A friend, father and a good guy

Death again has befallen the Spoo family. My wife's childhood friends father passed away last night after a valiant but loosing battle with lung cancer. Roy was your basic good guy. I met him and at my wedding to Karen. His presence was a surprise to my wife who said Roy did not leave the house much. It was cool to me that he showed up with his wife and family. Roy and his wife Marylyn had became part of my family. As my wife said  when you marry it is not just the spouse you get you get the entire family.  I last spoke to Roy about 2 weeks ago. He was in bed mostly but cracked jokes and wanted to watch football. His passing is a loss for me in a way that I have not experienced in the past. Roy will be a missing piece of the Spoo family.
Rest in peace Roy. Say hello to Walter and Ronnie.

Miss you.

Are we too quick to post photos.

Please read one of my mentors blogs about Youtube and my response to it. For all the shooters I know it may open your eyes to what the current state of printed media is.

http://tinyurl.com/u
Sorry for the flipping between web pages. (read the Tribune link first then the my comments.)

Giving Mr. Williams the money is not the issue in my mind. It is more why did the story sit? What was the hold up with the photojournalist? Did his boss quash the story and then the journalist put it on YouTube? I don't know these answers. What concerns me is that the quality of shooting weather stills or video has come to the grab it with whatever and post it. Post production is nonexistent. Back in the old days when George Eastman and I were shooting the time from shot to picture could be a couple of hours and you could think about what you shot and print it with your desired effect. Now we carry computers, routers, wireless transmission devices and to quote Alex "poof" it is gone and up. Speed to get the story "up" may have become our enemy. Could that be why the printed media is in the shape that it is in and TV news is Jerry Springer with a good rack?

A note to Mr. Williams please do a couple of things with your new found celebrity status.  One is to get a haircut and some psychiatric care and finally get your jibs fixed.

Finally Alex if you read this please know that your blog makes me think and hopefully improve as a photographer.

-30-

Fire Heaven in the Hood

I was out with my son yesterday and our travels took us to downtown Aurora. For the last few years living in gods country I have passed this old fire station on Rt 25. It is next to the main firehouse. It is the Aurora Regional Fire Museum. We stopped in for a visit and IT WAS FANTASTIC!. Lots of displays well thought out and the curator there to answer all questions and shed more light it fire history. If you get a chance to stop by do so. They are open on weekends. Google search them for their web page.
It is great for kids and adults (ok that act like kids)

Life and Passing

My neighbor from my childhood passed away today. I have not seen him in years. I connected with his daughter via Facebook a while back and just had casual conversation with her. She messaged me 2 nights ago that her dad was going into hospice and last night messaged me that he passed.
His passing has made me feel older than normal. When your a child you never think of someone you know passing away, this one just seems closer to home.

Rest In Peace Bill.

Love to Gail, Robin and John.

Street Shots

The family went to Chicago for the day looking at holiday lights and decorations. Since I have decided to increase the amount of what I shoot I decided to post theses. 

First National Bank Building 

The Bean or waste of money?

Close up with snow of the Bean

Add your own title 

Add you own title again 

Kind of a cool alley shot 

The light looked cool 

Inside of a book store