July 4th we spent up in Chicago. Since we only live a few hours away it’s always a great place to vacation. I got up one morning at sunrise and headed out to Alder’s Planetarium to capture pictures of downtown. After shooting over 100 pics with my Leica 21mm super elmar and my Olympus OM-D with the Panasonic 7-14mm lens I decided to get the noctilux out to capture some great depth of field shots. Here is one them.
ISO 160 1/2000s 50mm noctilux ND filter
Re-post October 2011
I feel like I’m posting a lot of pictures from Chicago recently. I was there twice within 6 weeks at workshops and fortunately captured many pictures.
Here is a wedding that we came across when walking along Michigan Avenue. What really caught my attention was the bagpipes. I focused on the bride and groom and stuck my camera up in the air and caught this picture. I really like the bubbles being released into the air, it adds a little to the shot.
I don’t like posting pictures of homeless people but I found this gentlemen to be very pleasant. I spoke to him for a few minutes and gave him a few dollars.
ISO 160 1/1000 28mm summicron
Re-post May 2011
It was a nice clear night and I was looking for a good shot of downtown Chicago. We walked below the Michigan Ave. bridge crossing the Chicago River. This is a 5 exposure HDR. Initially shot in color, I prefer it in black and white. I hope to return to Chicago soon, it’s my favorite city to travel to.
Re-post from September 2011
As we were walking around at Steve Huff’s workshop, we came across this father and son walking. What made this interesting was the height of the father in comparison to his child. We inquired if we could take a few pictures and the entire time his son just stared at us wondering what the heck we were doing.
Repost: 8.13.2011
One of the goals of a photographer is to try to get a three dimenional feel of there pictures. In this pic, which is probably my favorite street shot while visiting Chicago, I tried to capture this. The subject is framed by two bystanders in the foreground which help draw you into the subject. The lady and and cars in the background add depth to the pic.
Repost: 9.29.11
I was at O’hare not to long ago and was heading up the escalator when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a young lady asleep just outside ticketing. I have always found it amazing how people can just fall asleep anywhere. I guess if you’re desperate, anything is possible. Well, here is a picture of the young lady sleeping as I was riding up the escalator.
Repost: 9.27.11
As we were walking to the hotel and stopped, waiting to cross Michigan Avenue, we noticed this guy on a bike smoking a cigarette and balancing himself in one spot for what seem to be an eternity. While multitasking, he had many cars passing him left and right. I definitely think this is a talent but don’t think it’s a talent I want?
The shot was taken with my Leica M9 and 50mm summilux set at continuous shooting, f/1.4, and 1/45 shutter speed. Because of the low aperture and the small size of the camera I was able to successfully get this shot at such a low shutter speed. Last, I keep my camera on continuous shooting so that I have a better opportunity of getting a sharper image and catching the action act the exact, right time.
Keeping my theme from the past few days I figured I would post a few more street shots I took while in Chicago. Both of these shots were taken from “the hip”. Meaning, I just set the camera to the proper exposure and started firing shots when I saw something interesting. Both pics were taken while holding the camera near my waste (shooting from a low angle can give the viewer an interesting perspective).
In the first pic “Keeping it cool”, it’s a candid shot of a guy walking and waiving while holding his smoke. Even though the subject is out of focus, it gives the viewer a feeling of movement (or at least it does me) and has a three dimensional feel to it.
The second shot “lets go out” is two people having a casual conversation. In this shot, the sharpness is dead on. If there was any lost of sharpness here, the shot would be ruined.
Repost August 2011
