Tag Archives: cloud

Night Wanderings with Friends

Leave a reply

As I mentioned in a previous post, sometimes it is useful to have someone come to the city to encourage me to get out and about.  A few friends had been to Chicago in a previous week to do some shooting but I had been tied up when they arrived.  They were planning some evening shooting and I had been out all day and had plans for the evening so missed it.  I was a bit disappointed but there you go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consequently, I was pleased to see that a few of them were planning to come back a few days later for another session.  This time I was free so agreed to meet up.  Some of the group that were coming I knew and others I hadn’t met before.  I headed out to the Adler Planetarium – our meeting spot – and started taking some shots.  A few guys were already there taking their own shots so I wandered over to find out if they were some of the people I hadn’t met before.

While it was true I hadn’t met them before, they were not part of our group.  However, in common with many photographers, they were a friendly bunch a we chatted for a while.  They had come to town from Texas and were looking to get as many things in to their trip so I suggested a few spots that they might like to try.

After a while the rest of the guys did show up – well, all but one who had wandered off on his own – and we started taking some pictures.  The skyline was lovely as usual and we took some shots around the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum.  Then we headed across to Millennium Park.  I’m becoming a regular.

Shooting around the Bean at night is good since the long exposures you need tend to make any of the other visitors disappear.  You get a cleaner shot if you plan it right.  We got a bunch of shots and then we started playing around with a flashlight.  More of that to come!

Chicago at Night

Leave a reply

It has been a while since I last went out and did some night photography around Chicago.  I had been meaning for a while to go and photograph the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park at night when they have the light and music show.  This was supposed to be a relatively quick trip out but ended up being a rather longer expedition.

Chicago at night is a great place to photograph.  It is fine to walk around at night and there are usually a bunch of people out and about.  However, do you do get a feeling that the city is yours and that you aren’t sharing it with the tourist masses.  The night lighting is also a lot more generous to sights that look less impressive during the day.  The dark hides a lot of the blemishes!

The show at the fountain takes place every hour on the hour.  I got down at 8pm which was just after sundown.  This wasn’t such a good plan as, even at the end of the 20 minute display, it really wasn’t dark enough to get the benefit of the lights.  I figured I would try again another time but ended up taking enough shots of details around the fountain that soon it was sufficiently close to the hour again that there was no point in leaving.  The 9pm show was certainly more photogenic – even if I had to take a few angles that concealed some of the construction sites on the skyline.

With some shots in the bag, I headed back in the direction of home.  however, along the way were plenty of things to shoot as well.  The Art Institute, the Pritzker Pavilion and the bean were all there along with the goings on of Millennium Park.  It ended up being pretty late by the time I finally headed home.  I have now whetted my appetite for some more night shooting so hopefully it won’t be too long before I am back out.

Bean in the rain

Leave a reply

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.