I took this photo while driving through Door County, Wisconsin. My girlfriend was behind the wheel. 

This is a famous, modernist bridge in the small town of Columbus, Indiana. Erected in 1999, it is called the Robert Stewart Bridge, previously known as the Second Street Bridge. It was renamed in 2013 in honor of Columbus’s former mayor.

In fact, it was renamed by former Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who went to high school in Columbus. During an architecture tour of Columbus, the guide mentioned the town is very proud of its connection to Vice President Pence, and most of the people on the tour (myself included) basically looked at our feet without reacting. I happened to take this tour on the same day Pence walked out of a football game as part of a very expensive, tax-payer funded political stunt meant to sow resentment for the black NFL athletes protesting racial injustices in the US.  

I debated whether I should post another picture of Andy the cat, considering it’s only been a week since my last post about Andy. Clearly, I relented. Who can say no to that face? 

I find myself hard pressed to think of many people or things that brings me as much joy as this furry little friend. His curious face, the chirps he lets out when he jumps around, his ‘hello’ meows when I greet him after work, all these things make my heart melt on a daily basis. 

Last Friday, I had time to kill after work, before some evening plans. Andy was circling around the room with me, so I grabbed my camera, lied down on the floor, and began to look for new perspectives. Andy is usually photographed from above, so for this shoot, I got closer and beneath him. 

This is Maude. A Great Dane from Oak Park and the only dog I know that’s also a product model on Amazon. She’s a sweet girl, but very heavy. 

This is one of my closest and oldest friends, Daniel Fiddler. We’ve had some good times. 

This picture came out of a photo shoot we did a couple years ago, in his parents’ backyard in Skokie. Fiddler concealed his left hand so other musicians wouldn’t know what chord he’s playing. The truth is, I don’t think he was playing any chord. I think he was giving me the fingah.

Like any good tourist, I spent a week in Europe visiting various museums. During our stay in Paris, we naturally ended up at The Louvre. By and large, it’s a fine museum with an impressive collection. Anyone who appreciates the arts (or gadgetry, as the museum has an attached Apple store...) should absolutely see the world’s largest art museum if the opportunity presents itself. Be prepared to encounter very large crowds, however. Fortunately, the museum is large and spacious enough that the sheer volume of people is manageable.

The worst crowds, by far, were at the Palace of Versailles. We took a bike tour of the land surrounding the palace, which was fabulous. Biking proved to be an excellent way to take in the town and learn a bit about the history surrounding the Palace. Because the land is so vast, although you encounter other people, it probably won’t feel particularly crowded. The Palace interior is another story. For some reason, tourists often lack any sense of self awareness. If you are moving down a small hallway in a crowded museum, it is NOT OKAY to suddenly stop walking and form a traffic jam. This is tourist etiquette 101, write it down. Commit it to memory. Repeat the sentence while meditating.

My favorite and most memorable museum visits were in Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum and The Van Gogh Museum almost brought me to tears. The beauty and excellence collected at The Rijks was unlike anything I had ever seen. The Dutch masters were actually decent little doodlers. Likewise, The Van Gogh Museum taught me more than I ever knew about the artist. In fact, I knew very little about him before visiting his collection - I didn’t even know he ended his own life. His life story is told in written excerpts beside his paintings. It’s a story of loneliness, family, friendship, and mental health. Van’s (can I call him that?) dedication to his craft inspired me to resume this blog, after the unnecessarily long hiatus I wrote about last week.

Occasionally, my coworker asks me to take photos of small parts we use to build product. I don’t own a macro lens, so I take these photos through a microscope. 

Circuitboards are my favorite to photograph. They look like small, futuristic cities. Details emerge that, despite my relatively good vision, are too small to spot with the naked eye. 

I was in Amsterdam a couple weeks ago with my girlfriend. I took this photo outside our favorite coffee shop, Mr. K. 

There’s so much I can say about Amsterdam. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited, and would live there in a heartbeat. The canals, dude. The canals. 

I especially love how everyone in the city bikes. Old people, young people, newborn babies, adorable little dogs, maybe even the Dutch king and queen, everyone. A couple of the bikes in this photo have a metal bench above the rear wheel. While these can be used to carry things, I saw a bunch of people riding on the back of someone’s bikes while sitting on these benches. On Friday night, I was walking home from a Dutch Magic the Gathering tournament (it had always been my dream to play Magic in a foreign country, and I got to do an FNM in the basement of a board game bar), and I saw a young woman on a bike engage someone walking down the street. I’m not sure what they were saying, because they were speaking Dutch, but eventually the person on the street jumped on the back of the cyclist’s bike and they rode off together. The cyclist never even stopped moving. It was an impressive sight. I’ve never seen someone do that in Chicago. Where I come from, we stand on pegs. 

This is my cat’s author photo. His name is Andy, and his young adult fantasy series will be released via eBook soon.

My first post of 2017. What have I been doing with my time? Whatever the answer is, I should have devoted more time for blogging. 

This is a taxidermy deer on display at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City. I visited New York in February to celebrate a year of dating my girlfriend. This was my first time at the Natural History museum, and the place is a hoot. When this deer was alive, it was killed by President Theodore Roosevelt. Maybe not. I don’t know, the guy killed a lot of animals. 

My favorite photo of 2016. I shot this last month during the annual Festival of Lights Parade on Michigan Ave.