esprit de l'escalier

Hi

What are you all up to this weekend? I'm thinking of going to the state fair. I haven't been since I was in high school. It should be hot, sticky, full of fried food and who knows what. I can't wait.

Some photo links

I am slowly getting the hang of my new job. I have met a lot of people, sat in on a lot of meetings, and read a lot of information. My brain and my body are no longer used to the 5 day work week, but we're all slowly adjusting. I have noticed a couple of photo-related items recently that I'd like to share.

The Art Institute of Chicago has two great sounding photo shows. One just opened, the Henri Cartier-Bresson show, which I believe Kathleen went to see and raved about to me. I really want to see this.

I'd also like to see this Louis Sullivan exhibit. Long-time readers will remember that I am quite the fan of Sullivan. The exhibit features photos by John Szarkowski (I have one of his book that I love - great Half Price Books find), Aaron Siskind, and Richard Nickel. Nickel is another favorite of mine, I have one of his books as well. You can read about his tragic ending here. (Plus one of my favorite Chicago moments was during the opening weekend of Millennium Park, listening to Ira Glass do a live show of This American Life recounting Nickel's story to a Chris Ware cartoon.) I hope I can get to Art Institute soon.

I saw this story about Rich Clarkson, one of the most influential photojournalists in this country, on NPR and had to send it on to some people. Click through if only to look at the photo slide show. Great stuff.

Also, you know what happens this week? The Impossible Project's new color film comes out. In the words of one of my twitter friends, squee!

Lake Michigan

My favorite way of driving into Chicago from the east is to come over the Skyway and get off at Stony Island and wind my way through Hyde Park, ending up on Lake Shore Drive at the Museum of Science and Industry. That way I can maximize my time driving along Lake Michigan. I always seem to breathe deeper when I get to that last leg of my journey, looking at its jewel tones and the ever-approaching skyline.

Here are some shots from a bit further north from the museum, taken at Foster Beach in early July with my new-to-me Yashica Mat.

New-to-me

Last month, I had a really good day. I came home from a second interview for a job and felt fantastic. It seemed to go really well. To celebrate, I allowed myself to do a little poking around on ebay. I have been planning on getting myself a Yashica Mat G124 once I finally found a full-time job. (You may remember my friend Sharon lent me hers for quite some time, but I gave it back last summer.) I figured there would be no harm in following a couple of auctions and making some low bids, just to see how much the cameras were going for.

Well, needless to say, I ended up getting caught up and buying a camera. I kept thinking, if the seller is accurate in his/her description, this is amazing! Thank god the seller was! I got a beautiful, clean, fully functional, camera of my dreams for a steal! And then a couple of weeks later I got the job! Hooray! I start Monday!

I took the camera with me to Chicago over the Fourth long weekend. These shots are actually from the Fourth, but from Columbus, when I got back that night. They are the last shots from my second roll. I am already deeply smitten with this camera. If anyone is nearby and wants to go shooting, or play model for the day, let me know. I'm itching to go.

Weddings on the brain

Oh man, I am so behind in blogging, but I have much to share. There has been lots of good news percolating in my life lately, and I'm remiss if I don't share some of it. I'll start with the oldest, especially because I started this post 3 weeks ago and never finished it! My sister is going to kill me! Because one thing I've had on the brain lately is weddings. Not my own, but hers! She and her fiance got engaged at the end of May and I am really excited (so are they, if you can't tell from the photos below). The photos in this post are from when they got engaged, taken by her fiance's brother's girlfriend. (I think - I'd give better credit if I knew her name.)

They are planning on getting married at the end of next June at his family's ranch. My sister and I have had marathon phone calls in the last couple of weeks, chatting about ideas for the big party. As there is little I like better than doing research on the internet, especially about pretty things, I have since bookmarked several wedding blogs, which are filling my RSS feeder daily. Does anyone out there have any resources we should be looking at?

And now our cousin Hasia is on the case. She's also in the wedding party and has helped plan several of her friends' weddings as wedding presents. (She used to work in event planning for a university and is generally awesome.) I really can't wait for this. I wish I could get out to Montana to visit with my sister this summer, but due to some other recent developments, that is not in the cards.

Things to share

It has been a while since I posted and I apologize. Last week I drove over to Chicago to spend some time with friends. Most of my photos from that are on various film cameras, which will be discussed in later posts, but I have somethings to share, via a list and some photos. 

My long weekend included:

• A road trip 
• Visits to the park
• Silly polaroids
• Pimm's with George
• Dinners and drinks with dear friends
• Figuring out a new camera
• An afternoon at Foster Beach (and a wicked sunburn to prove it)
• Meeting a flickr friend who has been leading a somewhat parallel life to mine
• Lots of talking (go figure)
• Photo walk with my photo mentor
• Some singing (to myself in the car and to my godson Ben)
• BBQs in 2 states on my way home (in Indy and Columbus)
• Corn on the cob, brought freshly picked by the person who grew it 
• Watermelon
• Playing around with sparklers, a tripod, and long exposures

I missed fireworks and parades, but it was fun.