Last week in Chicago I grabbed for my buzzing cell phone and dropped my camera on the sidewalk along Michigan Avenue. The shutter button no longer works. Damn. The next day we were scheduled for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park. How could I go without a camera? I walked to a Target close to our hotel and bought a Bell & Howell BH-10 mini digital camera for $39. Resolution is 352 x 288 (0.1 meg). Holds 20 exposures in volatile memory. (Turn off the camera, lose the pictures.) Here, then, are some of the lowest res photos you'll have seen in a while.





His nextdoor neighbor's house. Once a vertically oriented place, FLW added the porch and roof to give it horizontal lines.



His first commission. This house has a bit of everything. Mayan blocks, stained glass, Prairie-style chimney, columns, terraces. All in all, it's too much. The more mature Wright got back to basics.



Oak Park is a luscious, quiet suburb characterized large rolling lawns and lots of street trees.



William Drummond worked for Wright and built this house from FLW plans that appeared in a magazine. Lovingly restored and enlarged. I covet the front office, a gleaming beauty with built-ins, a wrap-around view of the front yard, an Eames chair, and a sleak computer with a big LCD monitor.



Wright built this house nextdoor to Drummond's for his secretary Isabel Roberts. She went on to become an architect in her own right.



The Hurley House was a highlight of the tour. Recently restored, this is a definitive Prairie-style beauty. "Mature Prairie style" is the name applied to these later, horizontally extreme houses. The owner was outside explaining what they went through in restoration -- ripping out rooms and windows, making reproductions of original furniture and rugs, going from unlivable to exquisite.


That's about it for the low-res shots that are usable. Not too bad for 1/10 meg, eh?