Lens-Artists Challenge #36: Around the Neighborhood in Des Plaines, Illinois

Lens-Artists’ weekly photo challenge this week is Around the Neighborhood. I selected some photos from my photo archive of the last few years that are “typical” of Des Plaines, Illinois, the Chicago suburb where I live. More and more of these signs have popped up in people’s yards since the beginning of the Trump administration. […]

Camouflage and Contrast

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge for this week is Standing Out or Blending In. Camouflage (blending in) is a common way in nature for animals to hide from predators or so they cannot be seen. It was hard to spot this eagle at first, because his brown feathers blend in so well with the tree branches. There’s […]

Thursday Halloween Doors

Halloween just passed, and I had fun walking around the neighborhood looking at and photographing people’s Halloween decorations. For this week’s Norm’s Thursday Doors, here are some Des Plaines doors decorated for Halloween. The door of this blue house doesn’t have much but I really like the spider web and the nasty-looking troll-angel on the […]

Open House Chicago 2018-Part 1

Open House Chicago is an annual event – on a weekend in mid-October, about 250 buildings in the Chicago area are open to visitors. Each has a few volunteers who can tell you about the building. It is sometimes called the “architecture tour” because many of these buildings were built 100+ years ago and some […]

Lens-Artists Challenge: Windows

The theme this week for Lens Artists’ Weekly Photo Challenge is windows. Mormon church – Salt Lake City, Utah Trigger – photography studio and wedding venue, Chicago, IL Northlight Theatre, Skokie, IL – with sculpture in front Bike frames in a window, Chicago, IL Inspirational message on the rear window of a parked car, Arlington […]

CFFC: 100 Years Old and Counting…

I am combining two photo challenges here: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge with the theme of books or paper and Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge with the theme of over 100 years old. For several years, I have been working on a writing project, which is a book about my ancestors. Fortunately for me, […]

CB&WPC: Old

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge this week is People or Objects Over 50. Two years ago, we had several rooms in our house renovated. The walls had to be stripped of wallpaper. One of the things the painters uncovered was this old doorbell, installed in the 1940s or possibly earlier. Since I am over […]

Thursday Doors: Decorative & Decorated Doors

It’s warm enough to be able to walk outside many days – today was one of these. The sun was out and there was little wind. Still, I bundled up in warm coat, hat and gloves for my walk in the neighborhood. I’ve been noticing many houses decorating for spring, now that the winter holidays […]

Irkeepus Cultural Boma

Feb. 7, 2018 In the afternoon, six of us visited a Maasai village where tourists are welcome, the Irkeepus Cultural Boma. This community makes money from tourists: $20 to take any photos you want and be shown around, encouragement to buy their crafts, and donations for their school. The village, or “boma” (compound) consists of […]

CB&WPC: Big and Little Houses

This is a very big house: And here is a little tiny house belonging to elves: This is what we call “The Gnome House” except that only a small piece of it is visible in this picture: Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Houses