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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 have 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: Feb 08, 2010 10:33pm PST

February 2010 :

Updated: Feb 07, 2010 4:31am PST

January 2010 :

Updated: Jan 31, 2010 5:45am PST

Most Popular Photos

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 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.

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.

February 3 2010 Winter Continues
We got a couple of inches on snow yesterday. I shot this out our back window.
I don't do much black and white but I shot this in black and white and ended up liking it better than the color version.

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

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,"

January 1, 2010 Happy New Year

It feels strange to type 2010. This is our street, shot from my driveway. The snow is over - now we have arctic cold. It's six degrees out right now. The high tomorrow will be ten.

August 24, 2009 Joey
We never know where we're going to find him.
We'll be out of town for a few days and I'll not be online much. Have a great week.

January 28 2010 Scarlett

I'm basically a candid photographer with no experience in studio or even posing subjects. Yesterday we talked Scarlett into doing a little posing. I tried out shooting with two flashes. For a kid still over a month away from turning 3 she did a great job.

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 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

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

July 10, 2009 Water Lily in Our Pond
Often these are hard to get right with the dark water, dark red and then the white petals. And, I wish those lilly pads were green instead of yellow. But I'm pretty happy with this shot. I think these blooms are so pretty.

October 31, 2009 Happy Halloween
My daughter and granddaughters have been hard a work on jack-o-lanterns.
Our whole family was supposed to get together last night so I could get pictures of all four grandkids in their costume. My five year old grandson got the swine flu so we couldn't get together. Alas the kids won't even see each other this Halloween. I think, for a little kid, the two times you don't want to be sick are Halloween and Christmas. I don't think Kyle will even get to go trick or treating. Maybe if he has no fever this morning he can make it out for a little while this afternoon.
Update: Halloween is deteriorating rapidly for us. Now Lindsey has the fever and cough, Braden seems lethargic. Only Scarlett is okay for now. So, I'm not going to have much in the way of Halloween costume pictures. Our town has a Halloween walk this morning; Lindsey is going to miss that and probably won't be able to trick or treat. Party at her house tonight is cancelled too. Sheesh

August 4, 2009 Water Lily in Our Pond
I had to ship my camera off to Canon yesterday and they think it will be gone for 3-4 weeks, sob. So I'll have to muck along with my old Nikon Coolpix 88. I'm so hooked on DSLR's that I'm kinda bummed. But, in the big scheme of things it's a pretty minor annoyance. One thing that is nice about the old camera is that with the swivel LCD I can take shots from a low vanatage point. For this one I was actually holding the camera below the edge of the pond, Couldn't do that with my Canon :-) Anyway I guess you'll get to see if I can keep up the high standard here without my main stuff.
I want to thank everbody for the great response to my last week of posts - I've been having a pretty good run. All of those have moved up pretty quickly to prminent spots on my most popular list.

September 6, 2009 Scarlett listening to a ghost story
Lindsey and Scarlett came to our house for an impromptu sleepover. Grandma was telling them a ghost story. I liked sepia for this but didn't want to give up those blue eyes so I chose selelctive coloring.

August 17, 2009 Rising above it all
One of these days I promise to post something besides a water lily :-)
Thanks to all of you who have commented on my efforts here. I'm glad that I can share my pond with so many people.

Januaryt 10 2010 Lindsey and Kyle

My two five year old grandkids during a rare moment when they stopped playing long enough to "allow" me to take their picture. :-)

It's zero right now with a windchill of minus 14. I'm getting tired of this so no winter picture today.

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

July 28, 2009 Fireworks over the city
I find fireworks to be a challenging subject to begin with. Shooting them from a moving sailboat moves the difficulty up another notch. I brought a monopod and fired away. Lots of shots were no good just because of boat movement but I thought this one came out pretty good. Lots of luck involved. The fireworks display was fantastic - we heard it is even better than the 4th of July and we would agree. Shot from the Tall Ship Windy.

January 8, 2009 Our Street
Last night about 8:30. 15 second exposure. Looking North from in front of my driveway.

August 22, 2009 Our backyard
I've shown you the pond and a view from up near the house. I just wanted to sort of complete the "tour" by shooting something back toward the house. I'm standing about in the middle of the backyard. The pond is there to the left.

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