Carnivorous

Well, one nasty virus, and hours of scrubbing the hard drive plus reloading all my software, later I’m back. I have to admit, this one was pretty ingenious… When connected to the internet, a screen pops up that claims it is from the FBI, and says that the user has been found guilty of viewing illegal pornography, zoofilia, etc… and says that since it is the first time the user has been caught, a simple fine of $300 can be paid to make ammends. Oh, and until that happens, yeah, you can’t use the internet at all because it locks that down. It also manages to get in and disable your anti-virus software and a bunch of other nasty stuff. Sadly, a lot of people fall for this scam, and end up paying the fine, which just funds these sort of ploys and allows the circle to start a new.

Anyway, that’s my explanation for why I’ve been absent from posting for a while, but I am back now. Enjoy this pic of a T-Rex skull from the Cinncinnati Museum Center in Ohio.

Click the picture for full size.

Technical Difficulties

It’s been a few days since my last post. No, I haven’t stopped posting pics. Unfortunately, my home virus software failed to block a nasty bug that has essentially blocked my internet access altogether. I have a friend who works in IT who has volunteered (for a dinner and beer) to come out and fix me up. Until then, however, I’m not going to be able to post daily pics. I hope to be back by the end of the week, so check back.

John Hancock Center

The Hancock building has to have one of the coolest building exteriors in all of Chicago. The sleek matte black, cross-patterned, structure just has this bigger-than-life feel. The building itself is only 1,127 feet tall, which ranks it just fourth place in Chicago, and sixth in the United States. However, it is one of the most accessible buildings. Among residences, commercial entities, and retail locations, there is also an open-air observatory, and a restaurant on the 95th floor. In fact, the shots of the city from the air at night on this blog are taken from the lounge on the 96th floor of this building.

Click the picture for full size image.

Chicago Harbor Lighthouse

If you ever walk to the end of Navy Pier and look out onto Lake Michigan, you’ll see Chicago Harbor Lighthouse; the one pictured here. This lighthouse was moved to its present location in 1919 and although it has been deemed excess by the coast guard, stands as a talisman of Chicago history.

Click the picture for full size image.

Motor City

As we walked from the parking garage to the Detroit Auto Show, we passed by the famous Joe Louis “fist” monument. I had to scamper across traffic to get a shot. The fist is only a couple blocks from the convention center. It doubles as a center divider for traffic and a monument of the famous American heavyweight boxer.

Click the picture for full size image.

The Bean Part Deux

Here’s another take on chicago’s “bean” statue. I took this one from slightly further away and de-saturated the color a bit. I also used a few stacked neutral density filters to extend the shutter. That’s photo-nerd speak for trying to get the people milling around to magically disappear. And, for the most part, the scene is fairly clean. I took this shot rather late at night, but I don’t think there is ever any time you can get a shot without somebody being there; at least not at a reasonable time anyway.

Click the picture for full size image.

Chicago East

Here’s another shot taken from The Signature Lounge on the 96th in the Hancock building. I believe this shot was taken looking due East from the building. It’s hard to remember exactly because I took a bunch of shots from different angles. Because these images are obviously taken through glass windows it was hard to get a really clean shot without some sort of reflection of the interior lights, or some bozo insisting to use flash even though it is completely useless in that situation. In any case, I think this one turned out pretty well, what do you think?

Click the picture for full size image.

Ben’s Happy Trails Horse Camp

My family visits Shawnee State Park outside Portsmouth, Ohio, to camp and do the outdoors bit on a fairly consistant basis. And every time we go we typically stop at Ben’s Happy Trails Horse Camp so the girls can take a pony ride. Ben’s camp is ran by Ben himself who has got to be the most easy going and friendly person you could ever meet. The camp is a small place found by word of mouth and a few hand-painted wooden signs. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t look like much, but somehow makes memories you keep for a lifetime. This is a shot of some miscellaneous equipment hanging up outside the saddle barn.

Click the picture for full resolution.

Trump Tower

It’s hard to get an idea of just how tall this building is at ground level looking up. But let’s just suffice it to say, it’s tall… really tall. At 1,389 feet, The Trump International Hotel and Tower is not the tallest building in Chicago. It is surpassed by the Willis Tower, which used to be called (and still is by most Chicagoans) the Sears Tower. A few people I talked to in Chicago attribute this to the mayor rejecting plans that would have made the Trump Tower taller than the Willis Tower; but rumor has it that in lieu of the September 11th attacks, Trump scaled down the design. The tower has been featured in both Batman: The Dark Knight, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon movies.

Click the picture for full size image.

Around and Around We Go

Here’s another perspective of the famous staircase in the Rookery building. I was sick the other day camped out on the couch watching a bunch of DVD’s from the library; one of those, Transformers 3 (I know, I know….). Anyway in one of the 4,000 action scenes (which take place in Chicago by the way) you see the troops mounting these exact stairs to position themselves to fight off the Decepticons. When I saw that I was like “Oh yeah! Those are my stairs!” Then my wife just gave me this sad kind of look…

Click the picture if you are a closet Transformers fan.