Lovin’ Chicago, It’s My Kind of Town!!!!!

I was the only person at “the Bean” this morning!  Very chilly, but great light!  Really unique piece of art and a “photographers playground!”  Below are a few images from my first 20 minutes of sunlight.

It was a great morning watching the city wake up and go to work!

The street scene with the train was shot with the 55-200 and then processed with a heavy dose of NIK Color Efex 4.0, Tonal Contrast!  My favorite pseudo – One Shot – HDR trick!

On the walk back down Michigan Ave to the Hilton I saw lots of things to extract from the over-all street scenes, here are few of those!

The Carry System for this trip:

All of the images this morning were shot from my smaller CT214 series Induro tripod with the middle of the RRS heads.  Last night I had to shoot handheld, but with Fuji’s OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) I got away with 1/2 second exposures!!!  Above is the kit I’m using for most of what I’m doing in Chicago!   It consists of a Fuji X-T1 body with battery pack and RRS L Bracket (for the Nikon D600, fits great!) with 18-55 f 2.8-4 OIS mid range zoom, 55-200 F 3.5-4.8 OIS zoom (80-300 equiv.), and the new 10-24 f 4 OIS wide angle zoom (15-36 Equiv.)  All carried in a Think Tank Retrospective Model 5 bag in Pinestone.  I like it because it doesn’t scream “Camera Bag!”  It looks more like a college kids book bag, though admittedly I don’t look like a college student, maybe a very old professor!  * (Spare batteries, and cleaning supplies)  In a separate bag an extra, back up body (Fuji X-E2)  I also carry a Fuji X100s (used to shoot the image above)  In a Think Tank Airport Security 2.0 I carry all this and the 23mm f 1.4, 35mm f 1.4, 56mm f 1.2 and my laptop and cords on the plane.  The Think Tank Retrospective easily folds up in my big suitcase, ready to go into action when I land!!!

*Note: yes, those are Nikon lens caps on the lenses above, hey, I worked for that great company for 11 years, this way I still keep some of them with me!!!!!  ….and I like the Nikon lens caps better, better springs!!

A special thanks again to Chris Smith and his great scouting info.  I will be speaking to his friends at the University of Chicago Friday night!

Blessings,

the pilgrim

Stay tuned, more to come!