Playing with Faces

Street photography is tricky, especially with kids. This one works for me as you can't see their faces which is kinda cool as it is taken at the Faces in Grant Park. Love this area for street shooting.

A Relatively Quiet Bean Moment

This was a relatively quiet Bean moment, helped with some Photoshop magic trickery, but I got a somewhat isolated shot on me on the Bean--which is hard to do on a supper nice summer Chicago evening.

Bean View

Its hard to find a view of iconic landmark as it gets hundreds of photos a minute. But here is a view that might not get shot much.

Red in Chicago

I laughed when I took this shot since I travel so much and here I found a new favorite shot right here in Chicago. This is the reflection pool between the Faces display near Michigan Avenue. In the heat this weekend, the kids were having a ball running and splashing around through the water and a caught a quiet moment with these two visitors. I really have to get out and around Chicago more and I hope to do that this summer.

Best Birthday Presents Ever!

Best birthday presents ever. Now that is a shot of the day.

England Rocks!!!

Wow. The UK shocked the world overnight with a vote to leave the EU. That disrupted the financial markets but also gave me a change to go back to our family trip in 2006. Always have good thoughts and wishes for the people of the UK and Europe. Hope to get back one day. As of today, it's a lot cheaper to visit!!!

Cleveland Progressive Field Ballpark Pano

Not happy with the White Sox performance at this game as they got blown out by the 2nd inning but it did give me the opportunity to post another shot in the ballpark pano series. This was a hard one as I am using my Samsung cellphone and the sun is setting just off of left field as the game started at only 6pm. Still light in the 9th inning. Nice park and the first of the new style parks if I recall.

Cleveland's Corner Alley

Late night found us near 4th Street in Cleveland and found a sports bar with 40 TVs, a restaurant  with 40 craft beers and a bowling alley. The colorful bowling ball display is what caught my eye. Shot with a cell phone but the colors came through....

Cleveland Rocks

Cleveland's 4th Street--24 hours before the big win. Congrats to James and the Cavs.

Missile Overhead

Caught a missile flying overhead backlit by the sun. Hard to tell which bird it is from this angle but it is likely an Egret or Ibis. Certainly aerodynamic.

Best City in the World is....

I travel the world and the seven seas (well just the US really) everyone is looking for something but I have to say, Chicago on a fine day is still the best. Who am I to disagree?

Chasing color in Dallas

Took an evening walk last year when I was last in Dallas and found some color in the night. There is always color. You just have to look for it.

California's Palm Desert

The view from my hotel room at the Marriott in California's Palm Desert is so pretty it makes me want to start to play golf again. But I had to work. Funny that 109 degree temperature expected for later that day was not a "heat emergency" according to the forecast. That was reserved for later in the week when temps were to hit 115. Wow.

Got Summer?

Hungry yet? Nothing says summer like burnt meat. Unless you are a veggie. Then it is also burnt veggies. I don't discriminate.

Minneapolis Twins Pano

A trip earlier in the month included a visit to Target Field, the Minneapolis Twins ballpark, on a rainy day. That opened up a chance to do another pole-to-pole pano. Another park in the bag.

Moon shadow, moon shadow

I don't know if I was being chased by anything but that's a moon shadow, moon shadow. When the moon is a thin crescent and setting in the west it is chasing the sun down to the horizon. Can't be the earth's shadow hitting the moon, as our shadow would be going off to the east, just like the moon's own shadow. So, it is the moon's own shadow hiding its own surface that gives us a faint ring outline of the rest of the moon. I wasn't leaping and hopping as Cat Stevens described but I did run into the house to get a tripod as I couldn't hand hold the 150-600mm at 550mm with a 1/8th of a second shot. By the way, if you ever read the lyrics of Moonshadow, they make absolutely no sense. Maybe it is just me.

Thin Crescent Moon Slice

I don't post a lot of shots from the local area so here is a shot of a thin crescent moon getting sliced by a cloud right from my door step. Sometimes you go far for pictures sometimes not.

R.I.P. Grandma Bell

Today's is Grandma Bell's wake. She had a great run and passed away last week after a long illness. It is hard to find a good picture of Grandma as she really hated to have her picture taken. This is a rare shot from 2009 where at least she wasn't hiding behind her hand. Somehow I got Cheryl and mom to pose while preparing our Thanksgiving meal. I love this shot of her and Cheryl as they were very close. It was great having Grandma with us for most of the past year and she will be missed terribly. What I will remember most is her humor that she held all the way through the end and all the love she had for her family, especially her grandkids and great-grandkids.

Pristeen Magazine out-takes: afternoon session

When Jared popped in to check on us, I yelled, "Give me Igor from Young Frankenstein." He did. 

These shots were taken as part of a weekend seminar I attended in Chandler, Arizona, hosted by Jared Platt back in February.  It was an amazing experience. We got instruction and an incredible amount of time to work with professional models to hone our craft. This set of pictures were taken at the Ashley Castle in Chandler, Arizona, a wonderful venue for weddings with models from the Ford Agency. Pristeen Magazine, a teem lifestyle and fashion magazine, had the rights to use the photos for an issue on proms.  A few of my shots got selected. Wonderful experience and I can't wait to do it again.

Continuing on the photo shoot theme, I worked in front of the Castle and then with a couple of the male models in the garden in the rear. Working with models was very interesting. They just know how to move and you might direct them but mostly you told them to give you another move or look and then you would start to work with that pose. Very different than working with regular people who you need pose from the feet on up. However, the models sort of expect you to know what you are doing so you don't want to fiddle with the settings on your camera. By the end of the day, I felt like I really had the hang of it. 

Pristeen Magazine out-takes

Shot of the Day has 6 shots today from a photo shoot I participated in for Pristeen Magazine last spring. Obviously, we have lots and lots of outtakes and other shots that the magazine did not use. This is the first set up that I participated in during the morning. Mostly, I was shooting with another husband and wife photography team, so I was not directing the scene at this point. But I got in some nice shots. Jared Platt, our esteemed instructor, joined in a few shots as you can see.

Finally a Published Shooter!!!

Did a photo shoot with models from the Ford Agency for Pristeen Magazine as part of a seminar that I attended earlier in the year, hosted by Jared Platt out of Chandler Arizona. Had to hold the pictures for a couple of months until the magazine was printed. Had a great time at the seminar and learned a lot from an excellent teacher. The shots were available to be used for Pristeen, a teen fashion magazine. They used a few of my shots. So, finally a published shooter!!!!

http://www.pristeenmagazine.com/#!fashion/c16zi