Chicago...night, light, and colors

 

It was quiet here again in the blog during the last week. I just returned from GRAPH EXPO, the annual trade show of the graphic industry at the McCormick Place in Chicago. I had plans to post some images during this week but due to a “pilot error” the cable that connects the camera with my notebook was not in my photo bag and so I wasn’t able to upload any photos… :-?

Our company stayed at the Hyatt Hotel next to the McCormick Center and it paid back to ask for a high floor during my check-in. There isn’t much time for any private life during a trade show but I did not waste the late night and early morning hours because of the great view to the Chicago skyline from my room...

Unlike in many airplanes the hotel window was relatively clean and by holding the lens very close to the glass the reflections were almost eliminated. Early Sunday morning the fog from Lake Michigan was creeping into the city. Hours before the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field the first light of the day was reflected in the glass of the stadium. The Ferris wheel on Navy Pier stuck out of the fog in the background during the blue hour…, what a great way to start the first day of the trade show…

Clouds poured in on Monday and the top of Sears Tower on the left was hidden. The city’s light was reflected from above and made for a spectacular night scene.

Wednesday morning the first rays of the sun touched the skyline and revealed the colors and pronounced the lines of Chicago’s wonderful architecture.

Friday night "conclusions" ;-)

 

What do have these two photos in common? Not much, they weren’t even made the same day, except they were taken from the same vantage point. But, let me explain…

The first photo was made right before take off at the Chicago O’Hare Airport last Tuesday. The sky was gray, except for a few small blue slivers. While looking out the window I could see this composition coming just a second before. I made the click and I like it. All the lines lead the eye to the airplane. The clouds, the terminal building in the background, and of course the painted lines on the concrete. However, the overcast made the image look “blaahhh”. Some local saturation and overall contrast improvements in Adobe Lightroom and NIK Color Efex Pro 4, plus adding a “glamour glow” effect, and a slight vignette spawned the final result.

The second photo was made Thursday on my way back from Los Angeles to Chicago. It doesn’t happen very often but I had exactly the same seat in a Boeing 737-800 as two days before. It wasn’t exact the same airplane but the window was as dirty as on the way to LA. As I said, same vantage point… ;-)

But what a difference, the light was great and coming from behind the plane as we flew east. There were some beautiful storm clouds to the south. This is nothing extraordinarily but the key for this shot was again composition. The eye may wander between the puffy clouds in the foreground and the AA-logo with the reflection on the wing but it will always return to the interesting cloud formation that was illuminated by the setting sun.

No, it doesn’t need a big camera and lens. You can make a similar image with the camera you probably have always with you, your phone. You can’t change your position much, the pilot takes care for that, but watching the scene, the light, and the lines that unfold in front of your eye will lead you to the photo you may have always envisioned…

'The Bean' without people

 

Anytime I have been in Downtown Chicago during the last few years I made a visit to The Cloud Gate, aka 'The Bean', in Millenium Park. Never ever I thought it would be possible to make a picture of this great piece of art without any people in the frame. Well, last Saturday during the St. Patricks Day parade the plaza around the sculpture was blocked for the public. I don't know why this restriction was in place but here was my chance to make the click.

Because of the really dull and gray sky the image needed some enhancement. I'm testing some new software, the OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 7, in my post process work flow at the moment. So far I'm quite impressed what it can do for my photography. I really like how subtle some of the effects can be applied to an image and I believe after driving through the learning curve it can become a big time saver in my post process. Right now I'm just at the beginning of a free trial period and more testing needs to be done before I may come to a final conclusion. I still like and use the NIK Software plug-ins, especially Color Efex Pro 4.0 and Silver Efex Pro 2.0, but as many others I wonder if there is any future for these great plug-ins after Google bought NIK. Hard to believe but only time will tell...

St. Patricks Day weekend in Chicago

 

We spent the weekend in Chicago for celebrating the 30th birthday of Joan's son Evan. He was born on St. Patrick's Day and so we went downtown to see some of the St. Patricks Day events.

Despite some cold and nasty weather thousands of people wanted to see how the Chicago River gets dyed into a shade of Irish green by the plumber union people, a tradition since many years. All kinds of watercrafts were on the river and their owners enjoyed the attention from the crowd.

I made several clicks of this interesting MINI-Cooper boat but none of them really told the story about time and location. Part of the problem was that our viewing point was way too high above the river and the reflections of a gray sky on the water are just not really appealing. Later, when the crowds moved on to the St. Patricks Day Parade, I found a better spot and as the guy turned in front of three iconic skyscrapers (the two towers of Marina City, Mies van der Rohe's IBM building, and the Trump tower) I knew I had a shot that would work.

2012 – Looking back, part 9

 

I like to continue my series about the 2012 photography opportunities and highlights. July was very special for us. My youngest sister Claudia visited us on her way back to Germany from Sydney, Australia. She worked at the University of Sydney during the last couple of years in chemistry research. We did a lot of different things together with her, paddling in Wisconsin, local sightseeing in Iowa and Illinois along the Mississippi, and even a visit of the world famous spam museum in Austin, Minnesota was on the agenda (Well, I had to take her with me on a business trip to Austin and while I had my meeting she spent time in the museum, the only attraction in this town :-) ). Finally we spent three days in Chicago before she took the plane home to our mom in Bautzen, Germany. The kid moved on and lives and works now in Basel, Switzerland. What a small world... ;-)

Landscape and architecture photography can be quite a challenge in the heat of July here in the Midwest and it wasn't any different this time. From harsh light, like at the "bean" in Millennium Park, to killer light on the Trump building at the Chicago River, we had a little bit of everything. Photography wasn't the purpose of the trip to Chicago but I can't  go out without my camera over the shoulder...;-)