Chicago Rising

Taken just before the actual sunrise.

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Wrigley

Wrigley Field is one of the oldest active ballparks in the country.  Because of its age, it does not have some of the nicest amenities.  But for what it lacks, it makes it up in character, especially with its ivy covered outfield wall and hand turned score board.

Taken during a Google+ event I participated in over the weekend.

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Moments Later…

This was taken just 20 minutes after the photo in my previous post. It is pretty amazing how fast sunrise hits you. I could barely keep up with my exposure settings due to the rapidly changing lighting conditions.

Because of the splashing waves, I realized that many of my photos had water spots all over the place once I got home. It was a real pain trying to clean them up in post-editing.

This photograph was a 60 second exposure, long enough to blur out the waves and clouds.

If you would like to see a larger sized image or buy a print, click on the photo to visit my photography website.

Metropolitan Blues

Over the weekend, I developed a sudden itch to take sunrise photos by the lakefront. Now that I live 40 minutes away from downtown, heading over takes a lot more planning and effort. Given that sunrise was at 6am, I figured that I should be heading out the door by 4:30. I therefore set my alarm for Saturday, and headed down to the Museum Campus in the wee hours of the morning.

By the time I got there around 5:10, the sky had started to lighten up. The moment before sunrise or after sunrise is sometimes referred to as the blue hour. This was just enough to illuminate the fast moving clouds. Speaking of which, it was very cold and extremely windy, and I was definitely under-dressed.

I have very rarely taken photos during the blue hour, so it took a couple of tries to figure out the appropriate long exposure settings. Most definitely my best shots that morning were taken before sunrise, including this one. The skyline photos I took after then just seemed too ordinary in comparison.

Just as I was getting ready to head back to my car, I noticed that the police were blocking the traffic. Soon afterwards, I spotted 3 Jeep Cherokees drive over. I originally thought it was the motorcade of some big shot figure. However, as I looked around, I spotted what appeared to be a production crew.  When I saw 3 more Chrysler 300s drive over, I figured that they must be shooting a Chrysler/Jeep commercial.

If you would like to see a larger sized image or buy a print, click on the photo to visit my photography website.