The shot below is taken from the public roof top deck of building #4 towards of building #2 & the Chicago skyline.

I was so inspired by the beautiful gardens, the pool, the view of the city, local parks and only a walk to quick shops and not more than a mile to full services shops that I decided I should have a look at the loft condo's at University Commons. The great views, 15ft ceilings, access to a pool in the summer, work out room and party room modern bathrooms and much more. I was hooked and days later I put in a down payment.

The from Morgan looking west on 15th street at University Commons, Chicago.

Ok, so you've got to be wondering about the $1500 by this point. So University Commons is willing to give me a small amount of money for a referral and I'm willing to pass that on to you. In order to receive the $1500 from me, you must register Robert R Gigliotti of 1111 West 15th Street Unit 320 as your referral at your initial visit to the university Commons sales office on 15th street, between Racine & Aberdeen. After you close on your beautiful Loft condo, I'll write you a check for $1500. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. If you're looking for a condo in a already up and coming area, you've found your spot. This is the last true horizon for Chicago. Most area's have been over run with development and or are just too busy. This is a quite neighborhood that the sounding area is owned mostly by UIC. You'll be amazed at how nice it is here in the summer.

Garden walkway between building's 1 & 2.

If you'd like to see all the photos I took of University Commons, just click here.

Thanks again for reading! If you plan to move into University Commons, why not get an extra $1500 cash back after closing?? They won't give it to you...but I will.

This particular frame was shot at 1/15, F-18, ISO 100 @84mm and cropped at 16x8 aspect ratio.

I don’t take my camera with me as much as I should. I don’t for simple reasons really. For starters my camera is big and bulky. I have one lens that is a bit more versatile than the rest and works great in most situations. (24-105mm with image stabilization) I shoot with a Canon 5D and the 24-105 is attached most of the time and ready to go. But to carry it with me all the time can cause problems. One, if I leave it by mistake, chances are high I won’t get it back. I’d like to think people would call me to tell me they found my camera…but with something of such value, the good doer turns to the dark side. I know this from experience as I’ve left my camera in the past, never to see it again. (it was a 20D with a 18-55mm. Insurance covered it and I bought a better camera) As well, in the city, you increase your risk of being robbed when you carry an expensive camera. This is never happened to me, but sometimes you don’t want to add to the possibility of losing your identity.

Hand held due to high traffic on the road. Shot at: 1/250, F-4.5, ISO 100, @24mm

Every year Gallery 37 / After School Matters (where I teach photography & creative writing to students) has a class of talented students from all around the city work on the design for next years Chicago City sticker. For those of you that don't live in Chicago, The city sticker is required to stick on your windshield as a resident and local to the Chicago Land area to park on the streets.

Please click the link below find her name and design, (bottom left of page) click in the box, page all the way to the bottom of the page (you don't have to enter your email to vote) and click the "click here to submit" button. You'll be asked to confirm and the process is over. Please pass on to anyone you like. She can't win this contest with out your help...so please do your part! Please note, you only have till Friday the 30th to vote! Please vote early and often!

http://live.everyonecounts.com/app/104/185

Grace's design is below:

Give it some time and you'll find that this site can be not only a great resource, but also a photo forum & a place to visit & critique photography.

For starters, please enjoy a photo I took one early morning while the fog rolled into Oak Street Beach here in Chicago. I was sitting at the time taking a break from my early morning walk. I wasn't feeling well and I was able to capture just that...an eerie sort of floating sensation creeping into the shore.
Thank you! Robert R Gigliotti, Photographer

This photo can also be purchased on-line by clicking this link

The Rem Koolhaas-designed campus center at IIT, Chicago. This was shot with my Tilt shift 24mm with two shots.

Rookery building interior designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The old train station on the south side

Norm in Chicago

To my dismay this happens more often than any of us like to admit. But unless you have kept the lens on the camera from the day you bought it, your going to attract dust to the sensor of your camera.

In the photo below, you can see in the sky specs that are not birds. I took the liberty to use red arrow's to point them out.

I contacted a lawyer that's in my family and with my help we constructed a letter with particular verbiage of my intentions to still come to a conclusion amicably with out taking the case to the courts. The letter was more of a help than actually a letter from a lawyer. But if you were to read the letter you could tell I consulted a lawyer. As well, it puts in writing my thoughts and intentions for the client to clearly read and hand off to other members of his staff for review or even his own lawyer if need be. The term, "put it in writing", does have a sort of concrete and serious tone to it.

Wide angle shots
One of the very cool features of this lens is the ability to sift the lens +/- 11mm creating a 13mm wide angel shot when the two photos are stitched together. The only way to do this seamlessly is with a tripod. With a conventional lens you'd take a shot and move the camera a few degrees and take another shot. Even with a tripod, stitching the photos together you’d loose a considerable amount of data on the top and bottom due to bending when the two are brought together with software. This bending is because both photos must be warped to make them match up because of the movement when taking the photos from two different locations. With the TS-E the camera stays in place and the lens can shift giving you a full frame panoramic wide angle shot.

To show off this feature below is a photo I took from the Rookery building interior here in Chicago. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Click on the photo to see the full size version.

Ok, I'm a small business owner that wears many hats if not all the hats in my day to day operation. Yes, from time to time I do get help from my friends, family, investors & my significant other, but for the most part, its all me. Being small can be difficult and can kill you in the beginning. As a photographer I need to be shooting as much as possible. The more time I spend on the phone selling myself, making prints or sending invoices the more money that's lost from the main revenue making aspect of what i do.

The Marketing Plan
Every spring I sit down and figure out what I'm going to do to market myself over the next summer. For me I have to get this done before the weather gets really nice here in Chicago. (This is usually before May) This year I'm going out on the road to sell my creative work at art fairs around Chicago and the Midwest. So my time in the office needs to be very productive. The plan is this...I'm a Landscape & Architecture photographer, so I need to market myself to Landscape Architect's and Architects. I'm only going to go over the Landscape Architecture side here in this entry. Any way...I live in the Chicago area so I find out that LA's have a local chapter that most of them belong to. (I know this because I've asked a few that I've done work for in the past) Its called the American society of Landscape architects. Using their on-line member directory I found the best leads I could. In order to keep this advert opportunity under control and in an efficient manor, I only chose firms that are in the Chicago land area, had a website and listed contacts on their site. I needed solid leads to confirm address, a phone number and a contact name. With out meeting my criteria I may as well just toss my advert materials in the trash.

The advertising materials
If I hadn't graduated from Purdue University with a bachelors in Technical Graphics It would have killed me to pay someone thousands of dollars to make me advert materials. Let's be honest...I'm sure I could have done them on my own, but if you need to sell yourself, then they better be the best they can be. You only have a few seconds to hold someone's attention when they receive something in the mail they're not expecting. You better have your act together or as I said before, toss it in the trash before you mail it.

Below is what I sent out to a specific client list this year...Click on the photo to view the full size 4x9. The photo was work I did for a client of mine, Daniel Weinbach & Partners of the 11th street Ped-way to Solider Field.

Hey Robert, I am trying to take some "artistic" shots of my orchids. I grow them and am very proud that they actually bloom. Anyway, I really want the eye to focus on the bloom, how should I set up the photo? Where should I position the bloom? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Lilly

==Robert's reply below==
For starters, this really depends on what type of camera you have. Lets say you have a point & shoot digital camera. Because these cameras don't have the ability to blur the background using a long focal length (an example that can is an "SLR" or Single Lens Reflex camera that can change lenses) I'd remove any distractions from the background or place your orchid in a place with an apealing background that's not back lit.

A few other ideas that might work is this...Orchids tend to have long stems, have the stem enter the frame on the left placing the orchid on the right side of the frame. You can try this at different angles or different framing with the same idea to get a nice eye flow to the orchid.

As well you can set up a tripod and switch on your macro option or get in close with your camera. All cameras have a range where you can get the lens as close as you can with out focus problems. Refer to your manual or even the front of the lens for this information. For more info on shooting macro see my entry "The first macro photo I took".

Here's a few examples of Orchids I've shot in the past. Enjoy and I hope this helped! >>Robert

To buy this photo as a print click here!

To buy this photo as a print click here!