fourpointedstar

About 10 minutes earlier, another bus passed by and as it passed I noticed the reflection of the brickwork and the trees.  I understand why this happens, but it kinda hurts my brain to realize that the bus has a bit of motion blur, but the reflection does not – making it a fantastic canvas.

I’ve taken this type of photo so many times – a building’s reflection distorted in the windows of another building.  The rough idea of the reflection is visible, but only at a conceptual level; almost like a third grader was tasked with cutting 50 straight lines as fast as they can without using a ruler.

As I stood waiting for fellow photo walkers to arrive, I could see the corner of the McDonald’s sign reflected in the triangular building across the street.  Moving to the left allowed the entire sign to be displayed in their windows; a great way to start a street photography photo walk.

There may only be a couple of weeks each year when the sun lines up perfectly with the doors on this building to create this photo.  If the sun is any lower, then the trees just outside the doors will block the rays too.  Opportunities like this abound everyday, we just have to pay attention … and bring a camera. 

Sometimes my monochrome images have power and will stand the test of time.
To be clear, I do not think this is one of those images.

Once you start looking around ECC, you’ll find many beautiful scenes to photograph, and since the campus has been built over decades, there are many different architectural styles to take advantage of.

While the beautiful House of Worship is visible from a distance, the grounds are equally impressive, but really only visible when you are walking toward and around the building.  The immaculate gardens are gorgeous and incredible, a simply astounding ongoing task for the staff of the House of Worship.

The Baháʼí House of Worship is one of the most beautiful buildings in the Chicagoland area. Since the exterior is almost entirely white, it’s a great candidate for a monochrome series of images.

When I began paying attention to cars, the Lotus Esprit was maybe my second automotive love after the 80’s Monte Carlo SS. While the 80’s Monte Carlo was a familiar sight, I only saw the Lotus in magazine photos – that is, until I began attending car shows.

Oh my, and to look inside that mountain outcrop?  What a wonderful spectacle of lines, shadows, and shapes!  This is definitely some kind of 3D TicTacToe game that I’m not aware of!

I’ve always loved these kinds of architectural elements; the abstract corners jutting out from a building. ECC seems to have a few of these; staircases that are not in the core of the building, but on the outside hanging onto the building, and in this case the blue pillar makes this element even more impactful.

Searching for abstract architecture photos is a little more conducive to conversation than many other types of walk-about photography.  As we walked along, my daughter and I talked about talents, skills, careers, colleges, and life in general.  Being a parent can be stressful and contentious, but a walk through a scenic area with someone who also appreciates the beauty of the man-made world around us can bring it all back into focus.

These were the stairs that first drew me in at ECC; they’re on the outside of Building J and perched precariously on the side of the brickwork.  The angles, the straights, the bricks, the shadows all combined to create great imagery.

I’ve lived 2 miles away from Elgin Community College for ten years now, but I’d only visited when I was teaching my daughters to drive. As I walked into Building H for my daughter’s first class, I was struck by how many photo opportunities exist in the architecture. So, the next week when I dropped her off, I chose to walk around and capture a few of those images.

Recently I saw a photo of a fork.  
The fork was alone on a white backdrop, illuminated by a single point of light casting a very distinct shadow.
The image stuck with me, itching my creative neurons.  Then this past week, Sarah was at a conference, and I was home alone, so I grabbed random a few kitchen items, a white backdrop, and a flashlight…

This is the “classic car” – the 55 to 57 Chevy Belair, a true work of art.  Its very interesting to see the style and design change each year; a 1955 Belair shows what the new style will be, but the details are more reserved, and by the time the “57 Chevy” came out, “reserved” was not the word you would use for the car at all.

I tried this photo a week before with a tree in the background, and it just didn’t work.  I posted the photo simple because it was unique, but now that I have this image?  I like that other photo even less! LOL. I love the balance of color and detail and the overall saturation as well! 

Leaving at the end of a trip is always sad and happy; I’m typically glad to head back to my home and my routine, but sad to leave the destination and certain that I would love to spend a day or two more there!  The photo walk in Chinatown was hot and humid, but I was sad the day was over and that we were headed home.

I love the beauty and fluidity of Chinese characters; in English, signs are typically written in block letters, but the majority of the text through Chinatown is written in a script that I would describe as “cursive”.

I’m not even sure where the puddles came from that day – it was over 90°F / 32.2°C out – but the puddles made for fun reflections.  A couple of other photographers on the walk really used them to their advantage, I just used them as an abstract framing device.

Pardon me if I’ve photographed this structure before, but I’m obligated to capture an image each time that I visit Chinatown! I do need to remember to bring a wider lens next time that I visit though; I would love to capture the staircase as the border of the photo.

As I composed this image, I thought it would be funny to have the red characters coming “out” of the dragon’s mouth like they were flames; I had a little inside chuckle as I composed the image at my own ingenuity.  Then some pedestrians were reading the inscription on the statue, so I waited – just as they walked away the people with the traditional hats walked by.  The moral of the story: sometimes you should let people read about the statue so that you can get a better image!

The traditional architecture shown throughout Chinatown in Chicago is incredibly repetitious.  Repeating patterns and colors flow throughout each structure, and I enjoyed attempting to compose images that eliminated the power lines and non-traditional structures, yet still displayed the beauty and form.

I try to lead a photo walk monthly, but… well, life gets in the way.  In late July, we had 7 people on our Chinatown walk, and I wasn’t sure what I would photograph on the trip.  This was one of the first photos that I took, something about the Slurp Slurp made me smile. 🙂 

When we started our photo walk, I wanted to capture images that I may not normally see or look for. The stop light shadow immediately grabbed my attention, but I will admit that my second photo, the reflection, is the type of photo that I have taken many times over.

There are some photos that I like that I don’t want to “define” why; the crosses photo fits in that category – I love the symmetry and texture of the image.  As we walked along Spring Street, I saw my shadow walking along the brick but it took me a bit to capture the right photo since normally my elbow would be extending from my head when I click the shutter button.

I loved the way the evening light played with the reddish bricks on the steeple, but when I saw the shadows on the RR Donnelly building? The way the straight shadow played across the rectangular windows and contrasted with the darkness of the second building’s window reflection? That was simply too good to pass up!

We crossed the street at Dexter for the express purpose of the church photo; it was obvious to me that the street lamp and raised bricks were a perfect composition.  But I spent quite a bit of time working on the exact composition for the vines; I wanted to keep the sparse vines to the right, but the light pointed to the left … and I ended up with a photo that I wouldn’t normally take that I really enjoy.

I love looking for interesting reflections in windows; the window offers a perfect frame and typically distorts the view. Recently though, I’ve been drawn to photos of reflections in puddles; a very similar concept, but a different and less predictable frame and outcome.

My friend and I took a nice slow walk around one of Elgin’s historic neighborhoods. Our meandering path matched our meandering conversation as we talked about life and pressed our shutter buttons. I remarked to him “I’m just not really feeling it”, but I continued to capture interesting images. As I tried to pick 7 images to post for this week, they all seemed to be missing something; but as pairs of photos?

The strong red-ish light of the sun played strongly across each scene, but was most evident on the brick buildings leading to the wonderful hues in these photos.

I’m not sure that I like this photo; one of my primary motivations for liking nearly any photo is that it feels balanced. And for some reason, this image does not feel balanced to me, but I’m not even sure that I could even define why I don’t feel that it’s balanced.

Every year, the Elgin History Museum puts on such a great car show!  They hold it on the grounds of the museum with “Old Main” serving as the backdrop, and this year, this fantastic Ford coupe was posing in front of Old Main – the perfect photo op.

This Packard was sitting next to the 1955 Chevy, and while I took my photos of the Chevy, I was continuously drawn to the unique hood ornament and the unique color – a cream with a hint of yellow. I love the graceful pose of the hood ornament – a swan landing in the water – absolutely gorgeous.

Let’s just assume at this point that I won’t tire of hood ornaments. (Spoiler… there’s another photo of one this week too!) This is the same 1955 Chevy that I used for my 24 photo challenge as well, so if you want to see 20+ more images of this car, click here.

Shortly after I’d taken my first photos of the apple for the original photo challenge, I was editing a photo that I’d taken of a Duesenberg, and it occurred to me that I should take the photo challenge at a car show. So today, while at the Elgin History Museum’s car show, I chose a red 1955 Chevy Coupe. I followed the same pattern as with the apples: no bracketing, each shot is planned, every shot is unique. I took 29 images, and I have 25 photos to show below.

I’ve started my first photography class; I’ve never taken classes before, so this is a new adventure. The instructor mentioned in the first lesson the Apple Challenge – take 36 unique photos of an apple. So I took the challenge seriously. I bought 4 apples, ate one of them, and used the other 3 for my photos. Instead of my normal “take a bunch of photos” and “bracket everything”, I took 1 photo for each “pose”. Over 2 different days, I took 46 photos and the lightly edited final 40 images are below. (I did end up retaking 6 photos, as the original image was terribly out of focus or similarly flawed.)

I have attended a half dozen or more Wauconda Cruise Nights over the years, and every time at the north-west end of Main Street, there are two Duesenbergs – gorgeous cars from years ago. Each time that I attend, I make sure to walk past them; and after this past Cruise Night, I thought “they’d be a fun ’36 Apple’ challenge”. So, next time that I attend, my goal is to take as many unique photos of the car that I can possibly imagine.

This Packard was the first car that I saw as I walked into Wauconda’s Cruise Night in June. Packard’s are uncommon but have a wonderful 1950’s style; it was an easy photograph, even with the crowd that had gathered around it. It went on to win the award for the car show that evening too.

Don’t shoot in direct sunlight; wait for an overcast day.
The direct sunlight creates harsh shadows and high contrast colors.
Unless you can use the shadows and bold colors to make a wonderful photo.

My original thought was that tonight’s photo – the last of the week of flags – would be of a flag with the sunset from the drone, but a huge cloudbank rolled in and ruined that plan. So, I improvised. 🙂

I’ve captured this style of image of an American flag multiple times; a single long exposure of a flag as it waves in a breeze. The trick is the breeze can’t be too strong or you don’t get variations in the waving, but … that means that you might encounter a night like last night, where you stand outside for an hour because the wind just isn’t blowing most of the time.

Let’s call this image a work-in-progress, ok? As photographers if we’re honest with ourselves, none of our images turn out EXACTLY how we want them to, especially when we’re trying something new. However, I am very happy with this composite. I wanted to do another multiple exposure this week, but this time with a lot more images – 50 is a lot, right?

I captured the same flag at roughly 1 second intervals for 2 minutes for this creation, and each flagpole is rotated exactly 1/50th of the circle. While the blending/opacity did not turn out with the effect that I wanted, I am exceedingly happy with the happy accidental bushes around the edge!

p.s. I’ll let you guys figure out why I chose 50 images. 😉

Doesn’t everyone lay down in the lawn of a random business’s lawn because their flag is waving in the correct direction for the image that you’d like to create? This is 5 exposures merged so that each images partly shows through, and I quite like it; if you look closely, you can see where the stars bleed through in some spots too.

Since we’re celebrating the July 4th holiday this week, I chose our flag as my subject for this week’s photos. While normally my photos are taken in the past and then I choose 7 images for the week from an event or along a theme, I’ve decided that this week’s photos should be taken daily and be relatively unique compositions.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

You can easily create a strong image by composing in a way that highlights a strong central focus, and when I thought of this image, my intent was to capture the unique roof of the Elgin Transportation Center. However, once overhead, the tilt of Chicago and Highland became the obvious centers of the image; I simply love how the railroad tracks, row buildings, and the transportation center give the basis for the roads to “lean” against.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

I’m new to this – drone photography; but I already love it, I can make shapes and abstracts out of our surroundings. Since I have a small drone, there are limitations to height, so my original vision of a photo of all of Walton Island taken from directly overhead didn’t work out, but that’s part of photography; adapting to your limitations to capture a new scene.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

I may have noticed some of the smaller elements on previous visits, but I had not previously noticed how prevalent the aquatic decorations are throughout the Shedd Aquarium. Even these ceiling tiles have at least 3 different designs.

…view older images with the thumbnails below…

First of all, this hotel’s footprint is very odd, very random; almost as if the architect was moonlighting as a cubism artist.
But then the midday sunlight reflecting and refracting across the brick facade?

Absolutely delightful!

…view older images with the thumbnails below…