Category Archives: Chicago

Early Morning at Chicago Botanic Gardens

The Chicago Botanic Gardens open at 7am. This is something I was totally unaware of when we lived in Chicago. During our recent visit, we were staying a short distance away and had some free time in the morning. We decided to go early, have a wander around, get some breakfast there and then go back to the hotel to be ready for the day. We might not have been there spot on 7am but we weren’t much later.

Early morning is a great time to look around. It was a hot weekend that weekend so we were able to enjoy the gardens before they got too hot. We were also able to enjoy them pretty much alone for a lot of the time. The crowds have not shown up yet and the place is occupied by the regulars. In some of the more central parts of the gardens, the groundskeepers are still busy at work sorting things out before the majority of visitors appear.

We wandered around a good portion of the grounds. Heading towards midsummer, even that early in the day is long after the sun comes up so it isn’t the perfect light. It is a lot better than later in the day though so worth taking the camera. With so few people, the chance to get unobstructed shots is worth it in itself. Having not been for a while, the chance to walk the grounds again was a treat as well.

Tucson Corporate Activity

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I don’t know whether the timing was favorable or whether there is just a lot of traffic but I saw quite a few corporate jets on the move at Tucson during my short time shooting there. Corporate stuff is always a nice break from the regular airline traffic although it can be harder to shoot. The jets are usually smaller and the bigger ones are often performing well within their capabilities so get airborne really quickly and are way too high by the time they get to you.

Even so, we did okay. A couple of Hawkers were heading out and I was particularly pleased to get a Global Express. It did look a touch anonymous but maybe I can pretend that means there is an interesting story behind it.

Brickworld 2016

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When we lived in Chicago, we made a couple of visits to the Lego convention, Brickworld. Some of the Lego creations on display were really impressive and I have included them in previous blog posts. It just so happened that, this year, Brickworld was on the same weekend that we were in the Chicago area for my niece’s graduation. We had a little spare time on the morning that we were flying home so we decided to check it out en route to the airport.

The venue has changed from when we last went. It is now at a larger location and everything is in one large room. The previous place had four smaller rooms. This seemed to result in the more advanced pieces being grouped together. Now everything is scattered around the one space. Combined with the many retail stands, it made things a bit more tricky to see in a short space of time. Even so, we managed to cover everything enough to feel like we hadn’t missed out on anything. I even managed to FaceTime my sister in the UK so she could see some of the stuff from a long distance!

As with previous years, there were plenty of impressive creations. A section of downtown Chicago from the area we used to live was very cool. A recreation of a baseball stadium seemed to be incredibly detailed but it was quite hard to see since it was enclosed in a case. A guy had produced a detailed representation of a building from his home town in Europe. A Middle Ages scene from previous years had received some updates. My favorite, though was a scene from D-Day.

The scene consisted of a landing craft with soldiers and vehicles coming ashore on a Normandy beach having taken the area in battle. The level of detail was impressive with the water created from thousands of little pieces. I have no idea how many total pieces were included but it was clearly a lot. It must have cost a small fortune to put together combined with a lot of time and effort. A very impressive effort.

Michael Jordan’s Gulfstream

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Waukegan Airport is the home for a number of corporate aircraft. One of the regular visitors is a Gulfstream belonging to a man who has a home in the area and who is associated with Chicago area sports in a big way. However, the aircraft is wearing colors that are more associated with his college playing days in North Carolina. The result is possibly not the most attractive paint job you have ever seen. It does include the logo of the man in question in his trademark (literally) pose of Air Jordan. I once spent a portion of a day driving around the airfield with the Airport Manager. As we went through one of the electronic gates, he spotted the remnants of a cigar on the ground outside the gate. Apparently, this is one of Michael’s cigars. He is not allowed to smoke them when on the ramp so he drops them just before entering the area.

Adam A500 – Rare But Still Out There

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I was talking with a longtime friend of mine about some stuff recently and it got me thinking about a project he had worked on a few years ago. He was heavily involved in Adam Aircraft based out of Centennial Airport south of Denver. The company had two projects; the A500 twin piston and the A700 twin jet. The company ultimately folded with only about half a dozen of the A500s delivered to customers and the A700 still in flight test. I was wondering whether I had any shots of either type.

I did make a visit to the company while he worked there and got to walk around the flight test hangars. Sadly, no cameras were allowed so I don’t have any images of the work the company was doing. That is a big shame. However, I did come across A500s twice. One time was at Oshkosh where a couple of the planes were on display together. Later I also saw one parked up at Palwauckee (now called Chicago Executive) where it had a cover over the fuselage. I believe some are still flying but, without manufacturer support, I imagine they are not cheap to keep.

Black Hawk Welcoming Committee

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A work trip recently took me through Chicago Midway. I wasn’t there long before getting on my next flight. We were taxiing out to depart and were coming past the National Guard air unit based on the field. They operate a bunch of Black Hawks. A couple of them were parked up on the apron and one was on approach. My plane conveniently had to hold for a while so I got to see the Black Hawk fly its approach and land. I only had my phone with me but here is some footage of the arrival.

Dog Sled Demonstration

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Unless you live in the mountains, California winters are not a time for much thought about snow. However, I did find myself thinking back to an event we went to a couple of time when we lived in Chicago. Morton Arboretum is located in Lisle, west of the city, and was a favorite place for us to visit. In any season it was a pretty place to walk. During the winter, they would put on a demonstration of dog sledding and this could be fun to watch.

A course would be set up through the trees so there were plenty of places in which you could set yourself up to watch the action. The runs would take place at various times throughout the day and between them you could go and talk to the people and meet the dogs. They were certainly energetic creatures and, I imagine, they would be a real handful to have in a house. Let the buyer beware!

The snow was not too deep on this occasion so it was relatively straightforward to head out around the course and get set for the teams when they came through. Most of them had things well under control but sometimes a single dog sled would appear and the dog might get a little distracted by all of the cool smelling stuff around them. At this point, the person would appear to be doing more of the pushing and the dog less of the pulling.

Shooting in the snow is always a little interesting. The brightness of the snow itself contrasts a lot with the shadows in the surrounding trees. This is when shooting RAW really helps as you can get a lot more out of the shots.

Last of the Good Light

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Getting some lovely evening light means the steady improvement in shooting conditions right up until the point when it all goes away. The light was on the nose of the departing jets so was good as they climbed out. Once they were passed our location, they were partially backlit but, since the sun was very low in the sky, the undersides of the jet were illuminated as it climbed. This provided some great options.

As the sun got even lower, the shade was beginning to be an issue for the front shots but the sky still provided a few nice options as the jets were heading away. The back of a plane might not always be the best side to shoot but, if the light is playing ball, it can be good. Of course, the transformation from great to gone is pretty quick so you make the best of it and then you can go home!

Is That a Crosswind?

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Unless you are on the center-line of the approach, you rarely get to see the aircraft directly head on. If there is a crosswind from your direction, though, you can get the planes pointing straight at you for a while. Sadly, this usually is while they are further out on the approach. If you are closer to the runway then you can get a shot that is more interesting because there is some ground to provide context to the angle of the plane. With a strong enough crosswind, you can get a head on shot until close to touchdown.

There is a location that I shot at once that is no longer available. It provided a good opportunity to get shots on a strong crosswind day. A Cathay Pacific 777-300ER demonstrates what I mean. A long airliner like a 777 emphasizes the effect even better when it swings around just before touchdown. The photos don’t demonstrate that as well as a video would but it did look cool. It wasn’t the only one either!

What is Happening on This 767?

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Every once in a while you see something and you have no idea what is going on. As a United 767 climbed out from O’Hare, it was streaming something from the fuselage. I saw it through the viewfinder at the time and figured it would be obvious what it was when I looked at the pictures. It turns out I still don’t know what was happening. Anyone reading this that has any ideas, please let me know what you think.