Contrasts by taffy

Contrasts

I spotted this as I left the federal building in downtown Chicago after getting pages added to my passport for our upcoming trip to France tomorrow (did you know you need four blank pages to leave the country? I didn't...oops! I now know that plus what it costs to get an expedited response). To me, this scene captures contrasts of all kind, and that's what I'm hoping to experience over the next 10 days in rural France and then 3 days in Barcelona.

I am running out of time -- still packing tonight and tomorrow is still a work day, so I'd like to thank you for your wonderful response to the 'keyboard' walkway yesterday and to yet another gritty subway shot. I'll be on sporadically over the next day to comment on your photos, but I don't know the internet situation once we get there. I may have to look at this as a bit of a Year 2 break. Thanks for your continued support and have a good couple of weeks, just in case!
Looks like two separate photos. Very cool capture. Wishing you a wonderful and safe trip.
May 14th, 2014  
Striking contrast between the metal fire escape stairways on the building on the left and the flower boxes of the residence on the right! Great eye to capture these side by side. Have a wonderful trip to France and Spain!
Barcelona is a city of amazing art and architecture.
May 14th, 2014  
Sounds very exciting! Have a great trip & I hope you experience all you hope to, take plenty of pics
May 14th, 2014  
Fantastic picture. Hope you have a great trip.
May 14th, 2014  
Great contrasts Taffy - well spotted! Have a safe journey and a super holiday! Two great destinations with so many photo opportunities! Can't wait to see your holiday snaps! Lol!
May 14th, 2014  
Great shot. I do enjoy my daily dose of urban America. It interests and intrigues me. Happy travels.
May 14th, 2014  
this is wonderful, you have a great eye.
May 14th, 2014  
Great composition and enjoy the trip to France.
May 14th, 2014  
What a beautiful image, fav
May 14th, 2014  
Great image, love those stairs
May 14th, 2014  
Super image of contrasting styles
May 14th, 2014  
Great contrast in styles
May 14th, 2014  
I can feel your excitement.
Looking forward to sharing your trip.
May 14th, 2014  
Nice contrasts! Have a great trip and looking forward to seeing your images from France and Spain!
May 14th, 2014  
Well then!...Bon Voyage! You'll certainly return with fabulous photos! Rural France sounds blissful, and Barcelona was a favorite of Ken's and mine. Luxuriate in it all!

Your image has such strongly contrasting images, it's as though you spliced them together. The one on the right looks as though it's been to France, too!
May 14th, 2014  
Great shot, fantastic composition. I hope you have a fantastic and safe trip. Can't wait to see some of the photos, please tell me you are taking your camera :-)
May 14th, 2014  
This is so very well spotted. Quite scarily clever
May 14th, 2014  
Fab shot with a perfect title. Have a great time over the next 2 weeks sounds like it's going to be amazing, it'll certainly be different to Chit town! Looking forward to seeing what you snap.
May 14th, 2014  
Very well captured contrasts
May 14th, 2014  
Neat perspective. It looks like two different neighborhoods.
May 14th, 2014  
Love it*)FAV*)
May 14th, 2014  
Great contrast between the old and homey, and the modern.
May 14th, 2014  
Well spotted...lovely contrast of colour, of texture, of architectural style...

Enjoy your trip...looking forward to your pictures!
May 14th, 2014  
love that building on the left. It's interesting how there is the same yellow lighting in all the windows. Have a good trip!
May 14th, 2014  
oh you got this spot on!! and look at the fancy lights inside the one on the right...............
May 14th, 2014  
Jo
What an amazing eye you have - I love the contrast of architecture, colours and style. Fabulous.
May 14th, 2014  
Great shot! Have a wonderful trip!
May 14th, 2014  
Great shot... the pictures are there and you see them just right! fav
Have a wonderful trip!
May 14th, 2014  
Well spotted. Wonderful contrasts. Love the glowing lights inside the one on the left and the little twinkles of light in the one on the right. Have a safe and wonderful trip!!
May 14th, 2014  
Great contrasts! And have so much fun in France! I absolutely loved it there both times I went.

I'm not so sure about this in rural France, but when I was in Paris for a month for study abroad we bought a month wifi pass through a company called Orange. They run through hot spots all over France (it may give you an option to use them and pay for it once you boot your computer). I think it's easier to pay for the month pass though, I initially bought the one for 10 hrs and it goes pretty quickly....They may have more options by now since this was back in 2010 that I used it.
May 14th, 2014  
Great composition and contrast! Love it!
May 14th, 2014  
You've captured this perfectly, nice shot. Have a great trip.
May 14th, 2014  
The textures and architecture is interesting! Hope u have a great time..can't wait to see what u bring back to us...stay safe! Fav!
May 14th, 2014  
Awesome shot
May 14th, 2014  
fabulous shot - great eye to have caught this. Love the contrasts, textures and the lights inside of that window just perfect it for me. FAV :) Wishing you safe travels.
May 14th, 2014  
The patterns and contrasts here are really eye-catching. Have a great trip to France!
May 14th, 2014  
Love the contrast. Four blank pages to leave. How many to get back in?
May 14th, 2014  
Well seen and captured! Travel safe! Looking forward to seeing your work from your trip!
May 14th, 2014  
Oh yes. I love a good contrast. This is great.
May 14th, 2014  
Nice example of contrast
May 14th, 2014  
@ithinkithunk Thanks Kristin -- this is helpful info! I just found out that the house we've rented uses Orange, so am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work easily for us, at least when we are at the house. So exciting!
May 14th, 2014  
@karlow75 Made me smile -- @jyokota and I have been emailing about lenses for the past few days and each agreed that four is the minimum!
May 14th, 2014  
@Weezilou I thought the same thing about the right hand window -- sort of provencal (?) looking. We're all really excited about the trip.
May 14th, 2014  
@ceilidh :-) Had a big grin and your comment! Had to pay an extra $60.00 even though I had enough boxes for at least this trip in both directions. Oh well...
May 14th, 2014  
Love the contrast. Have a great trip in France and Spain.
May 14th, 2014  
Sounds fabulous. I wish I could stow away in your luggage. Safe travels and have a wonderful time. We'll look forward to your return.
May 14th, 2014  
Wonderful symmetry and contrasts - you lucky thing. Barcelona has always been one of my favourite cites - have a great time.
May 14th, 2014  
Wow, looks like collage. Well spotted and great composition and contrast!
May 14th, 2014  
Fabulous shot and composition, Indeed great contrasts between black & white and old & new. Have fun in France and Barcelona, plenty of photo opportunities there, look forward to your shots.
May 14th, 2014  
@taffy Hi Taffy...it's Ken... you may already know this, but if you have a computer and wifi connection, Skype is a very inexpensive way to make phone calls from Europe. You can call a land line or cell phone. You will need to purchase some Skpe credits which you can do easily on their website. As I recall, when we were in Spain calling our daughter in Chicago, the cost was about 2 or 3 cents/minute.
May 14th, 2014  
Instant fav. Enjoy your trip!
May 14th, 2014  
@Weezilou Thanks Ken! I do use Skype -- it's great -- but I'd forgotten that I need to add to my account. Thanks for the reminder!
May 14th, 2014  
Great contrasts,a super find and capture!! Have a great trip. Look forward to seeing your photos on your return!!
May 14th, 2014  
Love the contrasts in this. Have a great holiday Taffy :)
May 14th, 2014  
A marvellous shot. Fav
May 14th, 2014  
An inviting spot in the city... have a wonderful trip... look forward to photos!
May 14th, 2014  
So beautiful, fantastic shot
May 14th, 2014  
great shot fav
May 14th, 2014  
Great composition
May 14th, 2014  
Ok! So, I am your get pushed partner this week. I've reviewed your photos, and was surprised to see many photos that I recognize from other posts in discussions and a few trending shots, etc. That was great.

Your focus is obviously mostly on architecture and forms. So, I was thinking about a couple of possible challenges:
1. Portrait of a person doing their normal job or duty - for example a shop keeper in their shop, a barista making drinks, a florist arranging flowers. There aren't a lot of people shots in your albums, and I thought especially that this people photo should include the entire context around the subject.

2. Landscape natural - less urban. Many of your photos are beautiful but are mostly urban shots. Since you will be traveling it will be a nice time for a lovely natural landscape with no buildings, and preferably no man made objects. :)

Sound ok?
I've been working on photos that show where I live, and I think I am going to do a collage?
May 14th, 2014  
@adambralston Sounds good Adam. I should be able to do one or the other of these this weekend and it hopefully will be an interesting take on something not typical of Chicago.
May 14th, 2014  
Wonderful photo. Does look like two photos. Great find. Fav
May 14th, 2014  
I always love seeing these contrast shots in your wonderful city.
May 14th, 2014  
Have a wonderful holiday by the way....
May 14th, 2014  
You make Chicago look so good!

Wishing you the best of travels and experiences while you're away.
May 15th, 2014  
Great eye. Wonderful contrasts. I wouldn't want to have to run down those stairs in an emergency. :)
May 15th, 2014  
Super shot! The window is so beautiful!
May 15th, 2014  
Congratulations on making the Trending Page. Well deserved.
May 15th, 2014  
Fantastic contrast. Nicely spotted.
May 15th, 2014  
Lovely shot! Makes me wonder what's going on inside. Have a fabulous trip to France (how could it not be?). Looking forward to seeing your photos of course!
May 15th, 2014  
Love the contrast of the buildings. Enjoy your trip, sounds amazing.
May 15th, 2014  
I thought this was a collage. Have a safe and great trip.
May 15th, 2014  
Love contrast, especially love the window on the right with the window box and gorgeous lights on inside.
Safe travels, enjoy France and Spain.....looking forward to seeing your photos on your return.
Fav
May 16th, 2014  
So glad you got your passport taken care of in time. And what a fabulously contrasty image! I can't believe you caught such a wonderful contrast in one frame.
May 16th, 2014  
What a great shot. What are pages? I hope you have a wonderful trip and we get to see some wonderful photos when you have time or internet or return. I sure would be having fun and wait on posting and or commenting. ENJOY!
May 16th, 2014  
@darsphotos HI Darlene -- pages are literally pages where they stamp exit and entry and put in visas. You need four blank ones before they let you out of the country. So, I only had 3 blank pages left (passport is about 7 years old) and had to expedite for one day service to get 48 more added, as that's our only option here. Now the passport looks fatter but has mostly blank pages in it!
May 17th, 2014  
@taffy I am glad you got that taken care of. I have never had a passport before so had no idea. Thanks for explaining.
May 17th, 2014  
I love this - such a fantastic contrast that at first I thought it was something created it photoshop.
May 18th, 2014  
cool shot
May 30th, 2014  
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