Monthly Archives: September 2011

Around Chicago

Continuing the theme of my Mum’s visit, the two of us took a stroll through the city the other day. It is always fun to exploit the visit of someone to do some touristy wandering that you would otherwise never do. It also makes you explore some things that you haven’t seen before.

We included the Cultural Center on our route but I was surprised yet again by this place. Having only recently discovered it courtesy of friends visiting in the past (see this posting), during this visit I found another room that I hadn’t been to before. It was an empty room but quite ornate. It was very dark so getting a good shot was tricky. I tried a bit of HDR which was okay but I will have to go back again at some point to try again I think.

Another stop was at the Palmer House Hotel. Now a Hilton, my Dad stayed there recently when he was visiting and told me about the grandiose lobby it has. I had never been in before – why visit hotels when you live in the city – and it was impressive so we stopped in to take a look. How many other things from the city have I missed?

Saugatuck

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Took a trip around the bottom of Lake Michigan to visit Saugatuk. We have been there a couple of times before but this was a visit to take my Mum there. We went during the week which certainly made for a quieter day than the weekends when things can get quite busy there.

Saugatuck is a nice little town. Nothing terribly dramatic about it but it has a nice harbor, plenty of little shops that have some unusual bits and pieces, a few good places to get lunch and as much fudge and/or ice cream as you could conceivably want!

The harbor separates the majority of the town from a section on a thin spit of land that edges on to Lake Michigan. The beaches are on the other side of this spit and there is a small chain ferry that takes you across if you want to go to that side. It is a passenger only ferry and is hand cranked across. A quaint little addition to the town.

If you are in to motor yachts, there are also some nice examples to spot around the harbor. Obviously a fair few dollars tied up in some of them and it can be nice to sit by the water eating lunch and planning your life if you were one of the people who owned one of the boats!

Sunset at the Botanic Gardens

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I have had my Mum visiting . We try and find some fun things to do while she is staying and maybe even tie them in to things I have been meaning to do. One of these things was a trip to the Botanic Gardens. The thing that made this different is that, during the summer they have been having a late opening until 9pm. The evening light should provide some good opportunities with the camera.

It certainly is a good time to visit. The crowds are not there as they would be normally (although there are still a fair number of people around) so you have less of a feeling of being rushed by people around you. Also, having a tripod is not a problem! As the evening draws in, the light gets lovely and then, once the sunset passes, you can play around with some night photography.

You do have to pay attention to which areas will get the nice light since the terrain will block certain parts of the gardens but, apart from that, you can really have a nice time wandering around and looking for nice shots.

Here are some more samples of what I saw.

Stormy Skies

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The forecast the other morning was for some big storms. I decided that this would be a good time to head down to the lakefront. When a storm hits us, I see a lot of lightning around us but there is little that I can do to get a good shot since the buildings are too close to get any perspective. Before Trump was built, there was a lot more to see but that is no longer the case.

Instead, i thought the Adler planetarium would provide a good view of the city as the storm rolled in so I hopped in the car and headed over there. There was a local TV crew setting up when I got there so I thought they must agree with my planning. The sky was certainly looking darker.

As it turned out, we were both wrong. The sky got very moody and some crazy looking clouds bubbled across but no storm showed up. Instead, it just started raining and my enthusiasm reduced significantly! Eventually I headed home and the storm ended up skirting south of us. Oh well.