Ghost Signs

My elementary school days were filled with riding my pony, reading in my treehouse, swimming in the neighbors' pool and playing in the woods. But once I hit middle school, and my dad had a life-changing accident with a table saw, there was no time for play. A lot of the household responsibility fell on me, including helping care for my younger brother.  Being a first-born, guilt and responsibility are attached to me like a heavy ball and chain. So taking a day and wandering in the city with my camera, which definitely falls into the category of play, is something that is extremely hard for me.

It is Monday morning, I should be at the grocery store wandering the aisles, trying to figure out what to feed myself and my family for the week. I should be loading the washing machine with the weekend's exercise clothes and Sunday best. I should be waiting for the grass to dry so I can fill the lawn mower with gas and walk behind it for two hours, listening to my book, and sweating through another set of exercise clothes.

But instead I am sitting at a little cafe table in the city, chai latte in front of me and camera beside me. It is the last week of ArtPrize. ArtPrize is an independently organized international art competition that takes place each fall, it is free and open to the public. This is the ninth year of this heavily visited art extravaganza. It has been a few years since I have attended, the years of my daughter being away at college and visits to her for her birthday seemed to take the place of ArtPrize. Last Friday though, my husband and I had a date day and we came to ArtPrize. With over a thousand entries, we didn't even come close to seeing it all.  My husband is out of town for a couple of days, with nobody needing me, the guilt and "shoulds" have been displaced until tomorrow.

ArtPrize is the justification to come back and play, but what I really came back for was to stalk this building with my camera.

At the top is the ugly glass exterior that was on the building, put on by some misguided souls in the name of modernization, probably in the 1970's. Underneath is the original and glorious brick. I was enthralled by this find on Friday, but didn't have the time or the right light to grab more than a few quick shots. Today, I am back in time for morning light. Fortified by my chai latte and gluten free bar, I walk the entire perimeter of the building, documenting every perfectly preserved ghost sign.

Buoyed by my stalking and capturing of treasures, I set off to find more art. I will revisit a few favorites from Friday, seek new favorites from the previously unseen, cast my vote for my favorite from the pool of top twenty, enjoy lunch in a rooftop restaurant, and eventually go home and mow the grass.

Old guilt is hard to shed, but I am slowly learning to play again.

Michigan to Massachusetts - The Highlights Reel

I am always hesitant to share my vacation photos here. I don't want to be that friend that invites you over for wine and cheese, and then locks you in a room with a big-screen television and makes you watch 500 unedited vacation photos. I am fresh out of cheese but enjoy the wine, here's the highlights reel...

Favorite City/Town

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada
First day of vacation and we took the "shortcut" through Canada and Niagara Falls to get to our hotel in Rochester, New York. It was late lunchtime, we were hungry and ready to get out of the car for a while. I remembered my friend Kay telling me to stop in Niagara-on-the-Lake on our way through if we had time. We had time. We had lunch, walked to the lake, discovered the most beautiful cemetery full of flowering trees on the way back to town, and found a parking ticket on our car when we got back. Nonetheless, Glen and I both want to spend more time here, we will just make sure we pay for our parking first next time.

Best Don't Give Up

Watkins Glen, New York
My readers that have been with me for a while will remember a couple of years ago I went to Pennsylvania in the autumn to meet a blogging friend, Andrea, who lives in New Jersey. We were to spend a week photographing the fall colors in the Tioga State Forest area. We had a great half week until she slipped on some wet leaves, fell and broke her leg, going back to New Jersey much sooner than expected. You can read that post here. The day after she broke her leg we were suppose to take a day trip up to Watkins Glen, NY only a little over an hour from where we were staying, obviously we did not go. I stayed close to our rental cottage instead that day, a little afraid to now be on my own. But I had really wanted to go to Watkins Glen to explore the picturesque state park there. A year and a half later, mission accomplished. My husband and I had an extra travel day to explore the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, and Watkins Glen fit wonderfully into the plan. So glad I did not give up my desire to explore this destination.

Favorite Brewery

Rooster Fish Brewing - Watkins Glen, NY
We stumbled upon this brewery late morning on a Sunday, not busy, great variety of craft beer, and amazing window light.

Best Stumble Upon...

Norman Rockwell Museum - Stockbridge, MA
Our vacations tend to always have a theme, this year's theme was Stumble Upon...
I like to have my hotels booked for each night, but I am content to let the days take care of themselves, this does not always work well for my "need to know where he's going" husband, but truly this is often how the best places are found. Such is the case of the Norman Rockwell Museum. It was raining and we had time to kill before ending the day in Boston, so we began looking at the exit attraction signs in the Berkshire area of Massachusetts. I saw a sign for the museum and said to my husband that I would really like to go there, so we did. Best stumble upon ever!
I have always loved Mr. Rockwell's work, but knew very little about him. To see all his covers of the Saturday Evening Post framed and lining three walls of a room was mind blowing, to see the progression of his work, the themes in his work, his consistent color palette, made the artist in me pondering my own work.  We left the museum with four books, a new bookmark for me, and camera rolls full of photos.

Best Conquering Fear Moment

Figuring out the subway in Boston. We live in West Michigan, I drive my car anywhere I want to go. You do not want to drive your car in Boston, you want to walk or take public transportation. We were staying in Cambridge, so a little ways from the city center, we had to figure out the subway to get where we wanted to go. The subway intimidated me, but for that reason I was determined to conquer it. Thankfully our T station was only a five minute walk from our hotel, and my friend Karen gave me the stations we would need to get off at to go where we wanted to go. We only got on one wrong train, but quickly figured it out and got on the right one to get back to our hotel. Fear conquered!

Best Boston Moment

Meeting my blogging friend Karen for coffee in real life. Karen works in the city, and thankfully it worked in her schedule to take part of a morning and meet me for coffee. I love these kind of moments - meeting old friends for the first time!

Craziest Day

Cape Cod, MA
We left Boston and drove to the very end of Cape Cod because I wanted to say I had been to Cape Cod, wanted The Cape Cod National Seashore stamp in my National Park Passport book, wanted to see the ocean, and wanted a lobster roll. We drove through Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island during rush hour traffic looking for a brewery, which we found, but could not find a place to park. Shortly after leaving Providence our car shed the inner wheel well liner on the front passenger side while driving on the busy highway, which my husband had to go retrieve from the side of the highway. During all of this the temperatures ranged from 82 to 99 degrees for the day, all so I could say I have been to the Cape and Rhode Island. My poor husband!

Favorite Botanic Garden

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

Tower Hill Botanic Garden - Boylston, MA
We had a free day before the start of the photography conference I was going to in Southbridge, MA, so my husband Googled nearby attractions and came across Tower Hill Botanic Garden. He said, "We always have good luck at botanic gardens." Who is this man? Amazing bounty of color at this garden, even if it was 85 degrees. I would love to go back on an overcast and much cooler day.

Favorite Footwear

For the last decade, other than my running shoes, my go-to footwear on vacation has been my Chaco sandals. But the past couple of years I have had problems with the straps on hot humid days rubbing on the tops of my feet and giving me blisters. That doesn't make walking the next day enjoyable.
I was searching for something stylish and comfortable, two words that never seem to go together in the footwear world. For once the ads that pop into my feed on Facebook actually held something valuable - a link to these shoes - Taos Moc Star shoes. Perfect for wide feet, have amazing arch support and come in fun colors. Other than the two full days in Boston I wore these shoes all the time. They are the most fabulous shoes.

Favorite Restaurant

Cedar Street Grille - Sturbridge, MA

We ate a lot of places while on vacation, but this was the best. A wide variety of small plate options, each one we tried was awesome, but we highly recommend the lamb meatballs, cod sliders, mac and cheese with pulled bbq pork, although all the mac and cheeses sounded wonderful, and the grass fed beef sliders. Of course pair this with a bottle of local wine. We loved the place so much we returned for a second night. Recommend making reservations!

Favorite Wineries

Taylor Brooke Winery - Woodstock, CT

Give us a free afternoon on vacation and the first thing we will do is Google nearby breweries and wineries. It's not that we have to drink, it is because a winery or brewery done right is one of the best vacation experiences. By done right I mean we want you to take your time, tell us about your winery, tell us what wines are your award winners, and for me you get five stars if you have a wine dog. We will sample the maximum amount of samples and stay to enjoy a glass on the patio. Taylor Brooke got five stars.

Sharpe Hill Winery - Pomfret, CT

Sharpe Hill also gets five stars. A lovely garden setting and your wine samples are brought to you by sweet servers like Amanda. Amanda gets five stars just for putting up with my husband's questions, and being willing to pose for a picture for his new obsession - Instagram. The only thing this place was missing was the wine dog.

The End

Well the wine is gone and the film is coming to a close, so it's time to call it a day. Hope you enjoyed the highlights reel. There were so many stories on this trip, and stories make the best trips. 

Curiously Wandering Toronto

The sound of a trumpet pierces the early morning hour. Wait a minute! A trumpet! I open my eyes and hit the button on the side of my Fitbit - 4:30. Seriously! Who plays a trumpet at four-thirty in the morning? Knowing that sleep is now lost, I slip out of bed and tip-toe off to the bathroom. Too early to get up, I return to bed, settle myself on my wedge pillow, arrange the soft white sheet carefully over me, knowing I will be pushing the button on my Fitbit every fifteen minutes for the next hour and a half. Six o'clock a slightly more reasonable hour to get up when on vacation.

I love to travel, but I am a terrible sleeper away from home. Who am I kidding! I am a terrible sleeper, even at home. Too often on vacation, the beds are too hard, the room too hot, the fan too loud, or the neighbors next door decide to have an alcohol induced discussion at midnight. None of those things are a problem here in our studio suite on the sixteen floor of our historic hotel. One King West situated on the base of an old bank building is located on the corner of King and Yonge Street, on the edge of the Financial and Old Town districts in the heart of downtown Toronto. No, the problem here seems to be an early morning trumpet player. This might, slightly, be my own fault. When my husband noticed that one of the windows was ajar and wanted to close it, I told him to leave it open, I love hearing the street sounds. Sometimes you get more than you bargain for.

My husband and I are here to celebrate our 30th Anniversary. Toronto is quite the departure from our usual relaxing country vacation. I decided as we embarked on our thirty-first year together, we should push ourselves out of our comfort zone, see some new sights and work on discovering places together. He loves to do research on places, and know where he is going. I prefer to lace up my shoes, walk out the front door, and set off down the sidewalk, seeing what catches my eye as I wander along.

Already pushing us out of his comfort zone and knowing that I wanted to be able to celebrate our thirty-first anniversary together next year, I did do some research before the trip. There were a couple of places that I wanted us to visit, just as we had when we did a brief stay in Toronto twenty-seven years earlier. Casa Loma was at the top of the list, me being the lover of old, unique buildings. When I did some internet searching I found the City Pass which included entry to Casa Loma, CN Tower, Royal Ontario Museum, Ripley's Aquarium, and the Toronto Zoo, all these places for $58 US dollars per person. Even if we only made it to four out of the five, we had already saved quite a bit of money. I printed a map of downtown Toronto that I could easily fold up and put in my pocket, not entirely trusting that the Travel Pass plan that I had signed up for on my iPhone with Verizon would actually work, and then there would be no Google Maps. I also printed a map of the subway lines, although in the end we walked everywhere we went, Toronto being an easily walkable city.

We arrived in Toronto on Sunday afternoon, a smooth drive into the city and located our hotel quickly, thanks to Google Maps. The one dilemma we had was finding the valet parking for the hotel, not knowing it was behind the hotel, on a side street. So we first parked in a public parking garage and walked to the hotel, instead of driving around endlessly. After registering, we walked back to the garage, drove the car to the proper area and handed it off to the valet, always a weird feeling to hand someone you don't know your car keys and walk away.

Once unpacked, clothes stowed in drawers and hung on hangers, no living out of a suitcase for the next five days for this girl, I was excited to get out and explore. Neatly folded downtown street map shoved into my pocket, camera slung across my body, we were off to the waterfront. I grabbed our City Pass paperwork before we walked out the door, just in case we happened to wander down to the CN Tower.

Coming from Michigan and living within a mile of Lake Michigan, it takes a lot for a body of water to impress me, and honestly Toronto's waterfront felt lacking. So many people wandering around, all looking at the screens on their phones. I think my husband and I were the only ones without our phones in hand. It was also kind of dirty. We hurried along. Sighting the CN Tower, we made that our new destination.

CN TOWER

The City Pass helped us skip some of the line, but we were still eventually herded into lines like cattle. Having been to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the differences in the structures were quite apparent. Less space on the enclosed viewing platform, a much smaller open air viewing platform. A small section of glass floor at the CN Tower than people felt compelled to sprawl out on for lengthy periods of time.

Still, a delightful view of the city of Toronto, although looking back we probably should have done the CN Tower later in the trip so we could look at all the places we had been, as opposed to not knowing the places we were yet to go. I recommend visiting the tower once, but once is probably enough.

What caught my photographer's eye and history lover's heart was Roundhouse Park across the street from the tower. A 17-acre park that contains a preserved locomotive roundhouse which now houses the Toronto Railway Museum.  We never made it to the museum, that leaves something for next time.

Also located in Roundhouse Park is Steam Whistle Brewing, a brewery that sells only one beer, which is hard to fathom for somebody that comes from Beer City USA where the average is 40 different brews on tap. We did make it to the brewery the next day, at least I didn't have to ponder what to order.

By this time it was getting late, and we still had to eat supper. We wandered back to the hotel amid the traffic and horn honking...

**The rest of our wanderings of Toronto coming soon...

My Vivian Maier Day

Caribbean music plays in the distance, a refreshing breeze blows across my face. I am pleasantly warm, but not sweaty. A perfect day at the beach.

Suddenly my eyes pop open, those aren't the sounds of the Caribbean I hear in the distance, that is my alarm. I reach over the side of the bed, grab my phone off the charger and tap the screen to stop the music. I look at the time on the screen, ten minutes after five. I have been sleeping through my alarm for ten minutes. How did that happen? Then I remembered, last night before going to bed, I had set the fan on medium instead of low, to help clear the stuffy air out of the bedroom. Obviously medium is much louder.

I don't have to be anywhere early, I just don't like to deviate from my normal routine.  I lie back on my pillow. I was having the best dream, in it I was Vivian Maier, the mysterious street photographer of the 1950's and 60's. She built an intriguing and sometimes haunting body of black and white street photography work over her lifetime, a body of work that wasn't discovered until after her death. I have been fascinated with her story since the moment I heard it, to have such amazing work and never share it, seems so sad.

Vivan also had a unique talent for captivating self-portraits. These were often captured in the reflections of building windows and doors. I envision myself as Vivian Maier every time I take my own self-portraits.

I recently spent the day in Michigan City, Indiana. Another place that has been on my bucket list for a long time. For the past twenty years I have made almost yearly trips to Michigan City, not to photograph, but to shop. There is huge outlet mall there, the first of it's kind in our midwest area. I would stare longing out the car window as we drove through the deteriorating downtown, the storefronts boarded up, with peeling paint, and crumbling bricks.  Buildings like those give me the same rush that a heroin addict probably feels when they press the contents of the needle into the vein of their arm.

For twenty years I tortured myself by driving by those buildings in favor of bright, shiny and new. Bright, shiny and new really isn't my thing.

As I stood on the corner in front of my first high of the day, I wondered what people thought as they saw me photographing an old derelict building. Were they curious? Were they envious? Were they suspicious? As I knelt on the pavement in front of that former barber shop, photographing it from every angle, I envisioned a documentary photographer following me around for the day, capturing me capturing the things I love. Not that I enjoy having my photograph taken, I would just like to see what other people see as I photograph.

Where I deviate from Vivian Maier is that I would like for people to see my work before I die. I would like to have conversations about it, and about their work. I want to encourage others to do the things that give them those euphoric moments, just as photographing old buildings does for me.

Chicago - Boats, The Bean and Buildings

At the end of my last post, I had myself and my two photography buddies emerging from the cool and shady interior of Adams Street in downtown Chicago, into the hot and blinding sunshine of Michigan Avenue, putting us right in front of The Art Institute and staring into the eye of the Lion. One of the lion statues in front of the Art Institute that is, this post would be so much effective if I had a photo of that lion eye. If only I had the foresight to write these posts as I am taking photos, life would be so much easier for me, and much more enjoyable for you the reader.

Instead of the eye of the Lion, I have for you a photo of The Bean which was our next destination.

But we before we set off for The Bean, we got sidetracked by another food truck and tacos.

Photo credit: Patti Groetsema

We had gotten very hungry walking that eight tenths of a mile from the train station to Michigan Avenue, and passing all those other food trucks. This guy was a sweetheart, super friendly and courteous, running his taco stand like a well oiled machine. 

We enjoyed our lunches on a cement bench in the shade, in a little park next to the Art Institute, joining locals as they enjoyed their lunch. I took one more crack at street photography, mostly to get at least one shot with my 85mm lens I had been hauling around in my bag all day. Note to self, next time just take your 17-55mm and leave everything else home, except of course my iPhone, my other camera of choice.

Lunch finished, it was time to move on to The Bean in Millennium Park, one of the most popular "selfie" taking places in the city.

The lady to the left in this photo was a problem, nearly knocking me down in her quest to get the perfect bean selfie.

The three of us taking a group/individual selfie. Notice I am the only one using my iPhone in the shot, always the odd girl out.

Leaving the glaring sun and the radiating heat from The Bean behind, we set off down Michigan Avenue towards the Chicago River, our destination the Architectural Boat tours. Our leader and christened mom for the day, Deanna, spotted the tours led by the Chicago Architectural Foundation, she knew that we would get the most beneficial information on this tour.

If you have read my blog for any time now you know that I love buildings and especially anything old, or that looks be in a decaying state, so these bridge houses captivated me.

The tour was a delight and the docent a wealth of knowledge.

This is Montgomery Ward Park. Next trip to Chicago I want to explore over in this area, maybe I can convince my dear husband to accompany me, since he doesn't like me exploring Chicago alone and on foot. I don't have a lot of fear in me, so he is probably right to be concerned.

Traveling back to the boat dock, I caught these building reflections.

Version Number One taken with my Canon dSLR.

Version Number Two taken with my iPhone and edited in Snapseed and Formulas. In case you haven't didn't know I love taking photos with my iPhone, but I am trying to be better about using my Canon, each has their purpose.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of The Bean and Buildings from a Boat.

Delighting in the Unexpected Things

I am leading a photography group on Flickr. Together a small group of us are working through David duChemin's book The Visual Toolbox, lesson by lesson. I say "leading" in a loose sense, I am there to post the lesson each week, give encouragement and delight in what each member posts in the group. It is up to each member of the group to decide how much they want to participate, some are just observing, some have jumped in with both feet, and some play it week by week.

This week's lesson is Lesson 1 - Consider Your Vision (this isn't week one of the group, I just tend to randomly jump around). I have been pondering my vision since I read this book a month ago. I looked back through my Lightroom Library which goes back to 2012, my vision is still similar in the things that I like to photograph, but my point of view of them has changed somewhat over the past three years.

This past week I was in Chicago, actually a suburb of Chicago, staying with a dear friend. Another of our photography friends also came to stay, so three photo buddies set out one day to go downtown and photograph the city. I love downtown Chicago, at least for a day or two. I couldn't live there, too many people, too much noise, but for a day it is a delight to see things that don't exist in my normal day to day life.

We took the train into the city from the suburbs. I have to say this was my favorite part of the whole day. I love riding the train, and this definitely does not exist in my day to day life. Trains are the ultimate form of adventure transportation.

I was with two gals that love to photograph people and love street photography. This is not my vision or my strength.

Now give me an old building and happiness abounds.

This is The Rookery, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Daniel Burnham and John Root, built in 1886.  The top floors held the architectural firm of Burnham and Root, who were the architects for the 1893 Chicago's World Fair. I toured the inside of this building once on a walking tour of Daniel Burnham designed buildings, oh the glorious details.

Across the street, I noticed something that I hadn't seen when I was focused on photographing the outside of The Rookery...these vintage blue food trucks. 

My heart did a little flutter and I knew that this was one of the things that I consider to be part of my vision, finding the unexpected things, the old, vintage things. 

My version of street photograph, definitely subtle. I love the look on the Donut vendor's face.

I love structures of any sort; buildings, food trucks, trains. If people happen to be in them it is just a nice bonus for me.

Well this first post on my trip to Chicago got us to the corner of Adams Street and Michigan Avenue. I will be back soon with the second part of our day in the city.