a no photo post

today marked the first day i spent in illinois without a jacket. cars drove at a leisurely dawdle down the warm road. people stumbled, blinking onto sun-drenched sidewalks with white, almost ghostlike children on bikes, no destination in mind, just a reconnection with nature after four months of cabin fever. little girls, backlit by the sun, wore halos of rimlight as they hoola-hooped on concrete. some homies on emerson st. cracked forties and settled in for the first stoop sit of the year. another, lulled into a drowse by the sun, missed the crosswalk signal and remained on the corner for another round of stoplights.

this is what i saw from the car on my way to a conference today. this is what i wanted to photograph today.

i spent the day getting inspired at the illinois press photographer association annual shindig. steve jessmore and robert cohen showed us the results of making every assignment count, of pushing personal vision and creative impulse. i was all fired up and then had to go shoot back-to-back fundraiser-gala-society things again. nothing takes the heat out of the fire than society assignments. i guess not *every* assignment counts :) i made hideous frames out of my bitterness and then was rewarded with my version of photoshop bugging out. i had to reinstall 2 times for it to finally load. ugh.

i want to get back to the morning's inspiration. hopefully the sun and the hoolahoops will be out again tomorrow.