fourpointedstar

The photographer and cosplayer knew the photo that they wanted; they captured 3 photos and disappeared back into the crowd.  But it reminded me of regular life, I do not know what character she was portraying, or what the backstory was, but for a brief moment I noticed her existence.  This happens with everyone, we rarely know their story or the character they are portraying, and they move on through our life so quickly. 

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.

These cars harken back to a simpler time, and it’s always fascinating to see an older generation stare into an older car. I often wonder, does he remember his dad working on a Model A? Did he learn to drive on a similar car in the late 50’s or early 60’s? Or is he just admiring a 100 year old vehicle?

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.

A good Independence Day Parade is full of red, white, and blue – clothing, bunting, streamers, balloons, and so many American flags large and small. So in keeping with this week’s theme, here are a few flags from my hometown’s Fourth of July parade.

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.

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.

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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!

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My favorite images tend to be the images that I consider well balanced; to me, no element feels too weighty. This image genuinely confuses me though; I spent probably too much time cropping, re-cropping, and then un-cropping the frame to get it to feel “right”. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the image; but I was very indecisive about it; and just now, I re-wrote, deleted, and then edited this text a dozen times.

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Of course there is a joke about the Golden Arches on the River Point building, but honestly, this construction was a wonderful addition to the Chicago River split.  In 2008 and 2009, I visited this exact spot, but there was no building, only traintracks.  Now, there’s a beautiful park, wonderful art, and the space has been utilized.

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I absolutely love the powerful yellow mixed with the soft blue, but try as hard I could, there was no way to align the axis or center of the dome with the yellow backlit wave.  I still love the contrast and bold colors in the image.

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I love a photo that doesn’t have a lot of visual clutter, and I love a photo that has a strong point of focus.  For this photo, I love that the subtle colors work so well together, and that the lines are so strong throughout.

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There is a welcoming blue glow inside the main vestibule of the Shedd Aquarium, and I love the contrasting yellow colors in that area. Many of the motifs in the area are also sea themed like the shells in this photo.

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Oh my goodness, this car’s plate made me laugh out loud at the show. And I think what made it funnier is the juxtaposition of the meme-worthy license plate and the 1930’s classic Ford Coupe. But, even without the plate, this car deserved to be captured as a monochrome.

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Speaking of cars at auto shows … it feels like the most common car at most community autoshows is the Ford Mustang. So in keeping with my theme of “the most common car show color is red”, here is a very red steering wheel and dash on a Ford Mustang.

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Well, I did mention that there are so many red cars at car shows, but there are also so many mid-50’s Chevy coupes. And while I love their style and beauty, it is definitely harder and harder to find that original and create photo.

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It’s the little details. This shimmering mirror’s tiny logo and the shimmering sun created wonderful shadows, accents, and reflections onto this white Chevy.

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My goodness, there are so many red cars at car shows, so this Purple Plymouth stood out from the crowd. In my ongoing effort to capture unique views at auto shows, I love this off balance scowling headlight, grill, and bumper.

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This DJI Mini 3 was my Christmas gift, but I’ve only started learning to fly it. With three teenage daughters, the school year is simply too busy!

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Sometimes it’s just the simplicity of the photo.

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I’m not really a “street photographer”, but over the past two years I have been trying to expand my photography. As my friend Arnoldo and I walked through Elgin on that rainy November day, I found several scenes that were not my usual fare, but still felt photogenic to my eye.

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This wasn’t my favorite photo to capture. The railings on the staircase are glass and that just gives me the heebie-jeebies (is that how you spell that phrase?); moving my feet out of the way while trying to hold my camera over the edge.

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As I moved around the lobby in the Hemmens, these lights moved with me creating patterns and shapes. A centimeter this way or that and the entire frame would change; it’s one of the reasons that I love architecture photography, it really does embody that statement of “right place, right time”. The colors, angles, lighting are all impacted by exactly when and where you are standing.

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I’ve heard many people say the right place and the right time are essential for a photograph, but I would argue that the right mindset is also essential. As Sarah and I were standing in the lobby of The Hemmens in Elgin, I was watching the reflections and refractions on the windows and walls. And while my mind wandered, this distant aircraft caught my eye as it traced its way through each window pane.

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As the sun crests the hills, a photographer has a few minutes when the tips of trees and plants are radiating the sun’s fresh light, and the rest of the plant rests in the shadows … a solar spotlight of sorts.

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Someday I’ll learn my lesson, only go waterfall chasing after a nice healthy rain!  Rocky Glen in Peoria has a nice vertical hike over a hill and into the valley to reach the waterfall; in the second photo you can see the massive boulder that the water flows underneath after dropping down the cliff face – yes, the same boulder with the carvings & graffiti.

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Normally graffiti distracts from my nature photos; but in this case, the carvings were so pervasive on this rock that it became an artistic subject in itself. In order to capture “Winding Valley”, I had to stand on this rock, and interestingly there were no carvings on the other side of the boulder.

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One of the best parts of early spring is that there is enough greenery to add a nice pop of color, but there is not enough greenery to block a longer scenic photo. And I particularly love the fact that the stream reflects the light blue sky in this photo.

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Any time that I go on a photo walk, I start capturing photos before I find inspiration; generally, I’m visiting a specific event or location, so that means that I have a subject in mind.  On the photo walk to the Black Partridge Woods, I knew that I would be capturing early spring flowers, but there is always that first photo that kicks off the inspiration at a photo shoot (at least for me).  

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As I climbed up the hill, I found this fallen tree. I love that the branches appear to reach out into the forest. But as I stared at the downed tree, I realized that it may be a wonderful black & white image. I’ll let you decide.

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I’m always amazed at the people who can go on a nature hike and name most of the flowers, leaves, trees, or moss. My brain just doesn’t work that smoothly; do you want to know what generation of Mac laptop first had the G3 chip? I know that, but common names for flowers … well that’s never going to stick in my brain.

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Nearly every year, I take at least one trip down to Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to photograph the butterflies. The Nature Museum has a wonderful year-round habitat for the butterflies, and in the middle of winter with all of the dull colors of nature, it’s relaxing to photograph something with rich colors.

But a friend challenged me to photograph something unusual in black & white; so I chose the butterflies in my second trip to Peggy Notebaert. Can I create interesting images without depending on the vibrant colors of the plants and insects? I am very pleased with the results of my experiment.