Sunset at the Botanic Gardens

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I have had my Mum visiting .  We try and find some fun things to do while she is staying and maybe even tie them in to things I have been meaning to do.  One of these things was a trip to the Botanic Gardens.  The thing that made this different is that, during the summer they have been having a late opening until 9pm.  The evening light should provide some good opportunities with the camera.

It certainly is a good time to visit.  The crowds are not there as they would be normally (although there are still a fair number of people around) so you have less of a feeling of being rushed by people around you.  Also, having a tripod is not a problem!  As the evening draws in, the light gets lovely and then, once the sunset passes, you can play around with some night photography.

You do have to pay attention to which areas will get the nice light since the terrain will block certain parts of the gardens but, apart from that, you can really have a nice time wandering around and looking for nice shots.

Here are some more samples of what I saw.

Stormy Skies

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The forecast the other morning was for some big storms.  I decided that this would be a good time to head down to the lakefront.  When a storm hits us, I see a lot of lightning around us but there is little that I can do to get a good shot since the buildings are too close to get any perspective.  Before Trump was built, there was a lot more to see but that is no longer the case.

Instead, i thought the Adler planetarium would provide a good view of the city as the storm rolled in so I hopped in the car and headed over there.  There was a local TV crew setting up when I got there so I thought they must agree with my planning.  The sky was certainly looking darker.

As it turned out, we were both wrong.  The sky got very moody and some crazy looking clouds bubbled across but no storm showed up.  Instead, it just started raining and my enthusiasm reduced significantly!  Eventually I headed home and the storm ended up skirting south of us.  Oh well.

Some Cool Sukhoi Flying

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Was flipping through the Dew Line blog on Flight International’s website and came across this video of the SU-35 displaying at MAKS in Moscow.  Some interesting maneuvers in there!  Maybe makes up for those how went to see the PAK-FA fly on the day when the engine surged on take-off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRV-c4s5vMo

Chicago Air and Water Show

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The Air and Water Show, here in Chicago, has been a regular for me since moving here – and why wouldn’t it be when I can actually walk to the show!?  This year, though, I was not so inspired.  The line up was not looking to be too diverse (at least as far as the things I like to shoot) and they had moved it an hour earlier which means more of the show is in the harsh lighting from a bad angle.

I skipped practice day and Saturday was almost rained out.  Sunday the weather was good and I eventually found I couldn’t quite quit cold turkey and grabbed one camera and one lens (plus a bottle of water) and decided to walk slowly up the lakefront.  This would give me a chance to take some shots from further away but looking more up the display line.  It also made the sun angles a bit better.

As the show progressed, I gradually drifted up the lakeshore until I got the North Avenue beach, around show center, just in time for the Thunderbirds display.  I should point out my timing was better than that of the Golden Knights and the Thunderbirds.  The Golden Knights had finished their jump and were lined up on the beach being introduced by their commentator.  Each member of the jump team was given a personal introduction and they were just getting to their special guest of the day who was getting the ceremonial baton when the Thunderbirds roared in from behind the crowd.

That was the end of the presentations as far as the majority of the crowd were concerned since the PA was switched over to the Thunderbirds commentary team who had probably been doing their introductions previously without knowing that no-one was hearing them.  Don’t know whether the Golden Knights were running late or the Thunderbirds were early but, either way, not a smooth handover.  The Golden Knights jump ship had been orbiting offshore awaiting its final pass but I guess they were told to make themselves scarce once the show box was handed over to the Thunderbirds!

The show was not too bad.  I’m glad I went and I took the reverse stroll home which also worked pretty well.  I guess I can’t pass up an airshow on my doorstep, even if the schedule doesn’t get me too excited!

Looking down on the world

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After a bit of a false start this week, I did a short job for a local company in partnership with some people I have worked with before.  This job was to get some aerial shots of a tractor factory in the Chicago suburbs.  The job was tied to another sortie so the timing was based on when that would happen.  However, the aim was for a morning launch, hopefully to get some reasonable light.

The plant was not far from the base of the helicopter so I strapped myself into my harness and sat in the door of the S-58 to get the shots.  A few orbits of the location later, a selection of shots were in the bag.  They were looking for something straightforward so no great artistic expression on these.  However, hopefully we got something that they like.

The main shots are going to them at the moment but here are some from the others I got on the trip.

Indianapolis

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Aside from the visit to the zoo in Indy, we also too the opportunity to look around some of the city center.  We were staying close to the canal and the capitol in the downtown area so were able to take a wander around without having to drive anywhere.

The canal seems to be a popular area with a bunch of development having gone on around it.  I imagine it has been developed in stages since some of the areas seemed very new while others had obviously been around a bit longer.

There were some nice fountains, cafes, residential developments and bridges along the canal.  It was nicely laid out and seemed to be popular with people riding bikes and running along the banks.  Obviously not just tourists like us taking a look.

There are a couple of monuments along the canal.  One is for medal of honor recipients and another is for the battleship USS Indianapolis which was lost with a heavy loss of life towards the end of the Second World War.  Both where simply done but very interesting.

We also wandered over to the Capitol and the surrounding area.  One part of it is something that I have seen many times whenever the Colts have a home game and the TV crews show surrounding city shots between plays.  Interesting to finally see something for real that has been on TV so many times before.

Had a really nice time in Indy and found everyone to be unbelievably friendly and helpful.  I wouldn’t be surprised to head back at some point.

More Zoo Stuff

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Previously I showed the pictures of Kalina, the baby elephant.  Indy Zoo has plenty of other things to see.  It is not a large zoo but it is nicely laid out and has a good selection of things to see.  I find visits to zoos to be an interesting time.  The places are filled with parents dragging very young children around.  I wonder whether parents feel an immediate need to take their kids to the zoo.  They kids certainly don’t seem to care.  They are dragged around and told what to look at but they don’t seem in the least bit interested.  It seems that around 10 years old is the point when the kids seem genuinely interested in the animals.

Anyway, plenty of things to see at the zoo so here are some shots of the various animals on exhibit.  Some of the indoor ones were tricky given the limited lighting but they are included anyway.