Category Archives: Chicago

Firework City – or not!

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Chicago has traditionally held a pretty impressive fireworks display to celebrate the 4th of July.  Since I have lived here, the fireworks have been let off a day early on the 3rd.  While I have never bothered to find out why, I have always assumed it was because they wanted a ton of people to come and see them and this they could do and still see their own local town displays on the 4th.  I guess it worked because up to 2 million people would show up to watch.

Last year, with the city feeling a bit hard up for cash, they did away with the big display and had three smaller displays spread out along the lakefront.  This year, no display at all.  I guess it isn’t the cost of the display that is the issue.  The cost of dealing with 2 million people is a little bit more of an issue!

All is not lost, though.  Navy Pier holds firework displays every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the summer so one more is not a big deal for them.  Consequently, we took a stroll out to the lake to watch the display.  It was a nice show.  Not a stunning display like some I have seen but I’m not complaining.  It still had a lot of people showing up to watch but nothing like the normal event.  It was on the 4th as well.

I like taking pictures of fireworks but I have found I like the shots a lot more if there is some context to them.  I am not a big fan of shots that just have the explosion filling the frame.  With a display out over the lake, my options were relatively limited.  The big Chicago displays are over the harbor and, if you watch from the planetarium, you have the skyline as part of the shot.  That certainly is worthwhile.

I don’t put a lot of effort in to the shots.  I set up the camera as I want the frame to be making some guesses about how big the larger blooms will be.  Then I hold the cable release and have fun watching the display.  I can trigger the shots (bulb mode) as I think looks good without distracting myself from having fun enjoying the show.  Sometimes they are better than others but anything is just a nice side benefit from a good display.

As an aside, if you notice something in the skies, an airship was up watching the display too.  That is what you may see blurred out in some of the shots.

Agility for Dogs

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If herding the sheep weren’t enough, there were other dogs being put through their paces.  An agility course had been laid out and a bunch of owners were running their dogs through the course.  From what I could see, there wasn’t a particular route that was supposed to be followed.  Instead, they seemed to go wherever they felt like it.

Of course, when I say where they felt like it, I don’t always mean the owners.  One dog in particular was very excited but not at all interested in the course.  it ran in circles and barked at its owner until she finally gave up.  They had another go a little later but that ended the same way.

Some of the dogs, though, were very skillful and could zip across the jumps and through the poles without pausing.  A fun thing to watch for a while, particularly when it was too hot to move for a bit!

Perfect Weather for Rugby

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Nothing like playing a winter sport like rugby on an 85 degree day.  Why not make it sevens just in case you weren’t warm enough.  I strolled across to see some of the rugby later in the afternoon.  Having been a rugby fan for many years, I thought I would see how the play was going.

Sevens is a trickier version of the game since it is a lot faster and it requires handling to be very slick.  I don’t know the pedigree of the players I was watching but I wouldn’t be surprised if the heat was affecting their game.

A Scottish winter and an Illinois summer are very different climates in which to be playing.  The ground was certainly wet underfoot after the recent rain but the temperature was high and the humidity higher so I think something as energetic as sevens was a stretch.  However, they still played hard and followed the rugby tradition of trying to harm your opponent at every opportunity.

Pipes and Drums – Not Enough to Scare this Englishman

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As you might expect from a Scottish festival, there were pipes and drums aplenty!  I am sure they are designed to intimidate the enemy and, as I’m sure you know, the enemy of every Scotsman is an Englishman.  Therefore, I was walking into the lion’s den on this day even if some of the claims of Scottishness were a little tenuous!

The various bands that were competing were all taking the thing very seriously.  They were well practiced in their routines and the musical ability was high – no strangled cats on this occasion.  Moreover, they really showed their commitment to the cause by dressing up in the full outfits, despite the fact that they are designed for a Scottish climate, not a hot, humid, summer day in the Chicago suburbs!

There were bands all over the place warming up, tuning the pipes, getting some last minute practice in before their time slot came due.  There were a series of judges around the arena scoring them on different aspects of their performance.  As their time was up they streamed out of the arena and another band was already waiting to come in.  No pauses for the spectators here!

Sheep Dog Trials – Insert Verdict Joke Here…

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As part of the Scottish celebrations, there was a demonstration of sheep dogs at work.  This was something I always thought of a either a northern England or Welsh activity but I guess it is a big deal in Scotland too.  Anyway, a bunch of dogs were taking it in turns to demonstrate their skills with a small flock of sheep brought in especially for the occasion.

The dogs and the shepherds were certainly very effective.  They could move the flock wherever they felt like it (although the attempt to split the flock in two was a little less successful).  The dogs were really fun to watch as they zipped around the flock and then froze on the ground until needed again.

The sheep were amazing as well.  These creatures are obviously very fixated on one thing.  Eating!  The dogs could get them quite jumpy but a second alter they would forget everything and start munching on the grass.  I suspect if left alone, they wouldn’t move far at all as long as the grass lasted!

Highland Games

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The suburbs of Chicago had an interesting offering recently.  A festival was held to celebrate Scottish culture (no Rob, don’t go there) and to hold Highland Games.  I haven’t been to this event before and this year it had been moved to a new location which was supposed to be able to handle the amount on show better so we headed along.

It was hot and humid (not very Scottish) so not a day to hurry yourself.  However, to add some authenticity, the recent heavy rains had left the field very boggy in parts.  The vent was huge and I shall tell more about it in the coming days.  One of the first things we went to see was the tossing of the caber!  The games had already had a couple of events and more were due later in the afternoon.  However, we got one fo the more famous events while we were there.

Competitors had come from all over the country.  The men and the women were competing together (obviously with different cabers) and it was quite something to watch.  All of these people looked like they could handle themselves in a fight!  They were big people.  A couple were school teachers so I suspect their pupils know how to behave.

The announcer suggested that the women had chosen too long a caber and no-one managed to get it over while we were watching.  However, the men were having more luck and there were quite a few successes including some that were given perfect scores – do you know how to score this event??  A good start to the afternoon.

Chicago by Blimp (Apologies to Thomas Dolby)

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Hardly an earth-shattering post this time.  Often, photographing aviation themes can be a case of frustration as you try and aim to be somewhere when something is happening.  This situation is a little different.  I was happily sitting in my living room when I looked out of the window and saw a blimp briefly pass between two buildings in the distance.  Blimps do occasionally show up in the city, usually providing aerial coverage of some sporting event or other.

I decided to grab the camera and see if it came any closer.  I got my gear and waited for the blimp to come up the shoreline towards us.  Sure enough, it appeared between some more buildings heading in just the right direction.  Then, it turned around and headed back the way it had just come.  Crap!  Where was it going next?  I started watching the gap I had first seen it in.  Nothing for a while.  I got distracted by a shot of an Aston Martin parked in the front of the Trump and looked up to see it just passing out of sight in the gap I was supposed to be watching.

Now, can I be patient and wait for it to come back again?  Sure I can.  I waited – and waited – and waited.  Nothing.  I was beginning to think it had gone when I spotted its reflection in the IBM building.  It was right behind us!  This guy is sneaky!

Now I had to wait again.  Would he continue on that course and come out the other side of us or reverse again?  This time he continued in a predictable fashion and popped out amongst the buildings north and east of us.  I grabbed a few shots as he headed south again and then returned to what I was doing.  Hardly great shots and probably not worth the effort (unless DirecTV decide to give me something for publicizing their own publicity machine) but I guess I am a bit of a victim of anything flying.  Also, I was surprised to see just how quick that blimp could be when he wanted to get moving!

Chicago at Night

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It has been a while since I last went out and did some night photography around Chicago.  I had been meaning for a while to go and photograph the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park at night when they have the light and music show.  This was supposed to be a relatively quick trip out but ended up being a rather longer expedition.

Chicago at night is a great place to photograph.  It is fine to walk around at night and there are usually a bunch of people out and about.  However, do you do get a feeling that the city is yours and that you aren’t sharing it with the tourist masses.  The night lighting is also a lot more generous to sights that look less impressive during the day.  The dark hides a lot of the blemishes!

The show at the fountain takes place every hour on the hour.  I got down at 8pm which was just after sundown.  This wasn’t such a good plan as, even at the end of the 20 minute display, it really wasn’t dark enough to get the benefit of the lights.  I figured I would try again another time but ended up taking enough shots of details around the fountain that soon it was sufficiently close to the hour again that there was no point in leaving.  The 9pm show was certainly more photogenic – even if I had to take a few angles that concealed some of the construction sites on the skyline.

With some shots in the bag, I headed back in the direction of home.  however, along the way were plenty of things to shoot as well.  The Art Institute, the Pritzker Pavilion and the bean were all there along with the goings on of Millennium Park.  It ended up being pretty late by the time I finally headed home.  I have now whetted my appetite for some more night shooting so hopefully it won’t be too long before I am back out.

Pullman

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For the longest time I have been thinking about paying a visit to Pullman.  Pullman is a town on the south-side of Chicago that was created by the Pullman Palace Car Company, a railroad car builder at the end of the 19th Century.  Having read some history of Chicago, Pullman has an interesting position in the way things have developed.  It was an ideal town created to allow the workers to have everything they could need and probably a lot more than they would have had if they were working elsewhere in Chicago at the time.

Of course, the story is not all sweetness and light.  Having a controlled environment like that had other consequences and, when the economy tanked and the sale of railcars fell, the workers had their wages cut but miraculously the “market forces” did not result in the company owned housing rents following suit.  It all ended in a nasty strike which was ultimately broken by the federal government.  If you want the full history lesson, I guess I am not the one and there are better places to research.

Anyway, we finally got around to taking a trip down to have a look around.  There is a visitors center where they gave us a walking tour guide.  While the factory was mostly destroyed by fire in recent years, the majority of the town is still there to see.  It is a great neighborhood to wander around and everyone we met on the street was very friendly.  A number of the properties are in the process of being restored by the owners.  Others are in worse shape.  However, the place has a really interesting feel to it.

A sunny day always makes a wander around a new place more fun.  We were there in the middle of the day so not the best lighting for shooting but the trip wasn’t primarily for photography – just for exploration of a place we’d not been to before.  Therefore, the shots aren’t amongst my best but they are fine for the time-being.  It is always a good challenge to try and make something worthwhile out of some harsh light and shadows.