Monthly Archives: February 2012

McCook Lift

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As I hinted previously, my day with Midwest involved a couple of lifts.  The first was a relatively straightforward job.  In common with a lot of jobs it was cooling systems for the roof of a building that was being constructed.  The equipment was laid out on the ground near the building and the guys were ready to roll when we landed.

The location is quite close to Midway airport.  We talked to them as we came in and the traffic from the airport was close to where we were operating.  A couple of times, a low flying Boeing 737 from Southwest could sneak into my shot.  They were obviously well clear of us and there was no problem but it was quite fun to see something different in the background.

The job went off without too many issues and soon the aircraft was back on the ground and we could hop on to head to the next job.

Frosty Start

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The good team at Midwest Helicopter called me up recently to see if I wanted to go out on a job they had scheduled.  There were two jobs on the one day, one of which was going to be a long one.  Anyway, I need to get there first thing to be ready to head on out with the team.  I was going to ride in the aircraft so no messing around in Chicago traffic for me during the day.  Just sail across.

It had been a cold night so there was ice on the ground and frost on the aircraft.  I am not much use to the guys while they are getting ready.  Telling me what to do would probably take longer than doing it themselves and they would probably want to check whatever I had done anyway.  Therefore, I took the chance to get some shots on the ground of them getting ready and of the aircraft.

Normally I see the aircraft when it arrives at the job so getting it at rest was a nice change.  Also, the weather was great with lovely soft morning light so it was a great opportunity.  Here are some shots of the morning.  The jobs themselves will follow in the days to come.

Illuminating the Bean

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It is easy to get complacent when you have so much going on around you all of the time.  I saw something in the paper about an installation in Millennium Park where there was a light field set up around Cloud Gate (or The Bean to everyone except the artist who created it!).  The lights were illuminating the ground and also reflecting from the surface of the Bean itself.  Sounded worth a look.

I mention it to Nancy and the following day she says the paper mentions the exhibit ends the following day.  It is Sunday so I figure I had better get down there that night to see it before it goes.  Of course, I am not alone in thinking this.  I head down there and it is absolutely packed.  There are plenty of photographers around and one of them tells me how quiet it had been the previous Tuesday.  Great!  I am doing well recently with people telling me how it was better sometime before but they never give me a time machine to make this information truly useful!

Anyway, the presence of all of the people has some good effects.  I set up a time lapse when I first get there since it is busy and the people add something to the time lapse.  Besides, having a lot of people around makes it feel more exciting.  The other benefit is that, while the people obscure the light projections on the ground, they become a screen of their own so seeing the shapes play out on them can be just as good.

I hang around for a while since I figure people will drift off home at some point.  It is Sunday after all.  Sure enough, the numbers do reduce over time but the exhibit ends at 9pm and there are still plenty of people around at that time.  The patterns of light are different on each side of the Bean.  Projectors are mounted on scaffold frames and beam constantly changing patterns down.  There is also musical accompaniment (although I ruin that effect by staying in my own world with my own music – philistine!).

It was certainly worth it.  Someone asked me recently why to live in a city.  After you had seen everything once, what else is left to do.  A fair question if you don’t live in a city.  However, this was one of those things that says to me why it is fun to live in a city.  Something like this was happening and it was less than 15 minutes for me to walk there.

Some Fishy Video

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As you might have noticed, there is a bit of theme developing with some of the stuff I post.  Photos are the main focus of what I do but I am also dabbling more with the video side of things.  There are some things that video can show that stills do not represent as well.  Since the 1D MkIV arrived in my hands with the ability to shoot HD video, I have been surprised how many times I have taken some video along with the stills.

Anyway, all of that is a roundabout way of saying that I have got some video from the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago that goes along with the previous posts on the swimmy things.  It is shot through glass (of course) in the public areas so I know that the reflections are sometimes there but even so,  I hope you like it.

More Fish

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After the jellyfish and the Belugas, it was time to walk around the rest of the aquarium.  They have a number of exhibits that we always like to check out including the large tank in the main hall in which they carry out feedings with a diver talking to the assembled people.  I got snap happy taking shots of the various creatures as they whizzed about in their tanks.

Again, shooting through thick tank walls and cranking up the ISO does not always make for the greatest images but you get a feel for what they have.  Not a huge amount to say so i hope you enjoy some of these shots.

 

Beluga Whales

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Since we were at the aquarium and had paid the entrance fee, we weren’t only going to look at the jellyfish.  We aren’t members of the Shedd so coming and going like we do at the zoo or the arboretum is not a practical solution.  Therefore, we had a list of things we also wanted to take a look at while we were there.  One of these was the Beluga Whales.

We both have a soft spot for the Belugas.  For Nancy’s birthday a few years ago, I bought her a Beluga Encounter where so got to stand in the tank with the whales while the trainers instructed them on how to work with them to do various activities.  She had a great time!  Anyway, they are a sweet looking creature and, since they are the only whale with a flexible neck, they have a way of appearing to be more human, even if it is only in your mind.

For some reason, they were very active while we were there.  They came to the surface a lot including some mini-breaches, splashing around and squirting water from their mouths.  I hadn’t seen them this active before.  More often, they will be swimming around below the surface a lot.  We hadn’t intended to spend so much time with them but in the end we were there for ages.  The show with the dolphins got going further round the facility.  This made shooting both better and worse.

When the blinds are open on the windows, the whales can often be backlit.  However, there is still light.  They lower blinds for the shows.  The light becomes a lot softer at this point.  Of course, there is also a lot less of it.  More cranking up of the ISO!

Jelly Time

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If you want an example of how long it can take me to get around to something, how about the jellyfish exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium.  This has been going on for ages – I think we talked about taking my Mum there in August and it had been around for a while – but we have finally got around to seeing it.  Actually, we thought January would be a really good time to go since it wasn’t peak season.

In the summer, the line to get into the Shedd can stretch quite a way and on a sunny and hot day, it can be a touch uncomfortable.  A January day seemed like it was far more likely to be quiet.  What we hadn’t counted on was that they were running a promotion for Illinois residents.  They had the basic admission price waived and any more expensive tickets had the same amount discounted.  This appealed to a lot of people judging by the line.

At least we got the discount too so we stuck it out and made our way in to the building.  Since the jellyfish were the main reason for being there, we did that first.  It was a neat exhibit.  They had some really informative stuff about jellyfish, how they live and what they do – not a complex life you understand, just eat, reproduce and die – but some interesting stuff all the same.  They had a variety of different species floating around in their tanks.

I had gone equipped with a remote flash to think about shooting them but the Shedd is a flash free environment.  Instead, I was glad to have the MkIV since I was able to crank up the ISO quite a lot.  At the really high ISOs the noise does become apparent but at least you get the shot and if you aren’t pixel peeping, it is not too big a problem.  Besides, you are shooting through thick tank walls so how good can the images really be?

Shooting the Moon!

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While out at the lakefront with the guys earlier in the week, the moon had risen near the planetarium (appropriately enough!).  I had been traveling light to that shoot so hadn’t taken any long lenses to get that shot.  However, it had looked so good when it came up, I thought I really ought to take advantage of it before the phase changed too much.  It had been full that night and I prefer it a little off full to show some depth anyway.

Consequently, I grabbed a long lens and a tripod and headed back a couple of nights later.  We had a crystal clear night and storms were forecast for the coming days which made me think it was an opportunity to be taken.  I got down just below moonrise and got set up.  The sky was so clear I could see lots of stars.  This might not sound like a big deal but when you live in the city, even a bit of haze or moisture in the air will reflect the city lights back at you and stars become invisible.  It is one of the things I love when we are out in the countryside to be able to see lots of stars.

Sadly, what I hadn’t realized was that there was a lot of cloud on the horizon.  We were in the clear but someone over in Michigan wasn’t and their clouds were blocking the moonrise for me.  However, I could see the cloud layer was low so it would only be a matter of time before the moon popped above the cloud, even if I lost the magnification and color shifts you get when it is close to the horizon.

Sure enough it popped up.  I  could see it long before then as it was sometimes almost visible through the clouds.  I watched it gradually come up, got a bunch of shots once it was clear of the clouds and then headed for home.  It might have been warm for January but I was still pretty cold by then!

Painting with a Flashlight

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Following on from my previous post, a group of us found ourselves at the Bean at night and with a flashlight in my bag we started playing around.  One fo the guys had brought his son along and we gave him the flashlight to illuminate his face from below.  Then we started trying other things with the flashlight.  Initially we tried playing it on other surfaces to paint on them but this was not very effective with the ambient light.  Then it was time to try writing with it.

I started with my name as you will see above.  Rob is pretty easy to do when you are writing backwards.  Shielding the light with my hand between strokes of the letters worked pretty well.  However, as the words got longer, it became harder to keep visualized on what the letters should look like from this side.

I got the hang of it – after screwing a few up but hey, it’s digital – and managed to get a couple of different captions.  They looked okay on the back of the camera but they look better on the computer screen.  We also did one that was a message to our missing comrade but that one was not on my camera so you will have to search Facebook to find where someone else posted it!