Tom Gill Photography

Insulating

John is working hard to make his house look good, but he's working even harder to make it more efficient. Rather than just patch a few spots and tack up wood trim, he decided to tear all of the drywall off of the outside walls on his house to make sure it's insulated properly. Of course, he didn't count on there being two layers of drywall to remove! Here he's tacking up new insulation and getting ready for new drywall.

He's got lots of work left, including installing 10 new windows, crown moulding, chair rails, baseboards, door and window trim. But John just doesn't install new windows, he removes the siding on the entire side of the house, puts up styrofoam insulation, fan-fold insulation and house rap, then he installs the windows and replaces the siding. It certainly is done right!

He should be finished by October!!

Boat on Navy Pier

Boat on Lake Michigan
Taken from Navy Pier in Chicago
T. Gill

Another Food Memory Long Gone

Yet another food landmark is gone - The Huck Finn Restaurant and Donut shop on Archer and Kedzie. Open 24 hours and home to plenty of strange people.

I can still remember stopping in there the mornings we left for Flordia to get a dozen French donuts for the trip down. Carol demanded that we couldn't open the box until we got past, "The big turn" which was the on ramp to I 65 South from I 94.

At least a few HuckFinn Restaurants remain in the Chicago area, so we can still enjoy the best donuts around.

Flashback -- Veli's Koffee Kup

Remember Veli's coffee cup on 95th Street in Oak Lawn? Here's a photo (taken by Ed Kwiatkowski.) of Veli and Ali a few days before the diner closed.

I remember going there every Sunday for breakfast with Ed, Ed and Bill and getting French Toast, bacon, hashbrowns and coffee. We didn't even have to tell them what we wanted, they already knew.
Here's a note I found on a messageboard on the web:

Just a thought...

What is everyone's favorite breakfast?

No, doughnuts do not count!

My favorite breakfasts:

1. Three eggs, over easy, with white toast, sausage patties, hash browns and coffee from a little storefront diner in Oak Lawn, Illinois called Veli's Kofy (pronounced coffee) Kup.
--------------------
Mike F.

Moderator, Ye Ole Celtic Pub

It's places like these I miss the most.

Anyone else remember this place?

How, What and Why

I've always loved taking pictures. As a kid, I had a Kodak 110 camera I would use to capture palm trees, waterfalls and storm clouds in Florida. I would take a couple rolls of film a year and couldn't wait for the film to be developed at our local film processor called Solar.

Since getting my first digital camera back in 2000, I've been taking loads of digital photos, mostly snapshot of the kids and places I've been. I would average about 1500 images a year, burn them to CD in January, and make three copies to keep in three different locations in case of theft or fire.

Learning a lot of things along the way, I began to crave a camera that could perform better than a 1.3 Mp, fixed focus camera. After a little research on Steve's Digicams and many other places I found this camera to fit my needs and still allow for some growth as I learn more about photography.

Here' s the digital camera I use to capture the photos on this blog:
It's a Fuji Finepix S5100 with an assortment of filters, a 10X optical zoom, many scenes and preset features, and best of all - full manual mode. I have a couple of tripods, a slave flash that works in conjunction with the built-in flash, a few XD cards (256Mb, 512Mb, and a new 1Gb (thanks John!)) and a set of good rechargeable batteries.

Since May 2005, I've taken over 4000 photos! Lots of them are junk - test shots that I've taken to experiment with depth of field and exposure, but the majority of them are decent shots. I'm going to use this blog to show some of the more interesting photos; they may not be works of art, but I hope they convey the intended message.