Category Archives: Chicago

A Night with Chaka Khan

During my teenage years, I was introduced to an artist who I had not heard of before. Chaka Khan brought something I had never heard before. I can credit a friend of the family for first playing me some of her music. Along with many others, I became a fan. Not a devoted fan but someone who really enjoyed her music. However, I never saw her perform. That changed this week.

Forty years in show business were celebrated for Chaka this year and, as a Chicago native, the city had a free concert for her in Millennium Park at the Pritzker Pavilion. We headed along and we weren’t alone. A very diverse group of people came to see the free concert. It was a great evening out. Things took a long time to actually start but when they did, she certainly still had it. An outdoor location is a great place to sit and listen to someone belting out the hits. The years have not diminished her vocal power. Great stuff.

Video of the Bridge Lifts

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The movement of the boats out to the lake in the spring is fun to watch. As with a lot of posts these days, you have seen some stills and now it is time to share the video. The reason the video always lags behind the stills is that editing it takes me a lot longer than going through the stills does. A sign of either my inexperience or procrastination when it comes to putting together the edit!

Anyway, whatever my failings might be in this case, the edit is done and here is the video.

Boy, Those Trains Can Move!

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A recent art fair was taking place in Chicago and we wandered over to see what was on display. I like these events because they always have an interesting mix of stuff. A few exhibitors have truly excellent work. A large number have stuff that is okay but not special. Then there are a few that are truly appaling. Some of these can be quite creepy and that is half the fun!

All of this is a distraction from the real point of this post. While we were at this event, I looked back towards the loop and realized that this street rose up and provided a great view straight down the elevated tracks of the L as they come through the loop. This looked like a spot I should probably come back to at a later stage. This I have now done.

The view along the tracks is best accentuated by a long lens. Since it is a street on a sunny day (I went in the morning at a time when the sun was supposed to be almost directly down the street since the high buildings around tend to shade everything), heat haze can be a bit of a problem. A winter visit would be good if that opportunity should ever present itself. Instead I shot a little video but also decided on another time lapse.

Luck was on my side this time. When we were at ISAP, there was a lot of discussion on video techniques. One thing that was mentioned was how much lead in and lead out footage should be shot to provide an editor with something to play with later. When shooting time lapse, that lead in time is long and you don’t know when the trains are going to come along. I just decided to start shooting while there was nothing there and see how things played out.

As it happened, I had a lot of time with nothing to make the lead in footage and then a bunch of trains showed up. They ran through for a while and then nothing for quite a while to provide the lead out. No planning on my part but it worked out perfectly. This is one of those clips that I am keeping for a larger project I might finally do about Chicago (probably long after we are gone!) and it will probably only be a very small part of the larger piece but here you can see all of it in one go.

Skies With Menace

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This time of year can get a bit stormy. We had some interesting skies rolling across the city with cloud layers heading in different directions at different heights. I thought a time lapse might be good for this so had a go at a couple. The sky didn’t turn into anything too dramatic in the end but it is still fun to watch the way the levels were moving. Here is a clip of what there was.

Bridge Lifts and Boat Passage

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The movement of boats to Lake Michigan is a spring event with the bridges along the Chicago River being opened to allow the boats to get by without having to remove their masts. It happens every spring and they all return each fall. After many years in Chicago, you would think I had got bored with this but I still find it a really cool thing to watch. They move on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I often don’t realize it is happening until I look out of the window and see the bridges up. I decided this year I wanted to see a little more of it.

I got out to the river when the boats were at the join between the north and south branches. This section of the river has a bunch of bridges but they seem to have a pattern of opening them in quick succession with multiple bridges open at once. As they get up to Michigan Avenue, they do each bridge one at a time to minimize the traffic disruption since the cars get backed up while the bridges are open. A Saturday often results in a few more boats and this was no exception.

I am actually cheating a bit here since, when I first started putting together this post, I had been out to watch a run of the boats. Before it is finished, though, another week had passed and another run of the boats took place. The weather was also slightly better. I decided to go out with the fish-eye this time to get something a little different to add to the collection so now the shots are a little more diverse and, hopefully, a little more interesting.

Blackhawks Affect Chicago at Night

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Night photography around the city is something I always enjoy. You will have seen examples of it here and here and here and probably a bunch of other posts too. This time I wanted to get out because the Chicago Blackhawks were in the final of the Stanley Cup. Whenever something big is happening, the buildings near Grant Park can be relied upon to make messages using the lights in their windows.

This was no exception. Messages exhorting the ‘Hawks to win the cup were on display and made what is already a cool skyline, a little more interesting. Of course, the result was success as the ‘Hawks went on to win the cup. I think the lights were updated to reflect that but a variety of circumstances meant I didn’t get a chance to get back out and shoot the updated view. However, this will give you a bit of a feel for what they looked like.

Brickworld 2013

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Once a year a Lego convention is held in the Chicago area. It used to be up in Wheeling and I have blogged about it here. This year they moved to a new venue in Schaumburg. We went along again. Some of the creations that people put together for this event are quite stunning. Their creativity and ingenuity are very impressive. Not all of the stuff suits me but I am cognizant of the skill, even for those that I won’t spend much time checking out.

I am not a Lego builder but my family has a few enthusiasts. I hope they enjoy a far larger gallery than usual.

Lion

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Getting lion pictures at the zoo is not too tricky. Getting them doing anything requires a bit more patience. The middle of the day is not when they are terribly active. Sure enough, when we first passed by, they were both asleep at the back of the enclosure. When we came back, the lioness was on a different spot and the male was awake in the middle of the enclosure. If you have ever watched lions, you will know that they roar in a way that makes them look like they are blowing smoke rings. Lots of teeth in the shot are usually the result of a yawn.

That was what I was waiting for. A sleepy lion is bound to yawn before too long. Unfortunately, lions are not like people and they do not yawn sympathetically if you do. Trust me, I have tried this. Either lions are not supposed to do this or they are sociopaths like people who don’t yawn when prompted. Imagining a lion as a sociopath is probably not that much of a stretch really. Anyway, patience was rewarded and we got a yawn. Lots so teeth! Thank you…

Dolphins

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My zoo membership was recently renewed so a trip to Brookfield was in order. We included a visit to the underwater viewing gallery for the dolphins. This can be a bit hit and miss depending on where the dolphins are and how much they want to show themselves. This time turned out to be a bit different.

One of the dolphins seemed a lot less interested in swimming around and far more fascinated by us. It was up at the end of the gallery hanging out by the window. I thought moving up would be the trigger for it moving off but went anyway. I was wrong. Instead, I ended up having a pretty amazing interaction with the dolphin. It seemed to enjoy having its picture taken and kept coming up to the window, resting its blowhole against the glass, blowing some bubbles and making lots of clicking sounds.

No point in overestimating these things but I really felt like it was talking to me. I was captivated and it seemed to have no boredom for this so we spent a lot of time like this. It was very cool. The pictures may not be the most technically accurate. Shooting through thick glass into water is problematic and the focus on the eye is not always there but, frankly, I don’t care. This dolphin was looking straight at me for ages and these images remind me of just how cool that was.

Merchandise Mart

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I know what you are thinking. It has been a long time and no helicopter photos Rob! You are right, it has been too long. Fortunately, I can rectify the situation. The good people at Midwest Helicopters had a very intensive project recently. The Merchandise Mart in Chicago was the project in question. They are installing a series of new chiller units on the roof of the building. These are big units – too large for the Midwest helicopters to lift as it happens. However, before they go up, there is plenty of work to be done.

Big chiller units need to be mounted to something and getting the structural steelwork up on the roof is no small task. It needed over 180 lifts to complete the job. It was planned for two possible days with the whole day being booked for each occasion to maximize what could be done. Flying the helicopter all day was intensive for the aircraft and required two pilots to alternate in order to avoid getting exhausted.

I got myself up on to the roof of the Mart for the job. The Mart is a huge building. It used to be the largest floor space building in the world before the Pentagon was built. It might still be second (and, if I was diligent, I could probably look that up to confirm it but we know that isn’t happening while I am in mid-story). The roof is a big space and there were two separate areas where work was going to be done.

Mounting points on the roof had been installed in advance. The task on the day was to lift each piece of steel to the roof and bolt it into place. The next would follow and the frameworks for mounting the chillers would gradually come into place as the ironworkers bolted each new piece to the previous pieces. (The chillers will follow in a few weeks when Construction Helicopters come to town and I hope to cover that too.) Each pick went pretty quickly. As the new piece came into place, the guys on the roof grabbed it and bolted it into place.

The line would be released and the helicopter would go down for the next piece while the guys finished bolting the piece into place and preparing for the next section. This was a continuous process as long as the helicopter had fuel. Given how warm and sunny it was, the black-painted roof was a hot place to be and the guys were working hard. I was glad to only be photographing the whole thing!

After the helicopter left for the first refueling, I headed down from the roof. I had other things to be done that day and headed off. My original plan had been to get some shots from the ground on the second day. A lot of the steel was being stored on a barge on the river so getting some shots of that being lifted to the roof was the plan.

However, the team was super-efficient and completed the whole job in the one day. This was a great success for them and, while they were exhausted at the end of it, I am sure they were very pleased with the result. Unfortunately, with no second day, I missed out on getting the other shots I had planned. Oh well, there is always another day.