate for some color but it wasn’t until we were about to leave when the familiar bright yellow of a construction crane, down by the railroad tracks, caught my eye (which is rather ironic considering I’m using this picture in a black & white photo challenge.)

Why is it that so often when we visit places of interest they’re undergoing renovation or repair! Imagine traveling hundreds if not thousands of miles to take a picture of something only to find that it’s swathed in scaffolding!  Of course, these days with modern technology at our fingertips, we can visit websites ahead of time to make sure everything is as it should be, but years ago photographers didn’t have the benefit of Google.

One can imagine Felix Bonfils arriving at the Sphinx at Giza after a long and exhausting journey only to be told that they’d ‘got the builders in.’

“Sorry about this, mate, but someone knocked a bit more off his conk last week and we’ve had to bring the scaffolders over from one of the pyramids, although frankly I don’t know what they expect us to do about it.” Bonfils would throw his tripod down in the sand in a fit of Gallic fury and mutter, “Sacre bleu!”

Fortunately, the Old Courthouse wasn’t our only reason for visiting St. Louis, although we did get a good view of the work in progress from the top of the Arch.

Sometimes construction can involve a bit of destruction too. Is it the child in us that enjoys watching things being knocked down? I made sure to take some pictures when they demolished the old village hall in Arlington Heights to make room for the new, much larger one.

Maybe some of the operators of these giant cranes, bulldozers and mechanical claws got their start at the Kohl Children’s Museum in Glenview.  I imagine many a tot’s hand that eagerly grasped the controls in this construction exhibit has gone on to bigger things, perhaps even the next giant skyscraper in downtown Chicago.

For more on Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge go to Anything Construction Related.