Funky FedEx

Leave a Reply

The other day while I was sitting at my desk, I happened to look out of the window and across the river. (Under no circumstances should you conclude that I was spending a large amount of time staring out of the window. There is no evidence to support such allegations!)

As I looked across to Wacker Drive, I saw a FedEx delivery truck that looked very unusual. It had a very aerodynamic looking front end and didn’t look anything like their normal trucks. A while later, I googled FedEx and delivery trucks to see if anything came up and, sure enough, there was a feature on their website about a number of new trucks that they are running trials on, some of which are here in Chicago.

The trials are for new designs that are either light weight conventional designs or alternative propulsion designs. They are trying the different concepts out on different routes to see which ones are best suited to which routes rather than having a one size fits all approach. Apparently, we have some electric vehicles here in the city.

I didn’t think much more about it until a few days later when I was out in the Loop. As I came down a back street, a came across one of the new trucks. It certainly has a very modern look about it. The driver was not around so I had a bit of time to look around it. Apparently, there is not a door to the outside on the cab. It seems you have to go back through the truck. There were some quite jazzy looking electronic access controls so it has all the bells and whistles fitted.

It will be interesting to see how the trials go and whether these become a regular sight. Given how many miles FedEx puts in, they must have plenty of scope to save cash!

Michigan Avenue Bridgehouse

Leave a Reply

The Chicago tourist activities have been continuing.  Another local attraction I have never been to – and this one has no excuse since I have known about it for ages and it is visible from my window! – is the bridgehouse for the Michigan Avenue bridge.

Chicago has a large number of movable bridges across the Chicago and Calumet rivers.  A large number of them are bascule bridges.  For those of you not familiar with French descriptions of bridges, bascule bridges are counterbalanced and rotate out of the way using very little power due to the excellent balance.  (Bascule is French for seesaw.)

The museum is in the tower at one end of the bridge.  It is a pretty small museum but it provides access to the mechanisms that move the bridge.  This is something that interests an engineering type like me.  I think they could have made things a little better though.  There is very little lighting down there so it is hard to make out all of the parts of the machinery.  They could also provide a bit more of a guide to this.  As a photographer, the amount of fencing in the way is a nuisance but I doubt there is much they could do about that.

As a result of the relatively limited nature of the bridge, the rest of the museum is a history of Chicago, its rivers and the water supply.  It certainly provides more to look at and is quite worth a look.  There are also some slightly different views of the river.  Since it was only $4 to get in, I think it was worth a look.  Now to see how I can make some suggestions to them about improvements.

More Walking Around Chicago

Leave a Reply

The walk with my Mum also took in some spots I have been to before.  Never one to travel sans camera I ended up taking some new shots.  Whether they are better than ones taken before, I have yet to decide.

We stopped off in Union Station.  No trying to repeat the gun battle from The Untouchables for us.  Just a look around.  It is a very impressive hall and it would be nice to think that there would be some larger use for it but the commuters never come this way so it is a smattering of travelers that end up here – plus tourists and film buffs of course.

We then wandered up along the river and stopped off at the Holiday Inn.  Its location on the confluence of the north and south branches of the Chicago River gives it a great view of the city.  The clouds had started to roll in so it wasn’t at its best but still worth a look.

Around Chicago

Leave a Reply

Continuing the theme of my Mum’s visit, the two of us took a stroll through the city the other day.  It is always fun to exploit the visit of someone to do some touristy wandering that you would otherwise never do.  It also makes you explore some things that you haven’t seen before.

We included the Cultural Center on our route but I was surprised yet again by this place.  Having only recently discovered it courtesy of friends visiting in the past (see this posting), during this visit I found another room that I hadn’t been to before.  It was an empty room but quite ornate.  It was very dark so getting a good shot was tricky.  I tried a bit of HDR which was okay but I will have to go back again at some point to try again I think.

Another stop was at the Palmer House Hotel.  Now a Hilton, my Dad stayed there recently when he was visiting and told me about the grandiose lobby it has.  I had never been in before – why visit hotels when you live in the city – and it was impressive so we stopped in to take a look.  How many other things from the city have I missed?

Saugatuck

Leave a Reply

Took a trip around the bottom of Lake Michigan to visit Saugatuk.  We have been there a couple of times before but this was a visit to take my Mum there.  We went during the week which certainly made for a quieter day than the weekends when things can get quite busy there.

Saugatuck is a nice little town.  Nothing terribly dramatic about it but it has a nice harbor, plenty of little shops that have some unusual bits and pieces, a few good places to get lunch and as much fudge and/or ice cream as you could conceivably want!

The harbor separates the majority of the town from a section on a thin spit of land that edges on to Lake Michigan.  The beaches are on the other side of this spit and there is a small chain ferry that takes you across if you want to go to that side.  It is a passenger only ferry and is hand cranked across.  A quaint little addition to the town.

If you are in to motor yachts, there are also some nice examples to spot around the harbor.  Obviously a fair few dollars tied up in some of them and it can be nice to sit by the water eating lunch and planning your life if you were one of the people who owned one of the boats!

Sunset at the Botanic Gardens

Leave a Reply

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

Leave a Reply

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

Leave a Reply

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

1 Reply

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!