Category Archives: Commentary

Yes Chicago Does Have a Chinatown!

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We were in Berwyn Illinois this weekend to visit my daughter over Father’s Day weekend. They all decided to take me out for Father’s Day Dim Sum at a place called MingHin Cusine. I have enjoyed Dim Sum in many places including New York’s ChinaTown, Los Angeles,San Francisco but this place WAS the best.

The reason was they didn’t have the silly carts where the food is sometimes not real fresh. You order from a menu and they bring out each dish as it is done. Our local Pittsburgh restaurant, Sun Penang also does this but MingHin has a much bigger selection.. If you go, make a reservation like my brilliant daughter did,the wait was at least one hour.

I was also quite surprised at the size of the Chicago Chinatown which is easily as big as New York’s but not as grand as San Francisco. Here are some snaps from the area, I was too hungry to take food photos.

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Chicago's Chinatown

Chicago’s Chinatown

The Second City

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There are many myths on why Chicago is called The Second City. Of course egocentric New Yorkers think it is because Chicago is second to New York. This is odd because if you think about population Los Angeles is first and if you think about age both Boston and Philadelphia are older. Bur of course New Yorkers tend to be full of themselves.

The one that is probably real is that the Chicago we know today rose from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1837. The great fire destroyed an area about 4 miles long and encompassing an area of more than 2,000 acres. It destroyed were more than 73 miles of roads, 120 miles of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts and 17,500 buildings. Of the 300,000 inhabitants of Chicago at the time,100,000 were left homeless. The City was entirely rebuilt and as you can see is looking pretty good.

This view is from the 22nd floor of a Chicago Loop high rise and prints can be purchased on my commercial site.

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The Second City

The Second City

Summer Hiatus

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It’s time for a break. Like this turtle below, time to doze in the sun. We are off to visit our Chicago family and when we return we are busy with ballgames and barbecues. So I won’t be posting for a while. Hope everyone is having a great summer and I will be back with new images and non-political thoughts in a couple of weeks. Take care of each other!

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Dozing Turtle

Dozing Turtle

Longboards at Sunset

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This is another sunset view from our condo on Sunset Beach in Treasure Island Florida. It was great fun spending a whole month on the beach. It was something we had always wanted to do and we are blessed to have the time, money and health in retirement to do some of the things on our wish list. The nightly sunset views from our balcony were stupendous.

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Long Boards at Sunset

Long Boards at Sunset

Speaker’s Balcony HDR Redux

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I have been experimenting a lot with Google’s NIK Collection photo editing tools. Previously I have created HDR images by using auto bracketing on my camera and combining the images with Adobe Lightroom. However, The Nik Collection offers editing tools that are pretty effective.

The advantage of HDR is the increase of detail and color adjustment in the image. I still feel that auto bracketing offers more detail because it actually changes the size of the image. The Adobe Lightroom auto combine also has a powerful de-ghosting procedure that allows you to take HDR images without the use of a tripod. However as you can see from the two images below, the NIK tool also increases detail without a dramatic increase in image size.

Not all images are improved by the HDR process and I am not sure if this image actually benefits although the change is dramatic. What’s your opinion? Comments are truly appreciated.

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From The Speakers Balcony

From The Speakers Balcony

HDR Redux

HDR Redux

Matt Aquiline and The Highballers at Club Cafe

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When we moved back to Pittsburgh in 2014 we really lucked out in a lot of ways. Of course neighbors sometimes can be a liability when buying a house. Just ask me about Long Island sometime. However, Regent Square is a wonderful Pittsburgh neighborhood and we have great neighbors. One bonus we couldn’t have planned for is that one of our neighbors is a singer-songwriter.

I have great respect for songwriters, they are poets. As a novelist, yes I can say that, I am even more impressed. It’s hard enough to think up the words let alone set them to music. Our local poet is Matt Aquiline and he writes alternative country rock music that is humorous and heartwarming and never depressing. Last night he played at Club Cafe in Pittsburgh with his new band and they were awesome. They were proceeded by The Highballers with Belén Pifel, who used to sing with Matt when they lived in Washington. At the end of the night Belén Pifel and John Woolf joined Matt and his new band for a great finish. Here are some images from the show.

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Matt Aquiline with Belén Pifel and John Woolf

Matt Aquiline with Belen Pifel and John Woolf

The Highballers

The Highballers

singer

Belen Pifel

Belén Pifel

Matt Aquiline, Belén Pifel and John Woolf

Matt Aquiline, Belen Pifel and John Woolf

Captain Jack Swigert at the Capitol

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I learned a lot of interesting things during our tour of the US Capitol. I did not know that each state was allowed to have two sculptures inside the Capitol. There is one area that is full of sculptues and others are scattered through the magnificent building. I partuclary liked this one that stands guard in the Capitol Visitor Center.

This is Jack Swigert who was a native of Colorado. He was an American test pilot, mechanical and aerospace engineer, United States Air Force pilot, and NASA astronaut. He is one of the 24 people who have flown to the Moon. I like the reflection of the visitor center in his visor.

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Captain Jack Swigert

Captain Jack Swigert

Post Number One Thousand

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On February 2 of 2012 I started this blog with this very same image. This image of Captain Beefheart at the Pittsburgh Syria Mosque is very special to me. It was the first time I was every back stage while a band performed. It was my first color print. I took it during my first year of photography with my first Nikon camera. It was the first image I posted to my commercial online site. It was my first online sale. It was also the first image I ever had stolen and unfortunately has been used on a few bootleg recordings.

I thought it was fitting for repost today. I started this blog as a way to express myself mostly through my images but also through commentary on things I like. I have kept it mostly non political and about my favorite subject; photography. The blog has helped achieve some small success with my novel and other books but I mostly keep posting because I find it enjoyable and challenging.Thanks to all my followers around the world and the people that have purchased my products. Hope you will stay tuned for the next 1000!

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Zoothorn Rollo with Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

Zoothorn Rollo with Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

Found Art

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Some of the most wonderful “art” in the world is stuff you just find walking around. There is no artist signature, no gallery lighting or people walking around going “hmm” while they touch their chin. This is an ornamental design integrated into a wrought iron gate found near Cancún in the Mexican province of Quintana Roo.

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Found Art

Found Art

Strange Birdfellows

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Recently I posted an image of a Flamingo Squabble at the Highland Park Zoo in Pittsburgh. All the flamingos, maybe a dozen in all, were engaged with one another but off to the side was one flamingo all by himself. There were also a few blue herons together but one was also estranged and hung out near the solitary flamingo. Were these two pals ostracized from society for some unknown avian crime? Guess I will never know.

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Strange Birdfellow

Strange Birdfellow