Art's Galleries

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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.

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Daily Photos 2013 :

Daily Photos 2013

Updated: May 18, 2013 7:36am EDT

May 2013 :

Updated: May 15, 2013 11:31am EDT

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September 7 2010 Chicago is My Kind of Town

In this night skyline shot you can see the Chicago River in the center, the famous S-Curve of Lake Shore Drive near the bottom and Monroe Harbor in the distance to the left. I shot this looking South East from th 31st floor of Lake Point Tower.

Thank you so much for making my Raining Fire picture #1 yesterday. I was fascinated by the observation that it reminded some people of a weeping willow tree.

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 represents how close they are.

September 6 2010 Raining Fire

For this I one I tried a 20 second exposure. As I said yesterday, for me, shooting fireworks involves lots of guess work. I like the way this one came out. I shot it from the 41st floor of Lake Point Tower.

Jul 21 2010 My wife is a great cook AND an artist

Sometimes in the summer we like to have a light supper. My daughter had picked up some veggie tuna from a New York deli so my wife suggested that we have that in a tomato. I had to run out for a bit right before dinner so she said she would throw it together while I was out. This is what she came up with. And she grows the chives right out on our deck. In four more days we will have been married for 40 years so you'd think she would be out of ideas for a meal - but you'd be wrong. :-)

April 19 2011 Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad was born 100 years ago today so this image is a tribute to him. It is a letter he wrote to my Mom in 1944 shortly before spending his fourth Christmas away from her. In it he describes a Christmas party that his army unit held for "about 100 little French kids". My Dad was paired up for the afternoon with an 8 year old boy. They had presents, a meal, singing and a visit from Santa. My Dad gave the little boy an American penny, and English penny and an Egyptian coin. He ended the description of the event saying "I fully enjoyed the whole party. Maybe some future Christmas I'll be helping a son of ours to enjoy the big day."

Nineteen months later I became that boy and my Dad helped me enjoy 38 Christmases before we lost him. Thanks Dad. And one more thing - I got to ride a camel in front of the pyramids last year and you were right, it was amazing.
http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2010/5529181_hoJ5g#841425782_mwgw3-A-LB

More photos of my Dad
http://arthill.smugmug.com/Family/My-Dad/16677340_SnZCC9

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.

Update September 22, 2009: Imagine my surprise to see comments on this 9 month old picture today. I am still unemployed but we're getting by. Had a great summer with the grandkids. Getting used to watching how much we spend on things.

November 19 2010 Waiting for a bus?

Shot this on New Smyrna Beach, Florida right near the place we were staying.

October 31 2010 Happy Halloween

We went on the La Grange Halloween Walk yesterday. One of the restaurants was displaying the entries in their pumpkin carving contest.

August 8 2010 Reflections

Water lily in our pond. Normally shooting water lilies is a pretty safe activity. The mosquitoes are so bad here after all the rain that it makes for a real adventure doing anything outdoors. And swatting mosquitoes is so bad for handheld photography :-)
Hope you're all having a great weekend.

September 2 2010 Fish

I don't know what it is about photography. Some days I'll shoot a bunch of pictures and be happy with most of them and thrilled with a few. Other days, like yesterday, I shoot a whole bunch of stuff and decide I'm not happy with most of them. A few are okay but I'm really not crazy about even one. (I hate that.) So, here you are with one picture from the fish tanks at Rain Forest Cafe. Do any of the rest of you experience this or are you just happy with your stuff every day?

May 4 2011 Colors

A few more tulips. Hopefully the frost warning for last night didn't affect them. What's up with that anyway - a frost warning in May?

January 22 2010 Still out of work

It was one year ago today that I got that awful phone call informing me that I was being laid off from Microsoft. A real shocker! My post the next day http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2009/10818177_dNL7K/1/#460068810_cepaX-A-LB
is the second most popular shot I've posted to the dailies so I thought I should post something to commemorate the event.

This isn't a very good clone job but you get the idea :-)

Original is from the FDR Memorial in Washington DC
http://arthill.smugmug.com/Vacation/Virginia-2007/Art-and-Jill/2779593_ivrrT/1/#149341020_69ae9-A-LB

I'm not as bitter as I was about it. I still get bile in my throat every time I hear a politician saying what he or she will do for "working" families. There are some pluses. I've gotten to see a lot of my grandkids. I find it pretty easy to get rid of phone sales people. I've had more time to spend on the dailies.

Have a great Friday.

October 18 2010 This is me.

I have posted 821 pictures to the dailies and have never posted one of myself. I've appeared in a handful of group pics but that's it. My youngest daughter got a Canon T1i from her husband for their tenth anniversary last week so she stopped by to have me give her some tips on using it. We stepped out on the deck just to shoot a couple of sample pictures so I could show her the effects of pictures styles. She snapped this one of me and I decided for some unknown reason to use it as my daily. I may do this again 821 shots from now. :-) Have a great Monday. Thanks for all your attention to my posts and support as I went through being without my camera. This is such a wonderful group.

October 6, 2008 No better symbol of fall and October - Long Grove Apple Festival

July 17 2011 Reflecting

This is the first white one I've posted this year. We're just glad to have some blooms considering what kind of shape the pond was in last Monday (http://arthill.smugmug.com/Photography/Daily-Photos-2011/15281238_Twnec#1380176165_cpBvN7L-A-LB)

March 21 2012 Early bird

I'm just amazed how many daffodils have bloomed around here. Not sure I've ever seen any in March before.

January 9 2011 Hello

All my creativity has left for the time being. I've not been shooting anything and didn't even post yesterday (very unusual for me - I haven't missed in about 3 years). Wasn't planning to post today but saw that today is SP day so I set the camera on a bookcase, sat in front of that window that overlooks the backyard and pressed my remote shutter release. This is what you get. Have a great Sunday.

May 31 2012 Serenity

White water lily in our pond. It's out in the middle so I have to shoot with a telephoto. I hold the camera down at my feet and use the swivel LCD to see what I'm getting. I had five candidates for today's post. If you're interested you can see the other four here and tell me if chose the right one.

Today's high will be 53 - contrasted to 95 on Monday. Gotta go look for a jacket.

August 15 2011 A Splash of Color

to start off your week.

Gallery Categories

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Updated: Jul 30, 2008 6:21am PST

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Updated: Nov 03, 2007 7:28am PST

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9 galleries with 202 photos

Updated: Jan 11, 2012 5:18am PST

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Our House and Yard : 8 galleries with 265 photos

Our House and Yard

8 galleries with 265 photos

Updated: Jul 14, 2011 7:34am PST

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3 galleries with 115 photos

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64 galleries with 1448 photos

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5 galleries with 143 photos

Updated: Jun 16, 2011 7:21am PST

Moms Albums : 5 galleries with 140 photos

5 galleries with 140 photos

Updated: Jun 14, 2005 7:18pm PST

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6 galleries with 271 photos

Updated: Oct 04, 2012 5:14pm PST

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