fourpointedstar

For the past 10 years, I’ve wanted to take this trip with Keith; Sarah and I have also talked about taking a vacation down to Southern Illinois to see the natural beauty. For many years, the trip would conflict with work or kids activities, so we we’d say “next year, we’ll go on Keith’s workshop”.

We started the trip off with this fantastic image, and by the time the two and a half days were complete, Sarah and I had hundreds of fantastic images, and we’d made great new friends too.

At this particular corner at the southwest corner of Herrick Forest Preserve, there are two trees standing alone.  They’re not full, in fact that they’re kinda odd, but they make fantastic silhouettes against the pre-dawn hues of the late summer.

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.

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.

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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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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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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When I first saw this hood ornament, I immediately was taken with how fragile and sharp the front piece was. I was then taken with the luster of the copper color of the animal (perhaps a pegasus?). The copper color and the animal’s shape reminded me of the decorations on the Ishtar Gate, and placing that hood ornament with the rich blue backdrop really completed the enchantment.

As I walked north through the Concours, I passed by the painter; so I made a point to stop by and say hi on the way back south. John Paul is from California and was just in Illinois for an art collaboration, and chose to come to the Concours to paint a car or two. Also, the blue Cadillac in the painting was detailed by a friend’s dad’s friend; life really is only 6 degrees of separation from painter to the artist who created the subject of the painting.

If you take a beginners’ photography class, your instructor is likely to bring up leading lines, rule of thirds, and removing items that aren’t needed as some of the keys to a great photo. I’d like to think that those are the reasons that I love this photo, but it’s probably only because I love the color red combined with the yellow hints in the center-line trim work.

I have mentioned more than a few times that the Geneva Concours can be crowded and those crowds limit the photos that you can capture. In addition to the crowds though is the venue; the somewhat narrow street and shops and businesses also often provide a very cluttered backdrop for photos and the Concours. Which is why I’m thrilled with the simple nature of this photos; the red really brings out the shine of the chrome.

Earlier in the morning, before the Elgin History Museum’s Classic Car Show technically started, there were a few showers that rolled through. While most of the cars arrived after the rain or their owners cleaned the cars off, this dripping wet Thunderbird lent itself to some unique photos.

This was the perfect sunset sky interrupted by the perfect little sliver of the moon, so of course, I pulled over and took a few photos.

I alway enjoy finding new locations to photograph light trails, and I found this particular spot about 2 years before I finally got down to photograph it. Grand Avenue crosses I-90/94 with a perfect view of the Willis Tower, but there’s also a Metra track there too!
However, that Metra line is not used that often on the weekends, so I will have to go back to capture a better photo with the train light trails too. (Oh, and LED billboards are terrible…)

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Most folks from the Chicago area will recognize that darker building, but why is the light blue building taller? I didn’t notice this trick of angles and perspective when I photographed this scene, but now I love the photo even more.

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The concrete and glass exterior of the building on the south side of Wells becomes the perfect canvas for abstract architecture presented by the stepped exterior of the top of the building on the north side of Wells.

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This fantastic oddity was captured from street level, and I just love all of the distortion. I’ve photographed the curved fascade of the building on the corner of Wells & Hubbard a few times, but always from the 4th or 5th floor of the parking garage with light trails in mind.
(This photo was from a photo walk that I led back in April.)

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I’m drawn to reflections; the warbling that a window provides adds so much more interest to the scene. In this photo, you are actually looking at 3 different buildings, can you see each one?

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The simplicity of this photo is what allows the three distinct shades of blue to stand out.

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I know, I know … all that I did was turn the photo sideways, but when an architect lays out clean lines, and there’s a wonderfully warped reflection, well … that’s all that I needed to do, right?

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There were several of these kinds of infinite depth items; the previous yellow photo is another example. However, this installation was different, there were more than a dozen of these cubes stacked on each other, and the blue lights’ activity was somewhat responsive to the people passing by. It definitely reminded me of something futuristic, like maybe it represented the vastness of space.

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Each glass facade was a different shade, with the 3rd panes being pink. Overall the exhibit was simple and yet delightful; I’m not one for reading into art, but I definitely enjoyed viewing and attempting to capture the Icebergs uniquely.

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