© 2009 Mimi Azrael All rights reserved
After what seemed like weeks, but was only days, the rain finally stopped. So I went roaming around shooting puddles and odd-shaped fallen leaves. Even threw a pile of leaves up in the air fooling around with some stop-action flash and a high ISO. And, then I spotted the wet, grimy tennis ball. Tossed it a couple of times in the air. On the last toss, it hovered above the basketball hoop. No, it didn’t go in, but I got this shot.
Posted in Photography
Tagged ball, basketball, hoop, photograph, Photography, shot, stop action, tennis, up in the air
© 2009 Mimi Azrael All rights reserved
Photos from Chicago: Won’t be long before temperatures in Chicago will dip into single digits… and below! Meanwhile, while walking up Michigan Avenue last week, I saw vivid, blue, cloudless skies and temperatures in the mild 70s. Crossing Pearson, past the historic Old Water Tower (built in 1869 see below) and near the shops of Water Tower Place, I snapped the Hancock Building (all 100 stories of it) staring down at me. The day before it was shrouded in fog, so it was a welcome sight. Still, can’t imagine walking around here in February.
Later on, at dusk, I looked out our hotel window towards Lake Michigan a few blocks away. Here’s a pic I snapped of the Old Water Tower and beyond lit by the sun’s reflections in nearby buildings. Built of limestone, the Water Tower took 2 years to construct. It is not, contrary to popular belief, the only building in Chicago that survived the Great Fire 1871. It is one of several that survived, although it’s true that it is the only surviving building that remains standing. The fire killed 300 people, left 100,000 homeless, and destroyed the entire central business district of Chicago. Interestingly, though so many buildings were consumed, the home of the woman — Catherine O’Leary — in whose barn the fire supposedly began, survived.
© 2009 Mimi Azrael All rights reserved
People say that the Old Water Tower is haunted. Legend has it that the spirit a man who worked in the Tower on Sunday night, October 8, 1871, the night of the Great Fire, has been seen haunting the Tower. The man was a hero and is remembered for having stayed behind to man the water pumps as the flames approached. Rather than be consumed by the fire, he hanged himself. Chicago lore has tourists reporting that they saw the shadowy figure of a man, believed to be this man, hanging in one of the Tower’s
upstairs windows. Great Halloween tale.
Here’s an old photo of the Water Tower (from the Illinois State Historical Library showing what the area looked like long before the Hancock Building and Water Tower Place (mall) came along. The tower, now dwarfed by high rise buildings, conceals a 138′ standpipe — a reservoir that was used to maintain water pressure. Today, the building houses a Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau Visitor’s Center.
