Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Or critique of you feel like it..Chicago

I only got a few shots while in Chicago. It's such a tremendous city that that's a shame, but on the other hand, family time is priceless. The big story in Chicago (photo-wise) was the weather. It will take me awhile to determine how I feel about these shots, but the only two with any promise are these (and I am not sure if there is much promise to them!).

You know me and Black and White! I love the second image!
It reminds me so of Dennis Stock's iconic image of James Dean walking hunched over in the rain!

Wait...in the first image - is that Ken waving from the 22nd floor?

It just might be!

I love BW too. The problem is that the images never match what I saw in my mind's eye. That's why I need some time to really "see" an image.

Rachel,

i've been puzzled with this shot. I have wondered is this presented as best as it might be? There are a number of areas one might question: distribution of B&W tones, the composition and the distortion. There's another item that might be more important, that's a human or a cat, something that has life beyond the lights reflected in the wet pavement.

I just tried to straighten things:




However, I can see that the looming building leaning in are part of what makes this picture have energy, the somewhat oppressive mood where we are very small. So my edits don't work here. I'm left now with the wish for a live being or a newspaper flying in the wind.

Thanks for providing something to snare us!

Asher

Asher, that is always a huge challenge for me: How to present an image in it's best light. It's where I struggle most.

I have a personal aversion to shooting people without permission. I'm not saying it's wrong for anyone else, it's just something I have difficulty with.

Rachel Foster said:

Asher, that is always a huge challenge for me: How to present an image in it's best light. It's where I struggle most.

I have a personal aversion to shooting people without permission. I'm not saying it's wrong for anyone else, it's just something I have difficulty with.

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Hello Rachel!

Well, let's start gently. How about a figure poorly lit, a silhouette, a person in the distance, a slow shutter speed. There cannot be qualms if the person is walking away from you and cannot be recognized!

If they were a mile away coming out of a mist and backlit, then what of that? I'd throw in the 800 mm Canon lens for the shot, LOL if I had one!

I'll even give you blindfolds and pay for your penitence!

Asher

That I could do...if I grit my teeth! LOL.

Rachel Foster said:

I have a personal aversion to shooting people without permission. I'm not saying it's wrong for anyone else, it's just something I have difficulty with.

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I, like you Rachel, suffer from this as well. I keep telling myself to go spend some time on some public transportation like our MARTA system here in Atlanta and do some shooting there and get over it, LOL. Friends and family I don't seem to have this problem but strangers for some reason I do.
BTW, nice image you have here and I do like the work Asher has done as well, hope you don't mind my comments after the time that this post has had activity, I felt compelled to share that you are not the only one that has this aversion.

Larry

I don't know how the heck I missed these images of yours last December, Rachel! I'm so sorry...they're right in my back yard, too! Of course that's Wabash Avenue with the el tracks, just south of the (red) CNA insurance building. A favorite haunt of mine, particularly in September and October afternoons when light plays magic with the shadows and colors there. The city's oldest (and one of the few remaining) camera store, Central Camera, is just down the street past that "Park1" sign.

You've picked a terrific location, Rachel. Too back you didn't have more time to explore it further. (Sigh...Families and cameras don't mix.) Your images are good warm-up shots that would help to get your eyes limbered-up to shooting. I've literally spend whole days working along Wabash from just south of your location, where the el curves, to Lake street where the el makes it's other turn. The challenge here is making decisions between the atmospheric scene, the geometry, the bustling street (which isn't bustling at all at the time the shots were taken...but normally is filled with students and office workers), etc. If you visit again keep these choices in mind. I think they'll help guide you.

Again, sorry I missed this so long ago.

Rachel Foster said:

I only got a few shots while in Chicago. It's such a tremendous city that that's a shame, but on the other hand, family time is priceless. The big story in Chicago (photo-wise) was the weather. It will take me awhile to determine how I feel about these shots, but the only two with any promise are these (and I am not sure if there is much promise to them!).

Rachel Ann Foster: Chicago1

Rachel Ann Foster: Chicago2
​

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Rachel,

Ken's points are well taken. Getting geometry alone is a challenge but with a neutral density filter and a slow shutter speed, and the camera on a tripod, all the people can be made to vanish. However, combining that with atmospherics and people multiplies the challenge. However, if one accomplishes a geometric composition and knows when the mist is there, and marks out where one want's people, one can just wait for the folk to enter the frame and snap at the right time.

Or else, shoot from the hip, like I do as a tourist with my wife being impatient, incessantly and be mostly wrong 99.99% of the time. These should be taken as sketches for ideas and then one generally has to come back with enough time allocated to do the real job.

Asher

Addendum
Rachel: I have two images in my "Metropolis" series that may serve to illustrate my earlier remarks regarding choices at that location. Both were taken in front of that red CNA insurance building.

The first is the product of waiting (and waiting, and waiting,...) for a slow-moving train in afternoon sun to catch a rider in a window. By luck, I managed to catch a single fellow looking contemplative. Of course this is also an exercise in dynamic geometry.

The second shows a focus on the vibrant street activity that takes place at that location throughout the week. Students from the various colleges (there are at least 4 located there) mix with workerbees. The CNA building has a unique reflective steel overhang that can sometimes afford a simultaneous overhead view, as seen here.

So if you ever come back, leave the family home and take time to explore that area. I think you'll find it, and the whole Chicago Loop, a productive place with patience and persistence.

Thanks, Ken. I agree, that's a wonderful location. I was disappointed I had to grab a few shots when the scenes were so rich with promise.

What I *am* delighted with is that I'm beginning to really identify the scenes that have promise. I'm not capturing them yet, but knowing what/when/where to point the camera is 80% of the battle. The rest is time and equipment.

These pictures remind me of a very happy time - similar scene, different city (Melbourne, Australia).

The pictures convey a sense of morbid desolation to me. The atmosphere adds to this. can just imagine the contrast when the sun is up and the people are around. life, bustling life. activity.

Rachel, I understand and respect your aversion to photographing people without their permission. I wonder how your picture would look with someone hurrying away with their back towards you to have been in the frame?

These buildings are dead...we the humans give them life. with us they come alive; without..just pieces
of brick and mortar..however elegant they might be.

best.

I totally understand that, Fahim. But for me, it's just not ok to photograph without permission. This is only for me. I think it's fine for others to photograph people. It's just a personal quirk. (Overly-rigid super-ego in shrink terms...lol!) But I'll admit it is painful to let a great photo go by because of my quirkiness.


(I also won't shoot people's houses or barns without permission.)