Ken Tanaka
pro member
Hello Everyone. Asher's OPF looks like a very promising new venue for serious...and even not-so-serious...photographic discourse. It looks like some very good folks are participating so it's a pleasure to join.
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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
Hello from the "Windy City"
- Thread starter Ken Tanaka
- Start date
Nill Toulme
New member
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Ken,
I know we are going to enjoy having you with us! We do have a light side but getting great prints and sharing ideas is what happens too.
Asher
I know we are going to enjoy having you with us! We do have a light side but getting great prints and sharing ideas is what happens too.
Asher
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Bonjour Ken
I've paid a short visit to your website before your post here and I admired your work done in Chicago at the Milleniium Park, I'd love a link here of an enlarged view of the "Bean", especially the one of the ones with snow and ice ! Gorgeous!
I went to Chicago at the beginning of last year for a few days (holidays) and brought only my Canon G6 instead of the MKII [holidays ;-) I've said Asher! (private joke)] and I must admit that I did regret not to have the big one... The Bean was under kind of repair... of course nothing to do with your beautifull shots, a kinda tourist point of view'(s).
BTW Are you living in Chicago?
A warm (needed!) welcome to the "Windy City" frome someone that loves and needs wind...
I've paid a short visit to your website before your post here and I admired your work done in Chicago at the Milleniium Park, I'd love a link here of an enlarged view of the "Bean", especially the one of the ones with snow and ice ! Gorgeous!
I went to Chicago at the beginning of last year for a few days (holidays) and brought only my Canon G6 instead of the MKII [holidays ;-) I've said Asher! (private joke)] and I must admit that I did regret not to have the big one... The Bean was under kind of repair... of course nothing to do with your beautifull shots, a kinda tourist point of view'(s).
BTW Are you living in Chicago?
A warm (needed!) welcome to the "Windy City" frome someone that loves and needs wind...
Ken Tanaka
pro member
Bonjour Nicolas:
Thank you for your kind comments! I am glad you visited and liked some of my work. Photographing our new Millennium Park has been a long-term project for me since it opened in July, 2004. Since I live very close to the Park I can easily visit it frequently and at times/seasons/conditions that few other people witness. It's really quite a mystical place, particularly on the front lawn of a major city.
The snowy Cloud Gate images to which I think you referred are currently located here. The image on your site was actually taken during roughly the same period. This was the final stage of the sculpture's completion, which consisted of removing all of the plate seams and grinding its belly-button (the "oomphalos" as creator Anish Kapoor calls it) to a mirror smoothness.
My other Park galleries are located here.
Thank you, again!
Thank you for your kind comments! I am glad you visited and liked some of my work. Photographing our new Millennium Park has been a long-term project for me since it opened in July, 2004. Since I live very close to the Park I can easily visit it frequently and at times/seasons/conditions that few other people witness. It's really quite a mystical place, particularly on the front lawn of a major city.
The snowy Cloud Gate images to which I think you referred are currently located here. The image on your site was actually taken during roughly the same period. This was the final stage of the sculpture's completion, which consisted of removing all of the plate seams and grinding its belly-button (the "oomphalos" as creator Anish Kapoor calls it) to a mirror smoothness.
My other Park galleries are located here.
Thank you, again!
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi ken
thanks for the reply and explanations!
My other wish was that you post here in OPF a larger version (800 pix or a little more) so everybody could see (I know some are lazy until you tease them;-) these very amazing shots of the Anish Kapor "Bean" (if I can say)... If you don't want them to be edited by some OPF members, just say "please do not edit" and that's it.
Have a good day!
thanks for the reply and explanations!
My other wish was that you post here in OPF a larger version (800 pix or a little more) so everybody could see (I know some are lazy until you tease them;-) these very amazing shots of the Anish Kapor "Bean" (if I can say)... If you don't want them to be edited by some OPF members, just say "please do not edit" and that's it.
Have a good day!
Sean DeMerchant
Inactive
Nicolas Claris said:
An odd point of fact. The Windy City is a name derived from a convention of politicians a bit over a century ago who had a conference and could not stop talking while saying nothing at all. It has nothing to do with the fact that Chicago is a cold windy city in Winter.
Be welcome Ken. Some fun shots there. I have not been in Chicago for a while, but I did live there for a couple years.
enjoy,
Sean
Ken Tanaka
pro member
Hello Sean:
As a nearly life-long Chicagoan I, too, believed that "Windy City" derived from a filibuster conducted at a late 19th century political convention by Chicago politicians. But it turns out that historians have found "Windy City" references that pre-date that convention. One of those references apparently does refer to our climate, although promoting the cool summer breezes that came across Lake Michigan rather than the biting winter winds we sometimes get. So it seems that nobody really knows the origins of that nickname.
As a nearly life-long Chicagoan I, too, believed that "Windy City" derived from a filibuster conducted at a late 19th century political convention by Chicago politicians. But it turns out that historians have found "Windy City" references that pre-date that convention. One of those references apparently does refer to our climate, although promoting the cool summer breezes that came across Lake Michigan rather than the biting winter winds we sometimes get. So it seems that nobody really knows the origins of that nickname.
Ken Tanaka
pro member
Nicolas Claris said:
Your wish is granted.
(Please do not edit.)
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
What is that made of! It's magnificent!
It goes so well with the white snow!
Asher
It goes so well with the white snow!
Asher
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
THANKS KEN!
Asher, this is a well known sculpture made by Anish Kapor for the Millenium Park of Chicago.
It is made of stainless steel (or another material looking like). It is polished like a mirror and, when not covered by ice or snow reflects old and new buildings that are close.
A pure "paradise" for graphists and photogs...
Have a look to Ken galleries, he has made beautifull shots (compare to my "touristic" ones)!
A journey into a modern town with a contemporary lake shore Park with this "bean" and a indoor/outdoor concert hall designed by.... Frank Gehry!
Enjoy!
Asher, this is a well known sculpture made by Anish Kapor for the Millenium Park of Chicago.
It is made of stainless steel (or another material looking like). It is polished like a mirror and, when not covered by ice or snow reflects old and new buildings that are close.
A pure "paradise" for graphists and photogs...
Have a look to Ken galleries, he has made beautifull shots (compare to my "touristic" ones)!
A journey into a modern town with a contemporary lake shore Park with this "bean" and a indoor/outdoor concert hall designed by.... Frank Gehry!
Enjoy!
nicolas claris
OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Thanks also to Sean to bring explanation about Chicago's name "windy city"... LOL
Ken Tanaka
pro member
Yes, Nicolas is quite correct. Cloud Gate, at approximately 66' long by 33' tall and 155 tons, is formed of highly polished stainless steel panels painstakingly welded together to form a seamless "bean". (Removal of the seams, still visible in the pre-removal image below, took a year after the sculpture was installed.) Normally it looks like this:
The "oomphalos" in the sculpture's underside, pictured below pre-seam removal, creates a disorienting whirl of reflections.
But a terrific late-season snowstorm last March temporarily deposited enough wet snow on its surface to make for the extraordinary scene you see above.
The "oomphalos" in the sculpture's underside, pictured below pre-seam removal, creates a disorienting whirl of reflections.
But a terrific late-season snowstorm last March temporarily deposited enough wet snow on its surface to make for the extraordinary scene you see above.