MILWAUKEE RIVERWALK IMAGES

This weekend, with the weather finally becoming summery, I spent an hour or so downtown with my camera, mostly on the Riverwalk that borders the Milwaukee River.  

The river was relatively calm and one of the things I noticed early on was the unusual appearance that reflections were making on the surface of the water.  

I found the patterns to be interesting, but I should have provided some context for the shot, such as the actual object being reflected.  I do not have an explanation for the complexity of the patterns.

Before retiring eight years ago, I worked downtown in what is now known as Chase Tower.  The building is situated right along the river, more or less in the center of downtown.  It features an entrance atrium on the north side, with the office tower extending to the south along the river.  As part of Milwaukee's annual public art show, the atrium has been decorated with floral designs.  I took the following shot from the top of the escalators (which were not operating on this Saturday morning but which were not blocked off) to show the art from the interior.

Chase Tower has a parking ramp connected to the south of the office tower.  The ramp is well over 50 years old and has had chronic structural problems--ugly but still functional.  I was interested in the wire fencing on the river side of the parking structure that separates it from the Riverwalk.  Here I focused on the wire and let the yellow internal structure of the ramp proper go out of focus.

In the summer it is common to see kayakers making their way up and down the river.  It appears that many of the kayaks are rentals, as the following shots reflect.

I liked the second shot, despite the fact that it lacks some compositional balance.

Following is a circular grate on the Riverwalk.  There is certainly nothing remarkable about the grate, but I liked the pattern it presented anyway.

There are numerous restaurants that border the Riverwalk, some of which dress up their river patios with plantings.  I liked the composition and texture of the plant in the following shot, even though I didn't care for its colors.

I noticed the following fern in a waste area underneath the east-west freeway.  In this case I wanted to highlight the fern but use the surrounding vegetation as context, leaving it out of focus.

There are all sorts of private water craft moored on the docks that border the river.  My favorite photo of this group is the following image of docking and a mooring rope tethering one of the boats.

The owner, who apparently has a bit of OCD, took the time to coil the excess rope.  I converted the shot to a black and white and underexposed it to darken the water and to bring out the grain on the wood decking.

On the lighter side, here is a neon sign in the window of a downtown Jimmy John's.  Is this a standard sign for that franchise?

Finally is a mural along the river that I thought initially was simply a sample of public art but that I eventually realized served to notify dog owners of a "comfort station" for their pets, complete with artificial turf.

John