I’m working on new website stuff,iqoptions but it’s going slowly, and I thought it’s past time I showed the photos from my very productive November/December road trip. All are embiggenable.

I started off driving overnight to Chicago, with the intention of getting there before dawn and spending the end of night and morning taking photos. I ended up a bit late, just before sunrise, but still had most of the morning to work with.

The rather blandly titled “Chicago Train.”

“The Reader at Millennium Park.” I probably should have grabbed a random passer-by to model this one rather than doing it myself.

“Monroe Street, Chicago.” You probably can’t tell even in the bigger version, but there are three construction workers on the building in the foreground just right of the street who are very important.

“North Loop Skyline from the Art Institute.”

I ended the day in Indiana. My intention had been to drive across Ohio and New York to get to Niagara the next night, but Snowpocalypse wasn’t having any of that, so instead I went up through Michigan in lake-effect snow the whole way, and went north of the lake through Ontario. That worked reasonably well, and I got to Niagara mid-evening.

The American falls.

And the Canadian falls.

Canadian falls shot through the rising mist. Took this one thinking of Jon, who likes subtle colors.

Canadian falls. Not sure I really like this one, but it’s there. Had to go inside and defrost all my gear after this one, it’s the 17mm on my Gorillapod hanging out over the river, and spray froze onto everything.

These are the lights that are coloring the various falls in the other photos. This is my favorite from Niagara.

I stayed the night there, worrying about the Snowpocalypse and whether I was going to get through Buffalo to Rochester at all, or have to go north around through Toronto. Looking at snow maps I decided to brave it hugging the south shore of Lake Ontario, and there was almost no snow there, the drive ended up extremely easy and I could have spent a bunch more time taking photos. Did get this one on the way out of Buffalo:

I didn’t see the reflections while I was taking the photo, and they’re easy to miss in the unprocessed one as well, but I was playing with the blue channel and up pops a parallel dimension power station. It’s obviously the cover to an industrial fantasy novel, but sadly not the parallel-dimensions-and-hydroelectric-power one I’m already avoiding work on.

Went to the Josh Ritter show that night in Rochester, then up early to drive to Boston. Got out of Rochester as the sun was rising and had to stop to take this:

I spent three days in Boston and didn’t take a single photo there, though other good and useful things were accomplished.

After Boston I went up to Vermont to have lunch with Ginger, and wandered around Lake Champlain a bit afterward. Then on to Quebec.

When I got there this was going on right outside my hotel. I actually wandered over into the cathedral grounds to take this, and the francophones setting up just watched me bemusedly. I later discovered that they were preparing to turn the cathedral into a digital Advent calendar.

Quebec is full of very characterful metal roofs. I especially liked the old/new contrast between these.

“Still Life at No. 9.”

Windows at the Musée de l’Amérique Française.

Hockey nets set up at the Séminaire de Québec.

More seminary.

The other thing Quebec is totally full of is cannons. Other cities like to keep one or two around as public art, but I don’t think Quebec ever got rid of any, and there have been a lot of cannons there over the years. It’s rather startling.

I think this one only works as a print, but it’s really nice that way.

“The Reader in Quebec.”

This is the Post office dome, from the morning I left for Montreal.

Busker in the Guy-Concordia Metro station in Montreal.

Just some neat shapes in construction.

We went to the Museum of Fine Arts. They had one architectural fine art photograph in their collection. I left with several in my camera, despite only bringing my 50mm.

Really like this one.

And their weird, 1/3-height stairs made a good photo.

Architectural abstracts are nice.

New hospital construction in downtown Montreal.

I know nothing about this building beyond its address.

A nice silhouette opportunity at the Basilica.

A lonely busker in Bonaventure Metro. It’s good I was very early for dinner, because I had to wait quite a while to get the empty hallway I wanted.

“Portrait of Jo Walton’s Hat on Her 50th Birthday.” She likes pictures of her hat better than pictures of herself.

After that I guess I felt like I had done enough, because we spent several more days in Montreal without me taking anything. Did get a few on the way home, though.

Pont Rapides des Joachims, between Ontario and western Quebec.

Lake Nipissing in some interesting late afternoon light. i was kind of skeptical of this one but Pat really liked it, so I guess I’m keeping it.

On my last day I stopped for breakfast with Sarah and got this before crossing the Mackinac Bridge on the way back to the UP to head home.

Overall I’m quite happy with that 20 days, even just from the work done, and I think some of the meta-work might end up being even more useful in the long term.