Pillsbury

Pillsbury, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The famous Pillsbury A Mill in Minneapolis. Viewed from across the famous Stone Arch Bridge.

This was the best shot I managed to get of the iconic neon sign.

Dusk

Dusk, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Shot while on a bike ride, on a path through a corn field. Only in the Midwest, I guess.

Sunset With Traffic Lights

Sunset With Traffic Lights, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Shot from the car at a stop light. It just looks hot out, don't it?

Congress Hotel

Congress Hotel, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A moody, sunset shot of the Congress Hotel in Chicago. Opened in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition, the Congress has undergone two major expansions through the years, the second one by Holabird and Roche in 1907. Originally designed as an annex for the Auditorium Theater across LaSalle Street, the hotel was connected to the theater for many years by a marble-lined tunnel called "Peacock Alley".

Both buildings still stand today.

Illinois River

Illinois River, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

This is a former Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad bridge over the Illinois River, in the town of Ottawa. It's a fairly rare lift-type bridge-the center part raises up to let river traffic go through. The first bridge at this location dates to 1868, but I believe this one was built in the 1930's, when the lift span was installed.

I've seen this bridge several times on my travels to and around Ottawa, but had never managed to get a good shot of it. It's a good looking example of an older iron rail bridge, and the Illinois River valley in this area is pretty picturesque. But I got lucky this weekend, as I was passing through on my way home, a little later than usual, with the winter sun low in the sky.

Light Leak

Light Leak, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Some of you have heard of the Orionid meteor shower that recently lit up the night skies. I had a notion to try and finally capture something like this, so I went out in the country to do some test shots. this is facing east, with the lights of the Chicago suburbs almost making it look like sunrise instead of 10 pm.

Where are the meteor photos, you ask? There ain't none. I slept through it!

Tree

Tree, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Hang around with a certain sort of photog long enough, and you hear about something called a Diana. The Diana camera is a cheap, plastic camera, with a plastic meniscus lens, a leaf shutter, and zone focusing via little icons on the lens barrel. They were originally made in Hong Kong in the sixties, and were usually imported as giveaways for raffles and opening bank accounts, that sort of thing. The are really distinct looking, black plastic with a turquoise top and a shiny lens barrel with DIANA writ large across the front.

Dianas take medium format 120 film, and their lenses have a peculiar, lo-fi effect that's usually called "dreamy" but is sometimes just called "fuzzy" or "not really sharp at all". Between the artifacts and stuff like vignettes and light leaks, Diana cameras have a unique fingerprint.

Anyway, the Diana camera became beloved for it's uniquely flawed prints, and eventually went back into production, in various formats and with different lenses available, just like a real camera. You can even get Diana lenses with adapters for your fancypants DSLR. Which is exactly what I did here, since I haven't got a darkroom and am tired of sending 120 film away and waiting two weeks.

TL;DR, I took this picture of a tree with a cheap plastic lens.

Storm a-brewin'

Not bad, for having been shot from a car window at about sixty.

TtV Tuesday!

Tuesday, time for ground glass! I enjoy shooting clouds-it's ever changing and best of all free, just go outside and have at it.

South Platform

Through the Viewfinder Tuesday! A real vintage railroad semaphore signal, given the fake vintage TTV treatment.

Minneapolis-Moline

There's this garage, way out in the country, that's surrounded by a yard full of old tractors and trucks. It's eye catching-most of the tractors are bright yellow Minneapolis-Molines, and they jump out at you as you drive past. The man who owns them is a retired farmer, and runs a tractor shop in his spare time. Or so I'm told-I've never actually seen him there, just his shop truck parked in various spots around the yard.

I was out there and met his neighbor-I apologized for trespassing and he said it was no big deal, it wasn't his yard anyway! Old Arthur wouldn't mind, either, as long as I didn't touch anything. Apparently, Arthur is the last of his line, sold off his old business to run the tractor shop and play with his tractors. Apparently, he wants to open up a Minnie-Mo museum-all the tractors and trucks are in line to be restored.



It's a familiar story, you see it all the time. Some day, they'll all be cleaned up and shiny, but I don't know. I half expect to be going by and to see the place empty, the tractors gone, the shop knocked down, the lawn overgrown.

Sunset

Sunset, originally uploaded by William 74.

Fun with silhouettes! I guess that's one nice thing about winter and spring-the trees are still bare and stand out really well against the sky. Particularly a sunset like this one.

Excellent cloud day too.