As I’ve got nothing much else worthwhile to say right now, I’m just going to take a moment to point out that I have surpassed the 5,000 post mark on Instagram! WOO!!

...Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up phrases and clauses that balance, like.

Okay, sorry, no more Schoolhouse Rock. Though the temptation be mighty! This is about the great Conjunction in the sky... the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth that happens every 400ish years and is theorized by Johannes Kepler as being the celestial event that guided the wisemen to Jesus' birth manger in Bethlehem.

I’m really struggling right now to come up with a photography idea for 2021. I don’t want to do more macro cassette covers. I’m not sure I want to do regular macro photos. I failed miserably when I tried to do short stories based on a photo.

This morning before I started work, I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I knew it wouldn't be a long walk because it was really cold and it had snowed overnight, but I wanted to get some motion in before I spent the rest of the day sitting in front of my laptop.

Ten years ago today, I was in the midst of a Photo365 Challenge. One photo every day for a full year. I’m not sure if I finished it or not. I should really check into that. 

Back when I worked at Aurora University, my buddy Eric (the Pitchfork Music Festival-attending buddy) and I used to take this blue goo that I had for strengthening your hands and forearms and put it on top of toys and other random items and let it "melt" over them for a day or two and admire the results. I swore we used to take pictures of them, but I cannot find those photos anywhere and they pre-dated the iPhone so they're certainly not in the cloud anywhere. So I'm wondering if they actually happened or not.

On Sunday, Nathan and I went to our local park to have some 1:1 Nerf gun wars. While we were there, a guy and his son came by with a medium sized styrofoam box containing this...

One of my favorite things about Instagram is discovering an absolutely amazing photographer who also shares their skill for all on IG instead of just the professional photography sites. I mean, I really don't follow the pro sites anymore at all. Not even Flickr and I still, technically, use Flickr. 

I love you, Chicago.

Today, a month and a day ahead of the actual date, we held Nathan’s seventh birthday party. All three of us got to creative with the theme Nathan chose and everyone had a great time. 

Foodstagrammer - (noun) A person who compulsively posts pictures of their food to Instagram. 

The big news item in the Chicago area -- that has nothing to do with violence, politics, or the weather -- is that Union Pacific steam engine 4014, dubbed "Big Boy," is in town right now. Well, not Chicago exactly. West Chicago... far to the west of the Chicago proper, but only one town east of where I live. 

It’s kinda all over Instagram today... people comparing photos of themselves from today with photos from 10 years ago, presumably as close to the day as possible. 

Nathan found Photo Booth on his iPad. Oh yes, he found it alright. And I see every last one on my iPhone. 

If you’ve followed either my Instagram or Twitter accounts recently, you may have seen that we have a new houseguest. 

Beer! Glorious beer! So golden, hoppy, and scrumptious!

This past Monday, I finally started doing something that I’ve known for a while needed to begin again. I started going for early morning walks with the intent of transitioning slowly into running. 

I had completely forgotten about this photo. We were in Arlington Heights in 2010 shopping for something or other when I noticed a shattered and abandoned skateboard on the sidewalk. 

Happy belated birthday, USA! 🇺🇸 

Been collecting a few photos on my phone I’ve been wanting to share. 

At some point in time in the past, I marveled on my blog about the fickle and inexplicable nature of how people respond to posts on the web. They like what you don’t expect them to, and have zero reaction to things you think are well done or important or topical.

Being that Instagram is my only social media outlet of late, I’ve actually gone back through my feed of, oh, 3,810 posts...

With all the acquisition and splitting apart discussions regarding Yahoo of late, my photographer friends and I that have or still are users of Flickr have been wondering what will happen to our beloved photo storage/sharing app. 

Last Tuesday, Nathan asked me where the camera was on my iPhone so I showed him. He snapped these. I had no idea until I found them the other day.

Check out what I dug out of obscurity the other day. 

We took part in our next door neighbors’ annual Soup Off Challenge today. It was our first time participating and also the first time we really hung out with our neighbors. It was a lot of fun.

I’m tired. 

I’m horrified and sickened about Las Vegas.

Remember a while back when I asked if #YonduOnTerra could be my new #StorminNorman? Well, I took one giant leap towards legitimizing it. I made a new blog.

By way of celebration of his actual birthday, how about a photo recap of Nathan's previous year?

I'm just going to make it simple and give you a bunch of photos from our day. 

This is my favorite kind of weekend.

I know, I know... I still owe y'all a video for the month of June. I've got one envisioned and even have some of the source video. I just haven't gotten to work editing it.

I don't understand something. Studio photography back in the day at places like the venerated Olan Mills was expensive but not outrageous. And there were some high cost items and processes involved in the, er, process. 

Yes, a second trip into Chicago in as many weeks. Why? 200 PTO hours accrued at work, that's why. But why would you complain? You get photos of sweet cityscapes!!

Could #YonduOnTerra be my next #StorminNorman?