hello, louis. (you're looking lovely.)

hello, louis. (you're looking lovely.)
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Roadside stop to see Louis Sullivan's Merchants Bank in Grinnell, Iowa. I wasn't expecting the green-patina gilt running along the columns and the facade, but the impact in the weak winter sun is remarkable.

It's Sunday, which means the bank is closed and we couldn't get a peek at the interior, so we had to make what we could of the art glass from the outside. Still: stunning.

Most remarkable is the way this jewel box by the grand-daddy of the Prairie School who fathered the emergence of modern architecture feels right at home in the quiet farming town of Grinnell, wearing its Sunday best without putting on airs.

Like the well-mannered Midwesterner it is.

Posting by cameraphone on the road home.

sweet j3sus I travel a lot

Decided to dump a ton of pictures off my cameraphone in preparation for the upcoming trip. Found that there are a bunch on there that I never posted but that I felt partial to for one reason or another and kept around. Decided to upload an assortment to Flickr with some notes so I'd have them.

For the brave: The slideshow is here. If you clickthrough rather than watching it here in the page you'll be able to mouseover the image and click once to turn on the (i) for info notes for the stories behind the shots. Each shot also bears a date stamp if you want to know when they happened. For the most part I've posted them in chronological order.

Realized -- not for the first time -- how much blogging is like keeping a diary -- how it helps me keep track of time passing, how it helps me remember the moments that matter -- as well as all the little ones that you think don't, but in the aggregate do.

The "I should have dumped these cameraphone shots a long time ago" Retrospective »

trial run

trial run
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo

Having spotted my cameraphone shots on Flickr, Nokia was kind enough to loan me the N95 to play with for a three week run. The phone arrived almost two weeks ago, but I've been on the run myself and only able to play with it this AM. Loaded in an old SIM card from a Nokia that I used once upon a time before I recalled I used it with an AT&T account -- my current account is with TMobile, so no phone for me for this trial, but I'm able to browse the web via the wireless at home. (Nice option.)

Early thoughts: Web browsing is lovely, but the idea of having a cameraphone pull focus? Unnerving. That grainy crazy pixelated quality is what I love about cameraphone photography -- at 5 megapixels this baby may be too uptown for me.

(I recently had dinner with a fellow who works on the camera for the Sidekick (aka strippers' phone of choice. my v is the 3) -- he showed me a prototype with all kinds of megapixel action for an upcoming release -- I begged him no. Please. I don't want to lose the low-fi effect. He was a sweetheart and said maybe he'd build a low-fi option into the software.)

Also lonely for my full-size keyboard -- the Nokia N95 has a traditional phone keypad, which means a lot of cycling through characters before you get where you want to go.

But not ready to write it off just yet -- I'll play awhile first. Don't want to let the good folks at Nokia down after they were so generous.

Next up: Video.

chin's

chin's
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Chin's Chop Suey
To Take Home

Posting by cameraphone
from Glen Ellyn, IL

for the love of a crafty girl

for the love of a crafty girl
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Sitting standby at La Guardia yesterday, this business traveler couldn't get enough of the crafty girl's beadwork to his left.

She never seemed to notice that he couldn't pull his eyes away from the careful attentions she paid to the project in her lap.

parking private

parking private
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Flickr'ng by cameraphone from Vancouver, WA

22 cranes

22 cranes
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

I can count 22 building cranes outside my window at the Bellagio Hotel, and I suspect there are more hiding behind that tower.

Posting by cameraphone from Las Vegas, NV

ceci n'est pas Paris

ceci n'est pas Paris
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

The architecture of the Las Vegas strip baffles me: It's all skin and allusion (flesh and illusion, too). This was shot last night outside "Paris", a hotel/casino that emulates, well, Paris.

Spent the afternoon tooling around the old Las Vegas downtown, however, and all its sleeping neon and Googie wonderfulness.

That area, for some reason, although it's rundown and slowly dying out and the foot traffic is only a fraction of the Strip, feels authentic and real and right (or as right as Vegas is ever going to be).

Posting by cameraphone. Real pics to follow soon.

motoring into vegas

motoring into vegas
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Play day scampering on rocks and shooting 5K year old rock art.

Work begins tomorrow -- in Las Vegas for a conference-like-thing.

coda

From page A3 of today's New York Times (read: beaucoup bucks to run this puppy): A Saks Fifth Avenue ad for a "Printed Led-Zeppelin zip-front hoodie, $145"

so. wrong.

Lincoln slept here.

Lincoln slept here.
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

The bed from the boarding house where President Lincoln was taken and laid after Booth did his drama queen thing at the Ford Theatre.

He would be moved to the White House before he passed away.

Why do they always get the good ones?


Shot at the Chicago History Museum.

soul ever lift

soul ever lift
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

I have no idea where I took this.


Maybe on a window.

Maybe on the L.