Author Archives: Rob

Lenskirt Review

Living in a high rise in the city, I have a lot of chances to shoot things that I can only see through the windows. This has been a tricky thing to deal with over time and I have come up with various solutions with varying success. A couple of times I have thought about making something myself to be the solution but have never got around to it.

Now someone has made something that pretty much does what I want. It is called the Lenskirt. It is a black squared funnel that has a fabric sock at the base which cinches around the barrel of your lens. I has four suckers at the four corners that will attach it to glass. The idea is that it blocks any light coming in from the side and reflecting off the glass and back into the lens.

I love this idea. However, the $49 price seemed a little steep for what it is. However, i did buy one and it has just arrived. Overall, I am quite pleased with it. My suspicions about it being a bit overpriced seem valid but it does do what I want. Moreover, it handles my widest lens (the 17mm) without any problem. It allows flexibility of placement so you can shoot at an angle without seeing the skirt. Therefore, while it is a bit pricey, the alternative is something I have never bothered to do so it is probably worth it to me.

This could have other applications other than shooting through normal windows. It might be useful in an aircraft when you can’t open a window to shoot out as well. I am never a fan of shooting through something since the surface is often of poor quality but sometimes you have no choice.

Could it be improved? Yes. I would have made the rim stitched to sit flat to a surface when attached rather than having to bend out. Also, I might consider a slightly more rectangular shape given the format of shooting (although that would impact on the ability to fold it flat). It is slightly wider than deeper but given the need to look sideways sometimes, a little more width might be good. (The shot above makes it look a lot wider than it really is by the way!) I might also have gone for a less reflective black material just in case. As I try it more, we shall see if other issues come up. However, so far, a welcome addition to my bag.

What a good excuse a visitor is!

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I got a message from a buddy of mine the other day that he was going to be in town. Paul Dunn is a pilot with British Airways and was scheduled to be doing the run to O’Hare. Paul has a second job as Editor (Rest of the World) for Global Aviation Resource, a website run out of the UK but covering aviation issues across the world. I highly recommend you check their website out at www.globalaviationresource.com as they produce weekly news updates that usually incorporate three or more articles. They have developed a well earned reputation for the diversity of their themes and the relationships they have developed with their subjects. (Full disclosure: I have written a couple of pieces for them too!)

When Paul told me he was going to be in town, I took a look at what we might be able to do in the brief time he was here. Chicago is a city with plenty to see but we are both rather into the aviation side of things so I wanted to see whether we could get anything sorted out more of that nature.

A call to my friends at the Warbird Heritage Foundation provided the solution. Paul Wood, the founder of WHF, confirmed that they would be busy that day at their base and if we wanted to pop in, we were welcome to see whatever they had underway. With Paul (Dunn, not Wood) having to be back at O’Hare by mid afternoon to head back to London, we went for an early start.

Leaving Chicago in the morning means you are going to have the delights of traffic to contend with. Sure enough, the Kennedy was pretty slow moving. However, two aviation nuts can always find things to discuss if time is available so we were fine and, despite how long we were in traffic, the run up to Waukegan was not much longer than I would normally plan. More importantly, it was turning out to be a rather lovely day from a weather perspective.

When we got to the hangar, Sean and Mike were already there at work and David had just popped in before heading back to his main job. The aircraft were all in the hangar with some final checks being made on the A-4 gear. The F-86 had flown several times in the previous days and everyone was pleased with the way it was running smoothly. We stayed out of the way of the guys and let them get on with their thing while Paul took a look at the collection.

Paul (Wood) showed up a short while later. He was off to check on his P-51 project and was taking the T-6 to get up there. This meant a few aircraft had to be pulled out of the hangar which meant some good photo opportunities to get these lovely vintage aircraft out in the sun. Some quick shots of the T-6 starting up and departing and then back in to watch the gear swing tests. All went well.

After lunch, the plan was to prepare the A-4 for some engine runs. Time was running short for getting back to O’Hare so we had to head out before the runs were done but it was still great to get to see the guys at work and the progress being made ready for the display season. Thanks again to every at WHF for welcoming us again!

Navy Pier Lift

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Regular followers of this blog will know that I do a lot of jobs with Midwest Helicopters. Earlier this week I got a call from Jim telling me that they were planning a job at Navy Pier later in the week. Given the location of the pier, the possibility of some nice city backdrops was very tempting. Where to shoot from would depend on where the actual lift was. For those who haven’t been there, Navy Pier is pretty long!

I went to the website to try and get a contact on the pier who might be able to get me into a location that would be good for shooting. They have a contact for people wishing to photograph (commercially) on the pier so I contacted the person and they got back to me a while later. Turns out, the pier is very focused on what is necessary to get a shoot arranged. They had a series of terms, most of which were not a problem with the exception of getting them named on my insurance overnight! They also had a fee which was quite substantial. Since the shoot was associated with some work for them, they were prepared to consider waiving the fee. However, the manager was out and by now the lift was the following morning.

Outstanding commitment on the part of my contact meant I got the all clear at 10:30 the night before. I am very grateful that they tried so hard and it was certainly nice to be totally legitimate. The morning dawned with some very promising conditions. We all rolled up to the site and got set. Unfortunately, the loads were not ready so the lift was postponed for half an hour while the rigging was set up.

Eventually we went ahead. A theater on the pier has a fabric cover that had been ripped in a storm. The new covers were going up and a damaged vent was being brought down. The guys receiving the loads were working on some temporary cable rigging under the main beams. They were not in much of a position to manhandle the loads as they came in so Jim was a busy guy making very fine adjustments from the helicopter to get everything in place. He did a great job and I was well positioned to get some good shots. I particularly liked the angle looking down the roof line at the heart of the Ferris wheel behind the theater.

I was with Brian on the parking deck. He had an idea for a shot that I hadn’t considered. He would be hooking on the lift line as the helicopter hovered at head height. He wanted a shot that was a city panorama with the hook up as part of the scene. I hadn’t considered doing a pano with action in it before but gave it a go. I actually tried several during the lift and they actually came out quite well.

Stitching the pano of Brian was harder than I thought. Photoshop did a great job of creating the pano and totally excluding the helicopter since it was only in one shot. However, the layer was still there so some delicate masking work could bring it back in. It was actually really cool to watch it appear on the monitor. The pano is not something that will always have a place on a shoot but it is an interesting idea to add to the shoot list.

For more pictures of the lift, you can go to this gallery.

Time Lapse Fun

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One gift I got for my birthday was an intervalometer. I have been interested in time lapse photography for years but never got around to trying it out properly. The intervalometer I got was a third party device which is a fraction of the price of the official Canon version! A couple of posts ago I included some time lapse video in Chicago. Here are a few more videos that I have put together in the recent months.

Caption Competition

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I have been gradually working my way through a bunch of old shots from the days when I didn’t delete anything. These days such carelessness with storage cannot be tolerated so I am a lot more aggressive about culling out the weak. Anyway, during the review of older stuff, I came across this shot and it made me chuckle and seemed like a great candidate for a caption competition. In the previous shot the guy inside is not in the doorway so he miraculously appeared as the other guy went out. Feel free to make your own comments below!

Bean in the rain

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After the trip to the Cultural Center from my previous post, I headed across to the Bean to try some other ideas. I was interested to use the intervalometer to do some more experiments with time lapse photography. Ever since I have got it, I have been experimenting with different ways of compressing events in time. To date I had focused on larger scenes transitioning over periods of an hour or more. This time I was looking at getting a short result that portrayed the movement of people around a busy scene like the Bean.

What I hadn’t planned on was the rain. The day had been looking pretty unpleasant for quite a while but, since I was more interested in the movement of the people rather than a picturesque shot of the landmark, I wasn’t too bothered. Besides, this was an experiment so, if I screwed a few things up and learned my lesson, I would be better prepared when a better day came along. However, the rain that started around the time I arrived was a little more persistent than I had expected.

In such circumstances, where does everyone go to shelter? Under the Bean of course. I quickly joined them when I realized the rain was getting heavy. As I sheltered under there, it was obvious that this might be an chance anyway. I thought everyone would just stand under there so nothing would work from a motion perspective but I was wrong. Despite the lack of anything to do for a while, people were constantly on the move. I stuck the camera low to the ground under the surface of the sculpture and left it to do its thing for a while.

As the rain eased off, I headed outside to try and different look at people passing by. I even decided to see what a slow moving person in front of a busy scene might look like. I’m not obvious and it isn’t great but when you find a way to have fun in the rain, you do.

While the time lapse was underway, I noticed another group had arrived. At this time of year it is no surprise to see wedding parties arrive to get some pictures in Millennium Park. When it is pouring with rain, it’s not what they were hoping for but I guess you can’t come back another day when you only have one wedding day! I felt bad for the people as they struggled to get their shots as the rain fell but the photographer was a determined guy and they were going to get it done. I do hope they look good when they see them.

Cultural Center Part 2

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After the visit of Bonnie, Gary and Julie the other week, I was determined to head back to the Cultural Center and have a bit more of a plan this time. Following on from my wanderings along the river to watch the bridges opening, I headed across to the Cultural Center to take another look at what I could get.

This time I had two advantages. First, having been there before, I had a better idea what I was looking at. Second, during our previous visit, a private event had been taking place in one of the halls under the glass domes so we could only see it obliquely. This time, no events were taking place and I had freedom to wander where I wanted. This proved even better because I hadn’t realized that there was another room further on that also was fascinating to see.

What I hadn’t brought with me was a proper tripod. I had a couple of supports that I had brought (including a Gorillapod) but they were only useful in certain situations. Therefore, I had to practice my best hand holding at low shutter speeds for some of the shots. All good practice! For a lot of the locations, this wasn’t a problem. However, in the open rooms, ramping up the ISO was necessary although balancing the shutter speed against the noise levels was a trade off that had to be made.

The interior has a lot of interesting places to shoot. Some of them offer clear opportunities and this time I came equipped with a wider lens to accommodate the width of shot available. Some of the other areas have great detail and interesting features but I have yet to find a good way to represent that in the shots. At least that leaves me with more reasons to go back for another try.

There is a wide range of light within some of the rooms and trying to represent that tends to lead me to some HDR work. I tried out a bunch of shots with HDR and when I got home, experimented with different ways of processing the HDR. Some of these are aimed at a realistic interpretation and some are more dramatic. The patterns and colors can make the dramatic finishes look very interesting but too much of the same thing gets boring fast so I am still playing with other finishes. For those HDR experts out there, let me know if you have some good ideas.

Signs of Spring?

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One of the things that is a sign of spring arriving in Chicago is the movement of boats back out into the lake. Given how cold it gets here in the winter, the boats that fill the marinas along the lake during the summer months all head inland to storage once the temperature starts to drop. Having your boat frozen into the ice that covers the water during the winter is probably not good for it.

Chicago, being built along a river, has a ton of bridge. These are mostly “bascule” bridges – cantilevered bridges that are balanced with weights in such a way that very little effort is needed to lift them. In days gone by, the bridges would open frequently for the regular river traffic of the commercial vessels. These days, the boat trade on the river is focused on the tourist boats and they can clear the bridges when they are lowered. Also, road traffic is heavy now so opening the bridges can be quite disruptive.

Therefore, there is a limited opening schedule for the boats to get out to the lake in the spring and a return schedule in the fall to get everyone back in. The first opening of the season occurred the other day and I decided to wander out and see how it was going. I have photographed the bridges near me many times, often in lovely weather. This time I decided to go to some other bridges (and do it on a grotty day)! I can’t plan the weather so maybe a chance to try some other ideas.

I didn’t realize that the first opening might also be an opportunity for the city staff to work out any kinks in the bridge openings that have arisen over the winter. Let’s just say it wasn’t speedy! However, once you have committed to the task, you have to see it through.

I guess the boat owners know about the problems with the first opening of the season. Not too many boats were coming through. Maybe I will learn the lesson too! However, the process, while drawn out, did go ahead and the bridges opened in sequence along the river. I decided to hang out near the join in the two branches of the river. Here there are a couple of bridges that also have “L” tracks above them so make for a more complex bridge. They also look a little interesting when opened up. The light was a bit tricky but it was a fun way to start the day anyway. Now to continue on to see what else is going on in the city…

Out of Practice

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A weekend day crops up with some good light, a relatively clear schedule and a feeling that it has been a while since I was shooting some aircraft. If it flies, I am interesting in taking its picture. If pressed, military and rotary are the favorites for me but I am not a snob and I am more than happy to take pictures of airliners if the opportunity presents itself.

O’Hare is not far away and Midway is even closer. Both are busy fields but they are not a source of much diversity when it comes to traffic. Midway is Southwest heaven but not a lot else (although there are a fair few business jets every once in a while). O’Hare is fine if you want a lot of United Express and American Eagle regional jets. However, there is a period in the middle of the afternoon when a lot of the European traffic comes in and that is what tempted me to venture up that way.

It was also an opportunity to make use of some technology. I have had times in the past when I finally gave up after a steady stream on the same old stuff, only to head down the road as something very interesting shows up. Now, with Flightaware on my phone and LiveATC’s app streaming, it is a lot easier to be aware of what is due in and when. Makes for a more relaxing time!

The afternoon arrivals also coincide with the sun coming round to the right location so all looked good, as long as the weather was prepared to hold. No tension being built here – the weather stayed great!

I showed up ahead of the main arrival times although I was just a little too late to catch and AeroUnion A300. It left while I was there but the perimeter fence means nothing useful to show of that. However, we did have a great selection of stuff to get my first big afternoon of shooting in. There is also the normal stream of the local stuff and I didn’t ignore that completely but usually only to try something I wouldn’t go for on a one off arrival.

We had KLM, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Turkish Airlines and Royal Jordanian amongst others. The Turkish jet had a large Manchester United logo on the side but I didn’t hold that against them. Royal Jordanian really do have a very attractive livery. Only Iberia let us down by arriving on the center runway rather than the southern where we were. Ho hum!

All in all a great day out and a nice way to spend some time in the sun – outdoors after the generally dull winter we have had so far. As if to round that point out, that evening it snowed a bit again! What is going on?

What a drip!

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A couple of years ago I had a go at shooting water droplets splashing around. It was something I had been meaning to do for a long time so I tried setting up an arrangement to make it work. It was a bit of an effort but I got some results with it although, I have to admit I was probably a little disappointed with the outcome. Given how much of a pain it had been to set up, I was not hurrying to have another go.

Time ticks by and recently I was looking at the Facebook page of Gerry Holtz, a friend in LA, and he had been doing the whole water droplet thing as well. Needless to say, he had done a far better job of it than I had. The images were very cool and he had made some good use of color as well as alternative arrangements into which the water was dropping. Very impressive stuff.

Seeing this made me want to have another go and I was mulling doing just that when I saw a link to a video online with a guy called Gavin Hoey in the UK demonstrating his setup for shooting water droplets. Uncanny coincidence, don’t you think. I watched his video which can be seen here and realized I had been making it all far more complicated than absolutely necessary. So, I have inspiration by seeing someone do a good job and method from someone who knew how to make it a lot easier so what is stopping me from having another go? Nothing!

So, this time I am feeling a little better about the results. Some focus issues still to be resolved on some of them (and water doesn’t always splash in exactly the same place each time so guess what the focus will be on the most interesting shots!) but still, not too bad. Certainly enough to encourage me to think about doing it again soon.

Here is a gallery to show you the results.