Eurotrip 2009

Hallstatt, Austria, where Jonas and I are spending a couple days, (bookended by London, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest!), from March 28-April 11.

Brian Newman

Brian Newman, on the last warm day of 2008.

Jonas and the kids

Three Years Later...

So... three years later and I'm still in Chicago! I'd completely forgotten about this blog until I stumbled upon it this morning! Just after my last blog entry I met Jonas, who's amazing (and not just in the over-used sense of that word), and we decided we'd have more opportunity to travel and to purchase a home (which we did, in the South Loop!) if we stayed in this part of the country for now. We may still head to a coastal city eventually, but for now we're pretty content. :o)
Now that Chicago is thawing out from one of the snowiest winters on record, I'll be diving back into photography and updating this blog frequently.

-D.

(The photo above was taken from our balcony when Jonas and I were in Zermatt, Switzerland in 2007.)

From Above

This is my apartment on Elm Street as seen from the 96th floor of the Hancock Building. The towers in the foreground are the top points of the Four Seasons Hotel, where i worked when I first arrived in Chicago eight years ago.

New Beginning...

I started this blog a few months ago, but initially my entries were few and far between because I was living with someone who had a large enough amount of fame to warrant me censoring myself, but since then I've been given permission to write anything I want, so this will be my first completely honest blog entry.

I've decided to finally make the move to San Francisco that I've been talking about pretty much my whole life. It's a little nerve-racking, for many reasons. First and foremost there's the fear of not finding a comparable if not better job in a city I'm so unfamiliar with. There's the high cost of living, coupled with my questionable credit standing, and there's the fact that I'm leaving behind a lot of the best friends I've made in the last eight years. Oh, and there's that whole earthquake thing. I'm sure it'll take awhile before it sinks in that I'm not on vacation and won't be heading back to the Windy City after a few weeks. I guess if I don't end up as happy as I'm hoping I'll be I could always come back, but I have to be sure that I've really given it a chance.

Tonight was the second of the three Madonna concerts that Wil bought me tickets to for my birthday. Even though I probably preferred the Re-Invention Tour of two years ago, it was still pretty amazing. Not to mention Steven Klein's astounding visuals, which just reinforce his place as my biggest creative inspiration as a photographer.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now because I have quite the busy week ahead. The hotel is sold out for Neocon, and I have something going on just about every night after work. Saturday I have the Jewel and Rob Thomas concert with my friend Brian, Sunday is my 36th birthday party at Lakeview Broadcasting Company, Monday will be the third night of Madonna with Wil (with floor seats!!!), and next week I have the Keane concert with Josh and Superman Returns in IMAX 3D on friday. Yay!!!

See you next time...

Tom Cruise

OK, so this is completely unrelated to photography, but I had to vent it somewhere. What is with this big Tom Cruise backlash? Are people actually avoiding his movies because of his Scientology beliefs and comments on medication use? I think he's crazy just as much as the next guy, because he's over-quoted and over-exposed and hating him seems to be in style, but is that really a reason to avoid someone's films? I understand if you're not a fan of his acting, or you don't particularly enjoy the types of movies he makes, but why would anyone boycott someone because of their private life? Who cares? Do I think he was out of line to comment on Brooke Shields' post-partem depression? Of course. Obviously he seems misinformed and should mind his own business, but I'm still not clear on how that effects his acting ability. Nevermind that his costars and directors seem to speak highly of him, it shouldn't be that important to the American public what a celebrity thinks. They're not running for some decision-making public office. They're just people who are over-paid because that's become acceptable in our culture. And more to the point, as a gay man I can relate to being shunned because of what I believe. Maybe he's really gay too, as many seem to believe, maybe he's not. Maybe he's homophobic, maybe he's not. Maybe his marriage is a publicity stunt, maybe he's actually in love. I just think it's sad that people worry about his point of view as though it directly effects their lives. Just pay for your groceries and leave the Inquirer on the rack. There are more pressing issues in the world today than Tom Cruise.

Easter Morning

Techically it's Easter morning in Chicago, although actually still the wee hours of Saturday night, and I'm typing this in the window of my new bedroom, far above the twinkling lights and surging taxicab traffic of Rush Street. It's very "Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor". :o) My room-mate and I exchanged Easter baskets early, so I plan on spending the actual holiday tomorrow finishing packing up the old place at Addison and Lake Shore Drive in preparation for the final part of my big move next week. There are so many boxes to pack, and so much to give or throw away if I'm going to successfully simplify my life and break this generations-old pack-rat tradition. It's kind of weird to close up boxes of books and dishes that won't see the light of day again until I find my new California home in the fall. I'm lucky I have friends to help me out until then, so I can avoid signing another year-long lease here in Chicago. By Christmas I'll be settled somewhere far west of here; hopefully in a surprisingly affordable little apartment nestled in the hills of San Francisco, surrounded by its highrises, parks, staircases and trolley tracks, with a backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge and the sparkling blue Pacific beyond. Sounds pretty nice. Until then, I still have six months of summer concerts and street fairs, beach days and road trips, in a city that's been pretty good to me over the past eight years. Hopefully I'll be here long enough to see one last change of leaves as fall colors the city with brown-leaf littered streets and bright orange and yellow hued tree branches. Then I can get out just before the "hawk" blows in. I promise to have more photos next time...

Brian

These are a few of the photos I shot yesterday for my friend Brian's MySpace profile. We just shot some casual stuff in my living room window and on the fire escape, and we were both pretty happy with the results. I've been working too many hours and preparing to move all week, so these posts and any new photos are, for now, going to be few and far between.

The Beginning...

I'm starting this blog to document the photos I take as I strive to advance myself toward a career in photography.
So far I'm still self-taught and have a long way to go, but as I prepare to relocate to San Francisco later this year, my biggest goal is to enhance the skills that I have, and pick up those that I need, so that eventually I can make my living as a photographer. I've always believed that you'll only find true happiness when you're doing what you really love, and for me this is it. These photos were all taken recently, but many previous photographs will be added as soon as I get a high quality scanner. A lot of the pictures I'm most proud of were taken prior to purchasing my digital camera.