Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – A Window With A View

I’ve missed one or two of these Lens-Artists Challenges recently so I’m making up for lost time with this one.  Amy has chosen A Window With A View as the topic this week and here is my take on the subject. The first picture is a view of Millennium Park from The Chicago Art Institute. The second was taken at the Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills where there was a lovely view of the surrounding gardens from one of my favorite rooms there.

The next view, of the waterfront on Mackinac Island, was taken from a window high up on a hill at Fort Mackinac.

The next two pictures were taken at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oakbrook, Illinois. Two totally different views from the same room, one of the gardens and the other of the house. I believe this room was built as a sun or fresh air room which was supposed to be beneficial to the occupant’s health. If I remember rightly, there were windows like this on three sides of the room.

The next image was captured at the Capitol Building in St Paul, Minnesota. A window within a window overlooking the Capitol Grounds.

One of the biggest reasons for our travels has been to visit our children. For a while our youngest daughter and her family lived in a condo that had a very nice view of McGovern Centennial Gardens in Houston, Texas.  Before that, they lived in Salt Lake City, Utah where we visited the Natural History Museum that had a window where the view was almost the same looking in as it was looking out.

Climbing up the steps of one of the towers at Holy Hill Basilica provided a great view of an adjacent spire.  Also in Wisconsin, this time at the Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, there was a colorful view from one of the windows of the John Purves tugboat.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – On Mackinac Island

This week, Cee is looking for places people live for her Fun Foto Challenge and, browsing through the photo files, I’ve opted to go with some shots that I took on Mackinac Island a few years ago.  The island, located on Lake Huron in Michigan, is primarily a resort area and relies heavily on its picturesque houses and hotels to draw tourists to its shores. While I’m sure many of the residents take off for warmer climes during the winter months, there are still a good few people who live here year-round.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to Places People Live.

A Photo A Week Challenge – Boats & Ships

The current subject for Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge is Boats and Ships.  My earliest recollection of boats comes from when I was a small child and we went on a sightseeing trip down the river Thames in London.  Since then my water-going experiences have been limited to a ferry-crossing to Mackinac Island, the occasional trip down the Chicago river, a couple of outings with the Des Plaines Yacht Club on Lake Opeka, and one or two other sightseeing excursions on rivers and lakes.  I’ve never been on an ocean liner or cruise ship so I don’t know whether sea sickness would be a problem and since I’m never likely to find out, it will forever remain a question unanswered.

A ship and a boat at The Tall Ships Festival at Navy Pier in Chicago.

A boat docked in Sturgeon Bay, Door County in Wisconsin.

A sightseeing boat passing through the lock at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan.

A ferry boat crossing over to Mackinac Island.

Competitors with the Des Plaines Yacht Club in a race on Lake Opeka.

Sightseeing boats making their way up the Chicago River.

For more on Nancy’s A Photo A Week Challenge go to A Photo a Week Challenge: Boats and Ships

Weekly Photo Challenge – Focus

This week we’re getting in or out of focus, however the fancy takes us, for the Photo Challenge set by David at The Daily Post.  I have a multitude of images that are unintentionally out of focus. I’ve even tried using them for competitions, claiming artistic license, although the judges just weren’t buying it.  I do have  a number of pictures that, all things considered, are quite sharp. And then there are those that, by some miracle, just seem to have the right balance.  It’s sheer luck when this happens as I’m not one to fiddle around making adjustments to the camera when I’m out shooting. Even if I spent time reading the manual that comes with the camera, I’d probably never remember all the technicalities.

 

I like this shot of a swan at the Chicago Botanic Garden for a couple of reasons. The flowers in the foreground add some color to the picture but also, being slightly out of focus, give the impression that we are hiding behind them watching as the swan goes gliding by.  A similar effect can be seen in this image of a moose taking it easy at Snowbird Resort near Salt Lake City in Utah, although who was hiding from whom I’m not sure.

I think the following images benefit from having the background out of focus, allowing us to concentrate more fully on the subject: flowers at the Green Bay Botanical Garden, a young man playing the part of a soldier at the Fort on Mackinac Island and a goldfinch enjoying some sunflower seeds in our garden.

For more on The Weekly Photo Challenge at The Daily Post go to Focus

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – Public Transportation

This week, Cee invites us to take public transportation for the Black & White Photo Challenge.  My first thought was that I rarely take public transportation, pictures or otherwise, except for the train into downtown Chicago and that, only rarely.  But then I realized that the term ‘public transportation’ covers a good deal more than just trains and buses so I went through the photo files and came up with quite a diverse collection.

A more leisurely style of transportation; a horse and wagon awaits passengers at the Wade House Historic Site in Greenbush, Wisconsin. A great way to get from the Wesley Jung Carriage Museum to the Old Wade House.

Taking the lift up the mountain at Snowbird Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.  It was the first time I’d ever ridden in one of these and was too busy taking pictures to be nervous.

A more conventional form of public transportation; one of the tour buses that takes visitors around the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

This was another first; a ride on the Star Line hydro jet ferry that took us from Mackinac City to the Island.  Although I’m always apprehensive about being on water, being a non-swimmer, I found this form of public transportation very exhilarating.

A more familiar form of public transportation and one seen in many towns around this area; Metra trains are a comfortable and convenient way to get around and certainly beat sitting in traffic jams for hours on end and paying exorbitant parking fees when you get there especially in downtown Chicago.

One kind of public transportation that I don’t plan on taking any time soon is the airplane.  The only time I was on one of these was when I came over to the US from England.  Like many people, I can’t explain my fear of flying.  The flight over here was good, nothing to put me off of doing it again, but there it is; an irrational fear of flying.  I suppose if it was an emergency and I had to do it, I could, but it’s not something I would do by choice.

For more on Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge go to https://ceenphotography.com/2017/01/19/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-public-transportation-2/

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Houses or Barns

This week Cee gave us the choice of houses or barns for the Fun Foto Challenge and although I have several pictures of barns, houses won the day and here’s why.  Very often, when we go on our travels around the ‘burbs and further afield, we like to visit old houses.  Sometimes we’re able to take a tour inside, other times we just gaze at them from afar.  Many of these houses have been acquired by local historical societies, while some remain privately owned. Sometimes there are admission fees, ranging from just a couple of dollars to large amounts which, in the case of the Biltmore Estate, have been well worth the expenditure.  Here are just a few of those houses.

The Cuneo Mansion in Vernon Hills, Illinois, once owned by Samuel Insull, the original founder of the General Electric Company and later purchased by John Cuneo Sr, owner of Hawthorne Mellody Farms Dairy, the National Tea Company and the Cuneo Press, was gifted to Loyola University Chicago in 2009.  Although we never took a tour of the house, Mum and I visited the estate several times just to walk around the gardens.

The Taylor House in Freeport, Illinois is home to the Stephenson County Historical Society.  Built for lawyer and banker Oscar Taylor in 1857, it was opened as a museum in 1944. The house served as a ‘station’ for the Underground Railroad during the Civil War when fugitive slaves were hidden in the basement behind a secret door, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Known as The Little Orphan Annie House in Lombard, Illinois, this house was once home to the parents of Harold Gray the originator of the Little Orphan Annie cartoon strip.  Gray worked in a studio there until he moved to the east coast.  The house was originally built for Dr. William Leroy, who specialized in making artificial limbs for Civil War veterans, in 1881.  As far as I know it’s not open to the public and we just stood and looked at it longingly from the sidewalk.

The house at Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago, DuPage County, is open to the public and historically-costumed interpreters present topics from baking in the kitchen to quilting and spring cleaning while giving tours of the farmstead.

Our most recent visit to a house with a rather murky past was in Duluth, Minnesota.  Glensheen offers several different types of tours varying in price and we opted for the ‘Classic’ one-hour, three-floor one. It’s always interesting to see how the wealthy lived and, after reading something about its history, I was curious to take a peek inside this house that was built in 1908 for the family of Chester and Clara Congdon.  According to Congdon’s will, his youngest daughter Elisabeth was allowed to live at Glensheen until her death. In 1977, an aging and frail Elisabeth, along with her nurse, were murdered here.  The husband of Elisabeth’s adopted daughter, Marjorie, was convicted of the crime. Marjorie was accused of aiding and abetting and conspiracy to commit murder but was acquitted of all charges. The estate was eventually given to the University of Minnesota Duluth.

It will take you more than one day to fully explore the house and grounds at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. I can understand why the Vanderbilt’s visitors never wanted to leave. What luxury!  Members of the Vanderbilt family still live here and have turned the estate into a flourishing business.

Some time ago we took a tour of the Oldfields-Lilley House and Gardens in Indianapolis. The weather was rather wet and gloomy and we didn’t really get to see the outside at its best so this is definitely somewhere I’d like to re-visit. Built in 1910, Oldfields was eventually given to the Art Association of Indianapolis and this National Historic Landmark is now a museum.

One of the many picturesque houses on Mackinac Island. No house tours on this trip but just fun looking at all the different styles and taking pictures.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/25/cees-fun-foto-challenge-houses-andor-barns/

Cropping Dark Reds

Once again, I’m attempting to cover two challenges with one post.  Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge asks us for images with the color dark red as the main theme, while Jennifer Nichole Wells’ One Word Photo Challenge is asking us to crop. One of the most useful tools in any photo processing software is the one used for cropping. It can change the appearance of an image by shifting the focus from one subject to another.  Although red has a tendency to stand out in a picture anyway, I’ve cropped these images in order to place the entire focus of the picture on the red objects. The first one is a shot taken in the farm at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The next one was taken outside the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and the last was inside the house on the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.

For more on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge go to https://ceenphotography.com/2016/10/04/cees-fun-foto-challenge-dark-reds/ and for Jennifer Nichole Wells’ One Word Photo Challenge go to https://jennifernicholewells.com/2016/10/04/one-word-photo-challenge-crop/

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge – Isolated Subjects

Cee’s topic for this week’s Black & White Photo Challenge is Isolated Subjects and, being a non-swimmer, I can’t think of anything more isolated than being out on a boat. If anything goes wrong, you can’t just get out and walk home! This shot was taken just off Mackinac Island. We were on the hydro-jet ferry which was slightly less scary than being on a yacht.

The buffalo, on Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake in Utah, didn’t seem to feel the need to stay together.  Most of the one’s that we spotted were alone.

During a hike to Cecret Lake in Alta, Utah, we stopped to watch someone scaling the rock face.  I was almost too afraid to look, it seemed so dangerous. Rather like sailing, if something goes wrong, you’re on your own!

Isolated in time, this prehistoric skull looks out from the Natural History Museum of Utah.

For more on Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge go to https://ceenphotography.com/2016/09/15/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-isolated-subjects/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Frame

Over the years, I’ve made a conscious effort to look at subjects from many different angles and, when possible, I’ve tried to get at least one shot that included a ‘frame’ so, when Nancy suggested this topic for the Weekly Photo Challenge on The Daily Post, I was ready.

The most recent opportunity came on Mackinac Island when I captured this image of the harbor framed by a doorway at the historic Mackinac Fort.

This archway made a nice frame for a colorful flower bed in the Cottage Garden at  Green Bay Botanical Garden.

At Frederik Meijer Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, this piece of ‘artwork’ seemed to make an appropriate frame for a similar sculpture and the gazebo behind it. If I had to take the shot again, I might do it from a slightly different angle but I think at the time I was trying to incorporate the tree on the left.

This shot is really one from the archives.  Taken back in 2006 at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Bartlett, just two years after it opened.

For more on the Weekly Photo Challenge go to https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/frame/