fourpointedstar

There are three or four days in the spring and fall when the sunrise aligns with the Bean in downtown Chicago.  Back in 2023, I drove downtown twice to capture “Chicago Henge” and ended up with this delightful photo.

This spring, Chicago Henge was on a weekend, so I got up at 4am to head downtown to capture the sunrise; sadly this glow was the most that Mother Nature cooperated.  When I arrived downtown, it was pretty obvious that the sky would remain overcast, so I created other images instead and ended up with 3 pairs of photos that I like.

All in All, a successful trip.

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Parking garages offer unique views of Chicago, so anytime that I park in a garage, I walk down the staircase. On my way to visit a client, I saw spotted this puddle’s reflection and in my mind, I wandered off to what I could create with just a boring staircase.
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For the second full week of Black & White February, I decided to follow up on an idea that I’d had for a few months – to shoot light trails in Elgin.   I enjoy capturing long exposures, but the added challenge of capturing light trails in downtown Elgin instead of Chicago (where there’s more traffic) seemed challenging.  

While we were out in the bitter cold for the January Lunar Eclipse, I realized that Elgin’s parking garages would make a great vantage point for some light trail images.   I’d taken images from the top of the Spring Street garage, in fact, I’ve led photo walks in downtown Elgin and used the Spring Street garage as a vantage point.  

However, I decided to add one more aspect to the week’s photos: I would attempt to shoot 7 images and capture 7 photos that I was proud of…I didn’t quite make it.   Capturing light trails of traffic when there’s very little traffic turned out to be a bit more challenging than I expected.   But I took 14 images, from 6 vantage points, and captured 7 images that I’m proud of.