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Hi, I'm Art Hill. I specialize in pictures of Chicago but there are lots of pictures of other places and lots of flower pictures. I also just opened a store at CafePress/WindCityArt with clothing and other items for sale. If you want to license any of these images just email me at art@WindyCityArt.com

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Daily Photos : One picture each day. In reverse order.

One picture each day. In reverse order.

Updated: Jul 05, 2009 4:28am PST

Route 66 :

Updated: Apr 24, 2009 5:28am PST

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September 11, 2008 Our cats, Jake and Joey. They are brothers - 11 years old. We got them from a shelter when they were just a few weeks old. They are great buddies and most mornings look out our front window like this. I used to shoot a lot of pictures of them (before grandkids) but not much lately. I like this one - it represent how close they are.

January 22, 2009 Joey
One of our 11 year old cats. He loves to gaze out the front window.

January 28, 2009 Fish at Rain Forest Cafe
I've never had very good results shooting fish in aquariums. We had lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe and they had some large well lit tanks so I took a few pictures on the way out and thought they turned out pretty good. Not cropped, this is the full frame. And there were no crowds as there ususally are at the regular aquariums. A few more fish shots over here
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7035315_e7i3x/1/463416910_nRjBd

June 11, 2009 Scarlett
I take a lot of pictures of my grandkids. It's not easy to do. I've never had much luck getting them to pose so I just shoot pictures as they play. Some days when I go through the batch I don't find any that really hit me. Lots of okay ones and a few pretty good ones. Every once in a while though I get some I really like. This is one of those. She is 2 years and 3 months old. Show me a cuter two year old :-)
I have so much fun with her.

January 23, 2009 Sacked
Yesterday was not a good day. I was notified at 10:00 that I was being laid off from Microsoft where I have worked for the past 8 years. Today is my last day. It was devastating news. I got my first job in 1968 and have never been fired until yesterday.
And thanks to all for the overwhelming response to my shot of Joey yesterday.

June 30, 2009 Chicago's Lakefront
I'm standing in front of the Shedd Aquarium for this shot. The tallest black building on the left is the Sears Tower. The right most black building is the 70 story Lake Point Tower, once billed as the world's tallest apartment building. The area with boats is Monroe Harbor. The area between the buildings and the water is Grant Park, proudly referred to as Chicago's "front yard,"

June 1, 2009 Clematis
We planted this last year and it seems to be thriving.

April 26, 2009 Daffodil
It rained most of yesterday but I managed to get out for a few minutes and found some daffodils that weren't pointing down :-) A minute after I shot this down at the corner I felt raindrops and heard thunder so I headed back to the house. Shortest walk I've ever taken.

January 7, 2009 Turning Night Into Day
This is the view of our backyard from the bedroom that I use as an "office". I'm pretty excited about how this came out because this shot is at 9:00 o'clock at night! I had never taken a really long exposure and wanted to try this. It was a little difficult to even get the camera in place up against the window since my desk is right there. I got the camera precariously set against the window, set the exposure time for 25 seconds and let the camera choose the f-stop. My camera has built-in long exposure noise reduction which I turned on. That takes another 25 seconds after the picture is exposed. I was pretty happy with the result (original is at http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7035315_e7i3x/1/#450586884_jQ3H3-A-LB). Still an obvious night shot with color off a little and a lot of darkness. So I opened up the RAW file, tweaked the exposure a bit and got this. Many of you may not consider this all that interesting but I am fascinated at how such a picture can be made when it is completely dark out and only those lights in the park behind my house light things up.

January 30, 2009 Kyle and Lindsey (cousins)
Two of my grandkids at the grocery store. They're getting pretty big for these carts but we offered them the option of each taking a separate cart or both squeezing into one cart and this is what they chose. They are so much fun.

June 9, 2009 Sad fate
I'm sad to say I won't be shooting any more pictures of this little trio. Yesterday afternoon my wife heard quite a ruckus outside out front door - sounded like a loud crow and lots of other birds. She went out to investigate and spotted an enormous crow in our tree right by the robins nest. The crow flew away when she went out on the deck but there are no more baby robins. She called me and by the time I got out there the crow was high up in another tree watching us. Several robins began to fly around the crow so it took off. Largest crow I've ever seen.
We are so bummed - it had been a lot of fun watching these little birds develop.
I got a couple more here
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/8438262_cuF7L#559110107_5c7WS

May 19, 2009 Iris

October 28, 2009 I'm not much of a bird photographer. Caught these in my daughter's backyard. These birds were moving constantly and very skittish so I coudln't get close. I got a couple more - http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/6176204_qFVRt//#403563354_sh4i3-A-LB and - http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/6176204_qFVRt//#403563354_sh4i3-A-LB

June 3, 2009 Nest in the tree by our front door
This is pretty high up in the tree and no good anlge for a shot. I got this from just inside our front door, shooting through glass. We have a second story window near this tree but branches block the view of the nest. We can also watch with binoculars from another vantage point but it's too far away to shoot with the lenses I have. Still I felt lucky to get this with both parents on the nest. Most of the time there is only one.

April 1, 2009 Chicago built of Legos
My daughter had told me that Legoland had a model of Chicago so I was expecting something that would say, fit on a ping pong table. I wasn't prepared for this incredible display that was maybe 50 feet long. The view above is less than half of the whole thing. The attention to detail was incredible. You can see more if you're interested at
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7771166_rH5J4/1/502783133_rwLPv

May 27, 2009 Amy
We combined Memorial Day and a birthday party for my oldest daughter Amy. We got together at my youngest daughter's house. We're trying to remember at these get togethers to have somebody take my camera and get a picture of me - at least to record the fact that I was there. Amy's birthday isn't until this Saturday.
It would not be possible to love someone more than I love Amy. She is unbelivably good at everything she does and is a fantastic Mother to my two little grandsons. We have always had a great realtionship - even during the teenage years. She is just a truly wonderful human being.

March 2, 2009 Double-crested Cormorant
Showing a closer view of this bird, this time correctly identified :-)
Everglades National Park.
More in this gallery
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7470124_kN2R8#481951232_WwNES

April 19, 2009 Standard Station
Continuing my series on Route 66. This is called the Standard Sinclair Gas Station in Odell, Illinois. Built in 1932, it operated until 1975. It has been impressively restored. I wasn't sure how best to give you the sense of this place so I decided to put four images together. Note the old gas pump. The amount you wanted to purchase was pumped into the glass chamber and then gravity put it through the hose into your car. We were told that the road in front of this station had bumper to bumper traffic in the summer. So congested that the town built a tunnel under the road to get people to the large church on the West side of the road.

Today is my Dad's birthday. He's been gone a long time but even after all these years I miss being able to share things like this with him. I'm dedicating today's image to my Dad in remembrance of all those times he drove us down Route 66. Who knows, maybe we got gas here 50 years ago.

March 23, 2009 Flapping Her Wings
The two ducks have established a regular pattern of spending afternoons in our backyard pond.

March 16. 2009 Blues Brothers
Found this in front of a music store in Geneva. The background was very busy so I tried selective coloring.
Original is here
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/7557064_Hn5T7/1/#492557592_iuBiC-A-LB

June 19, 2009 View from our deck
The pond is looking good, the flowers are thriving, grass is in good shape and I just finished mowing. I like the way the yard looks when the afternoon sun filters through the trees. I had a hard time deciding whether to post this one or a panoramic shot
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/8438262_cuF7L/1/#568140410_vZtGC-A-LB
If you happen to look at both and have a preference let me know.

May 4, 2009 Chocolate cup
We had dinner at the Perry Street Brasserie in Galena. We were NOT planning to have dessert but after our server described this we caved in. "A bowl of solid Swiss chocolate, filled with creamy dark and milk chocolate ganaches. Topped with fresh whipped cream , chocolate butterfly." The chef came out and explained how he makes this. He dips a balloon in warm dark chocolate, puts it in the fridge and pops the balloon when the chocolate hardens. He also showed us the patter he uses to make the butterflies. I'm telling you this was good!

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La Grange, Illinois

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Updated: May 22, 2008 6:08pm EEST

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Updated: May 17, 2009 8:40pm EEST

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Friends: Arlene • carolo • Dee Golden • Ile-Images • JoAnna Hesse (hessephotos) • KentuckyLightchasers • Orrin (Balsa) • Rachelita • Renee Davis (Nee) • Stephonie

Family: Amy Tausk • Lori Wilson • richhill • Steve2001

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