Category Archives: Travel

The Original Supreme Court

Posted by Imagery Photography on

The Supreme Court of The United Sates has had its own building in Washington D.C. since 1935. Before that the court met inside the US Capitol in a chamber designed and built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. It was an unusual architectural achievement. It was known to be the first small structure to use a vaulted, semicircular ceiling in the United States.

John Marshall was the first Chief Justice and the room was used until 1860 for the court. The court then moved into the old senate chamber and the beautiful room was used as a law library. After the court moved into its current location the room was abandoned until its restoration in the 1970’s. You can feel the history when you stand it this chamber.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

The Original Supreme Court

The Original Supreme Court

Yes Chicago Does Have a Chinatown!

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

ct3

ct1

ct4

Chicago's Chinatown

Chicago’s Chinatown

The Second City

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

The Second City

The Second City

Summer Hiatus

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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!

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Dozing Turtle

Dozing Turtle

Longboards at Sunset

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Long Boards at Sunset

Long Boards at Sunset

Speaker’s Balcony HDR Redux

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

From The Speakers Balcony

From The Speakers Balcony

HDR Redux

HDR Redux

Captain Jack Swigert at the Capitol

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Captain Jack Swigert

Captain Jack Swigert

The Kings Box

Posted by Imagery Photography on

I am currently writing Worlds Apart which is book two of our DreamMap series. If you read the first book, DreamMap you know that the story involves parallel worlds. I just wrote a series of scenes that take place in The Kings Box in the Chichén Itzá on a parallel earth. This is an image from the real one on planet earth.

If you haven’t read DreamMap, you can currently buy the Kindle edition for just $.99 just follow this link click here!

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

The King's Box

The King’s Box

Found Art

Posted by Imagery Photography on

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.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Found Art

Found Art

Skippy Redux

Posted by Imagery Photography on

A few years a go I published skippy the Pelican. So named by me since he seemed to skip across the water. This was taken at a small harbor on Isla Mujeres a small island near Cancún in the Mexican province of Quintana Roo. I decided to edit the image using the HDR tool from the NIK Collection by Google. The new image is on top, so you be the judge. Comments appreciated.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

Skippy Redux

Skippy Redux

A Skipping Pelican

© Richard Burke 2016 All Rights Reserved