Chicago | Alex Farris Photo Blog

If you looked at this blog recently, you might think I've done nary a thing related to photos in the past month. That's not true, of course, but non-photo things (namely, pre-med classes) make the consistent updates a little more difficult. When you're thinking of elimination reactions and chirality of molecules and electromagnetism and organ systems and Le Chatelier's principle in a successful attempt (so far!) to get A's, keeping up a blog becomes a secondary priority.

But have no fear: an update is here! This update includes some spring break activities, as well as some work for The Star. Enjoy, and I hope to see you again before May 5!

Ruth Smith receives congratulations from Angela Knartzer, wife of judge Kevin Knartzer, for being crowned Ms. Wheelchair Indiana at the Basile Opera Center, Saturday, March 29, 2014.

While visiting my friend the afore-appeared Steph Feeley and celebrating her graduation from iO Chicago, I took some time out to do a bit of kite-flying. I had remembered the comment I made before about trying a flight at the 12th Street Beach, and given its relative proximity to downtown and Soldier Field, I thought the place would make for some good photos.

Unfortunately, this weekend the Windy City didn't live up to its name. I didn't get the kite very high up at all because the wind was either weak or turbulent nearly the whole time. I found a grassy area next to the beach, though, and the more consistent winds there made for at least one quality photo. The rest of the take turned into the accidental session of self-portraits, crashes, and tangled line you see below. The photos come straight from the GoPro, simply sized down; later tonight, I'll put up beautified versions of some of the photos on the catch-all KAP page.

One other thing: when I pulled the kite out of the car, I found out I had lost the cross pole. There were some fallen branches nearby, though, so I improvised.

This is my favorite photo from the session, despite (or perhaps because of) the failure to launch.

And now for something completely different.

Before I went traipsing across Ohio following the presidential candidates for two days, I was in Chicago for the weekend. My stated goal was to take some photos of the Chicago World Music Festival (and I did, though minimally), but I also had larger goals of meeting with a friend for some book editing and flying a kite in the Windy City. Both of those goals combined wonderfully.

Success!

(This probably isn't the real curvature of the Earth. In fact, I'd almost guarantee it, partly because of the fisheye nature of the GoPro and partly because of very prevalent warping.)