Breakfast In America

Those of you who've been following along already know that I've just moved to Chicagoland from the New York City area. Aside from the general feeling of being a fish out of water, the ponds here are quite different from those I've previously inhabited. Give you an example: the New York area is a hilly, sometimes mountainous, landscape. Here in Chicagoland, the landscape is flat! There's not even the slightest bit of a hill anywhere around here for miles and miles (that's why they have tornadoes tearing-up the trailer parks... no hills!). And, Chicago (proper) excepted, there's no tall buildings either.

I know what you're thinking. I know it because some of you have said it directly: What are you (meaning me) going to shoot there, Joe? In fact, my good pal Jimmy Winstead e-mailed the other day, lamenting (in solidarity with me) that there aren't any bridges in Chicago! He's wondering what the hell I'm gonna do for excitement??

Well friends, don't despair on my account. I've found a remarkable feature of the mid-western landscape, something we just don't have back home in abundance but they're everywhere out here... yeah, water towers!

Yep, you guessed it, just before sunrise this morning I went out in search of water towers. Found some, too. (actually, I've been eyeballing water towers ever since I arrived, just now acting on it)

And being out just before sunrise means I had to wake up early and forgo breakfast, which, if you know me well, you know it's not a big deal because I never eat breakfast normally. But being out and about early makes a boy powerfully hungry so I had a hankering for something breakfast-like. Now, what do you suppose a hungry guy's gonna go for at 6:00 AM, especially if the subject water tower is parked right behind a McDonald's?

Those of you who own a VitaMix blender might be thinking about a shake made of banana, fresh coconut and coconut milk, some dandelions.... you know, a green organic breakfast. Well, sorry, that's not me. Wanna know what I did? (See above!!)

PS: You may have noticed that a couple of these were made with my fish-eye lens. Yes, it's the very same fish-eye lens I wrote about back in April... the one that broke in half and I was thinking was a total loss. The wizards at Canon Professional Services fixed it!