photo adventures — 24 hours of chicago

we stuck around on top of the parking garage long enough to watch the sunset. the building on the righthand side of the above shot was blocking the direct view of the setting sun, but the adjacent glass buildings offered glimpses of the show.

HOUR 17: 9PM TO 10PM, SATURDAY

the next stop was the Cityscape Bar on the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn just off the river. the bar itself was only so-so, but the views were pretty great. every time i see the skyline from a different perspective, whether it’s in a helicopter or just a few floors above ground level, i notice something new.

HOUR 18: 10PM TO 11PM, SATURDAY

after the Cityscape Bar, Devin headed home and Lindsay and i made for Millenium Park. we wanted to see Cloud Gate and Buckingham fountain before the park closed at 11. i’ve taken so many pictures of the bean by now that i’m forced to really work in order to find a new, interesting way to shoot it. recently, i’ve been taking long exposures as a way to eliminate the tourists from the shot (if you keep the shutter open long enough and people in the frame are moving somewhat, they’ll disappear from the final image).

this helps, but the subject still isn’t anything novel. i wanted to do something a little more with this shot, and when i started editing a few moments ago i had the idea to fade the exposure from bottom to top, simulating a graduated ND filter (i.e., the bottom is exposed normally, but shot gets darker closer to the top). this has the effect of keeping interesting detail in the foreground, especially the bottom of the bean and the surprising lack of tourists, but it makes it impossible to see the top of the bean. combined with the fact that you can see the city’s lights on the bean, this makes it seem almost as though you’re looking at the skyline itself, rather than a reflection of it. the skyscraper on the very left side of the shot isn’t a reflection, but that’s not immediately obvious when you take a first glance at the shot. cool stuff.

HOUR 19: 11PM TO 12AM, SATURDAY

after shooting the bean, we hustled over to Buckingham Fountain to catch the final lightshow before the closing of the park. i only got a couple shots off before they turned the fountain off, but thankfully this one turned out quite well.

HOUR 20: 12AM TO 1AM, SUNDAY

initially, i was going to shoot some car trails on top of this bridge, but there was no legal way to get there since the park was closed. and by this time, i didn’t possess the requisite energy to jump fences and break laws. so i plopped my tripod down underneath the bridge and made do.

unfortunately, i wasn’t thinking very clearly by this point and i forgot to switch my ISO setting from automatic back to 100, and my camera jacked the ISO all the way up to 12800 for this shot. since i had a tripod, i would have preferred to take a longer exposure with a lower ISO to prevent the introduction of noise and give me some more car trails. i was able to keep the noise from being much of a distraction by the way i processed the image, but it definitely limited my options.

HOUR 21: 1AM TO 2AM, SUNDAY

thankfully, i remembered to switch my ISO setting to 100 before taking this shot (rather, series of shots…i merged three exposures in HDR Efex Pro to produce the image shown above). long exposures and HDR processing both have a tendency to amplify noise, so a low ISO is key when you’re shooting for both.

earlier, i mentioned that i have a hard time shooting the Riverwalk during midday because whatever i produce will be a disappointment compared to what the shot could have been during blue hour or night. i think this image emphasizes that point nicely.

HOUR 22: 2AM TO 3AM, SUNDAY

Lake Shore East Park was a short walk from our location at the far eastern edge of the Riverwalk. this was a natural next stop since we wanted to give our feet as much of a break as possible before we began the trek south to Adler Planetarium, where we planned to watch the sunrise. i’ve been to this park a few times, but i hadn’t spent much time on the northern edge where the fountains are. the lights created a lot of very cool effects, and i had a really good time shooting here. i’ll have to go back sometime when i’m not about to fall asleep…

HOUR 23: 3AM TO 4AM, SUNDAY

after a quick Dunkin Donuts refresher, we headed south towards Adler Planetarium. on the way, i grabbed this shot of a Michigan Ave fire escape. as i set up my tripod, i knew that i was going to crop the shot exactly as shown above. i think photographers sometimes get caught up in thinking the world was created with a certain aspect ratio, and to crop in any other way is blasphemy. obviously, i don’t carry that belief. instead, i simply consider aspect ratio to be one of the tools we possess to communicate our interpretation of the scene. this image would be boring at a 3×2 aspect ratio, but it comes alive at this somewhat ridiculous 7.5×1 aspect ratio.

HOUR 24: 4AM TO 5AM, SUNDAY

heading out to Adler Planetarium, i was expecting a gorgeous sunrise over Lake Michigan, with the sun’s rays glinting off the Chicago skyline. i wasn’t expecting this. wispy, swirling clouds partially veiling a crescent moon and sparkling Venus while a couple perches on the edge of the lake and absorbs the pre-dawn oranges and reds. i wasn’t expecting it, but i’ll take it! it was a perfect ending to the 24 hour adventure.

BONUS! HOUR 25: 5AM TO 6AM, SUNDAY