You may want to see Ken's winning picture (http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=146893) in the Fred Miranda weekly photo contest. Congratulations Ken, fantastic shot.

Beautiful image, Ken! I love the color of the sky.

Beautiful indeed! Congratulations Ken!! I thought the Lyon image
was very nice as well, some awesome work there...

(wondering how the second prize picture looks, doesn't load at
this point in time)

Wow... beautiful shot Ken!

MMMmmmmm......
Giant chrome donut....
Aaaaaarrrhhh.... (drool)

Aww shucks, fellas. Thanks very much for your very kind remarks. Coming from you guys it really means a lot!

Ken - you are a Master! - I've emailed you .. truly inspiring work . . very very beautiful . . .

Graham Bernard

kewl ken!!!! =). nice job! can you spec us the still cam you shot it with?

Sure. Here's the shot at my PBase gallery (http://www.pbase.com/tanakak/image/35515097&exif=Y) showing the full Exif data. I actually performed very little post work on the shot. Trimmed a tiny slice from the bottom, dropped color temperature by 50 deg. K added -very moderate- sharpening and that's about it.

MMMmmmmm......
Giant chrome donut....
Aaaaaarrrhhh.... (drool)I believe that is the monument to the Chicago Policemen and Women.

How are they going to keep that thing shiny? It's going to need polishing every day. (Pray it never hails.)

That's a good question. The sculpture seems to be relatively self-cleaning just from rain. Honestly it looks just as clean today as it did when it opened in July. The only stuff that seems to be deposited on it is gull poop. For some reason, probably because of their broad feet, seagulls often pose atop it. Only 2-3 can stand on the top without slipping down but it's pretty comical to see. I've been trying to get a shot of them but I've not yet gotten just the right angle and light.

Regarding hail, this thing would laugh at a hailstorm. It's 150 tons of polished stainless steel panels. A hailstone wouldn't stand a chance.

Technically, the sculpture is not completed. Sometime in the next few months it will be re-enclosed and all of the panel joints will be welded and polished to make the entire piece seamless.

Here's the namesake shot of Cloud Gate (http://www.pbase.com/tanakak/image/32907310).

Equally fascinating is the view from underneath this sculpture. Here are just a few shots (http://www.pbase.com/tanakak/belly) to illustrate.

Those are some great shots -- the original, winning photo in particular. And while that sculpture in and of itself is certainly a subject that many of us would love to capture, I think it is clearly your talent as a photographer (understanding compostion, etc) that really makes that picture a winner. Good show!

dAMN kEN

That is truly a wonderful photograph. Such a nice composition and interesting subject matter.

(Nice shots all of them)

A winner and with tough competion too! There were alot of nice pictures there.
I can't see YOUR reflection Ken.. Where are you?

WOW a canon mark II!!! isn't that piece of work two XL2s or so? it's either that or 1.5x price of XL2. very expensive. that means if you ever grab a XL2 you can interchange the EOF lenses =^). kewl! man... that's a nice still cam.

Thanks so much for your remarks John B., John H, and Alfred!

<<<-- Originally posted by Alfred Okocha : A winner and with tough competion too! There were alot of nice pictures there.
I can't see YOUR reflection Ken.. Where are you? -->>>

Ah, there's therein lies the magic! Actually the convexity of the surface really pushes your reflection off to the distance. This shot really illustrates this (http://www.pbase.com/tanakak/image/35515100), as you can see the reflection of that couple appears to be quite distant.

Competition at Fred Miranda is generally very tough. There are many terrific photogs there. This past week the competition extended to two weeks and, consequently, we had over 90 entries.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I believe that is the monument to the Chicago Policemen and Women. -->>>


LOL!


That one made my day... Thanks!