Pause by Chipka
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Description
It rained this morning. The entire city of Chicago vanished beneath a torrent of raindrops the size of marbles. Clouds, like something curdled, whispered across the sky. There was no real thunder, no appreciable lightening. Within an hour, the downpour exhausted itself and whimpered into a drizzle, before the blanket of clouds tore and allowed a few hours of sunlight to raise the city’s humidity.
During a break in the rain, I took a break. As is my habit, I took my camera with me. Though I can’t say that my job is the most fascinating job on the planet (I don’t get to wrangle any interesting animals, after all) I can say that it occupies an interesting building. There is a safe in one of the offices: that particular safe is a part of the original building architecture. It’s nearly a vault. It’s an obvious bank safe, an obvious ancient thing, hewn from a single, enormous ingot, it seems. No one knows the combination and so the safe has been permanently jimmied. It doesn’t close. It doesn’t lock. But it’s there. That is an interesting element of my workplace, and a few of my fellow employees are of considerable interest, especially one particular individual (he’s easy on the eyes: actually, he's cute to the point of distraction) who speaks Spanish as his native language, and English as his other native language. The thing is, he speaks both with the exact same accent, and if you were to simply catch a snippet of something he’s saying to someone, it’s nearly impossible to tell which of his native languages he speaks; it's quite disconcerting. He’s not the person in this picture. I don’t know who that person is. I didn’t even know that there was a person here, until I cropped this shot in order to post it.
This is but a glimpse of Chicago; a brief span of sunlight held in suspension between bouts of hissing, whispering torrential rain. I liked the play of light and the red-painted bricks of my work place. I liked sense of place, and so I captured it. Hopefully it offers a pleasant, interesting view.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (26)
Wolfenshire
This is an interesting capture. It makes you wonder who that person is, what is he doing? what is his story?
ronmolina
Almost three days of not stop here. I like the way the light hit as well and the reflections on the windows.
auntietk
I like the door that's too far above the sidewalk to use. THAT makes me wonder more than the guy does. I mean ... guys looking at their cell phones are a dime a dozen. Doors that aren't accessible are rare and amazing. What sort of porch or stairs used to be there that made the door usable and didn't block the downstairs window? I love a little mystery like that. You could ask the guy, "hey what are you doing?" but you can't ask the door. LOVE this!!
wysiwig
Once you might have caught someone reading but here I think he's sending a tweet. I wondered about the door as well. This is a wonderful capture of an old building. Something about old bricks I find attractive.
treasureprints
Very nice, Chip.:)
beachzz
Another of your great urban fotos. You capture the essence of city life, the unexpected and the surprises. Yep, this is a GOOD one!!!
whaleman
An excellent capture Chip! Hope to see a shot of that safe soon.
prutzworks
cool candid
mbz2662
I like the contrast of those green lives against the red brick. Nice play of shadow and light too. And I imagine the guy is playing Words With Friends :) Really Nice shot Chip.
durleybeachbum
So sad that boys like the one on the stairs see nothing, hear nothing, and live in a virtual bubble, excluding birds and green and life. BTW I think that door was a warehouse loading entrance. Maybe how the safe got in. We have lots of those here at horse and cart height, and latterly of course, lorry height.
Faemike55
Very good capture and description. the landingless door is of interest.
Cyve
Marvelous shot !
jendellas
I think Andrea is right, I think the sills would make a good place to sit & watch the world go by. Love the building!! x
helanker
Yes, I am with Andrea too. He is not even there. No wonder you didnt see him at first :) But I really love this shot. Love the deep colors, the sunlight and the little hint of a tree near by. A superb shot.
Badsue
The color of the building makes an interesting contrast to the green leaves of the trees. And I'm going with Andrea's words too about this boy being a good example for these days. So many people only live in their virtual worlds and forget how to see the beauty in the real one. Super shot.
brewgirlca
Suspect that door is actually a loading bay, maybe for a horsedrawn cart. A fine play of light and shadows with a catch of rimlighting on the guy. I like working the streets of a city after a rain. It can make the most mundane area, like my neighborhood, feel fresh and alive. Or at least different.
Nathan_Ruby
looks like me sometimes lol
JuliSonne
This house with the high windows like that. And the red back bricks. A friendly fortress .... a rock in the surf of the big city.
flavia49
wonderful shot
MrsRatbag
That red brick construction says "Chicago" to me, probably stemming from a two-week visit to my aunt, uncle and cousins when I was 15, to see if getting me away from my "bad influence" friends could "rescue" me. Coming from the LA area, it seemed so foreign; we had nothing that felt this ancient in our suburban lifestyle. I love the light here, and I can feel that humidity, the wetness lurking in the shadows, and smell that after-the-rain city smell. Well done, Chip; a photographic story!
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God bless.
rainbows
An excellent capture, I like your write up, dear Chip. Hugs for all day. Di. xx
FredNunes
Great scene. Well captured!
KatesFriend
Normally I don't care for the look of painted brick. The brick usually looks better than the paint that covers it up. But who ever did this work did a good job. The colour contrast with the green leaves really works well. And it probably looks good in the winter striking a colourful pose against the grey and white (well, mostly grey most of the time) snowscapes common to most urban centres. Then there is the unexpected bonus of sunny days where your work place paints the sidewalks a soft ruddy shade as the red colour is reflected to the ground. I can see a little of it in your photo as it makes nice with the filtered green from the trees. Oh goody, Lilly has brought over her string. Time for me to do my duty. One wonders where she gets her energy after hissing at the neighbours cat for most of the day.
three_grrr
Okay, not fair. KatesFriend took the words right out of my laptop. I don't like painted brick much either because for one, it LOOKS painted and usually not the right color and usually not well done, period. This however is the right color, and looks very rich and earthy and perfectly lovely. Maybe it's the light, maybe it's the wonderful green of the leaves and the perfect dark green of the doors and trim. As for the door, logic says it must be a loading bay of some kind, but personally I bet those stairs move from door to door, grins.
Annie_Photography
It's really nice image... very good capture