Monthly Archives: April 2011

Wrigleyville Lift

Got a message earlier in the week from my buddy Jim at Midwest Helicopters. Another job was coming up, this time up in Wrigleyville, and would I like to tag along? Of course I would. How likely is it that I would turn down an opportunity to shoot an aviation job, particularly one with the Midwest guys that are always so good to me?

After a week with some variable weather, Saturday morning turned out to be pretty good. It doesn’t seem very long ago that we were gathering for these lifts before the sun was up and when the mercury was certainly very low on the scale. To be out when the temperature was above 40F was a great change.

I hopped up on the the roof where the equipment was to go and set myself up. I had a great view of the pick location down on the street and could easily move to see where the cell phone transmission equipment was going. Only problem was that the sun was directly on front of me that way.

Since I have shot these operations a few times before, I decided to try a couple of tighter shots as well as the more regular stuff, hopefully including a few with Wrigley Field in the background. The lift went well and I got some good shots. You can see more of them here if you want.

Thanks again to the team at Midwest. Always appreciate you letting me join the jobs and the team are always good for a laugh early in the morning.

If you want to see more shots of the lift, click here to see more of the lift.

Chicago Sightseeing

An ISAP friend of mine, Bonnie, was visiting Chicago with her husband Gary and her friend Julie to see a photography exhibit and asked if I wanted to tag along. Absolutely! Sometimes it is a little annoying to find out what is going on in your neighborhood from people out of town but always good to find stuff out.

The exhibit was at the Chicago Cultural Center. It is the old library and is a really cool building. I am going to have to go back there and spend a bit more time – plus take equipment based on a plan rather than whatever I had with me. The colors and patterns are really vibrant but lighting is uneven so I decided to play with HDR for the day.

Once we had finished, we hopped across the road to Millennium Park. I know the Bean is a tourist trap but it is still really cool. I have no idea how many pictures I have taken of it, of the people around it or of the reflections of the city in it but I still come back for more. The view on the underside is particularly cool in my opinion!

Everyone gets a kick out of their reflection in the Bean. It can be great fun to spend some time watching people spotting themselves and trying to do something a little different. Julie had a great idea to walk on the Bean and dropped to the ground to try it out. I think it worked rather well. I wonder how many other people tried it after we wandered off.

It wasn’t long before I needed to head back home and leave them to the rest of their day out (and the long drive back up to Wisconsin!). One of the things I had been discussing with Julie was my desire to get a good shot of the many fire escapes on the older buildings. As I headed back home, I passed a few more and had another go.

I still haven’t quite got what I want so I guess I will just have to keep trying. Whatever is in my head is not transferring itself to what I am shooting. Always another photo challenge I guess!