from f295: That Toddlin' Town

F295 was an international discussion forum begun and administered by Tom Persinger. Originally just about pinhole photography, it expanded into all kinds of alternative methods.  It was active from 2004 until 2015 but it remains on-line. Recently it disappeared from the web for a few days, and that prompted me to decide to reprise some of my favorites here at Pinholica, for backup if no other reason. 

I was reminded of this by Andrew Bartram of the Lensless Podcast's plans to be more rigorous about documenting the experiences of the last six months of his copious hotel room stays. I had minimal need to spend nights away on business but it did happen and I can sympathise with his predicament and maybe provide some inspiration. Also, Andy and Kristin are planning to spend time in the second city next month. It was posted under the title "That toddlin' town" on April 15th, 2008.  

Long time f295 members may remember me complaining about being edited to death preparing the documents for our reaccreditation. We must have done all right because we got reaccreditted with no ifs, ands or buts and the Higher Learning Commission invited us to the conference this year to show off our materials and reassure those with upcoming reaccreditations that they could pull it off too.

The conference is held at the giganto-conference "luxury" Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago

After driving through every kind of precipitation available, we arrived kind of late. My room was on the 21st floor of the west tower (I told you it was a giganto hotel)

It's located right where Michigan Avenue crosses the Chicago River. You know, where, in The Fugitive, Harrison Ford makes the phone call that allows Tommy Lee Jones to figure out where he is. I think Dogtakesphotos may have posted pictures of the Wrigley Building.

Here it is literally at dawn. I woke up at 5:30 and put the camera in the window again and kind of forgot about it, and it was light by the time I remembered.

As far as I could tell the difference between a luxury hotel and a regular one is an extravagant excess of pillows and you have to pay extra for things that are free in a regular hotel, like internet access and breakfast.

We got to the conference a little early and set up in the first row. It was funny how many others came in and set up further back. You'd think a bunch of educators, after bugging students for years to sit in the front would naturally gravitate to the front.

Breakfast was provided by the conference.

Didn't take too long for the action to get going pretty consistently for the three hours. Here I am probably answering the question "What would you do differently if you could do it again?" Just about everybody phrased it that way.

After the session, we met up with my colleague's daughter for lunch at the Bongo Room on Milwaukee Avenue. They couldn't seat us for forty-five minutes, so we went to a thrift store across the street.

While we were waiting, Mabel (the daughter) entertained us all by trying on "vintage" clothes. Unfortunately, I ran out of film so no shots of the Bongo Room.

All with the Populist, .15mm pinhole 24mm from 24x36mm frame.   
See also https://pinholica.blogspot.com/2018/08/from-f295-beantown-and-back-my-first.html