Chicago - My Kind of (windy) Town

Kathy and I concluded our passage on Amtrak's Empire Builder train in Chicago. After emerging from the beautiful Union Station (once our phones had acquired enough satellites to provide GPS navigation) we walked to our nearby hotel on Franklin street. We were only going to be in town for a single day, so after getting something to eat, we walked around for a bit, taking some photos of the dramatic architecture this city has to offer. Kathy wanted to visit the Chicago Institute of Art but we found it was closed during our visit, so the next morning we walked to Millennium Park and took some photos there. Apparently the park only recently opened to the public but we found some parts open, while others remained closed. In the case of Cloud's Gate also irreverently referred to as "The Bean", visitors were able to view it only from a distance with barricades having been put up to prevent crowds from gathering beneath it. This didn't bother me too much. I was able to obtain some photos of it without a ton of people in the shot. 

The view of Chicago's skyline from Cloud's Gate is truly spectacular. The day was cold and windy but the sky was mostly clear. Any clouds that appeared were quickly carried on the wind to destinations unknown.

A word about Chicago: I know all major cities have issues with homelessness, blight, trash, noise, crime, etc. but my initial impressions on this visit to what was admittedly a very small area in downtown Chicago were these: The streets, sidewalks, buildings, and bridges were for the most part clean. By comparison, the streets and sidewalks in downtown Los Angeles in my experience are filthy and no government agency seems to be charged with more than an occasional street sweeping. After a street sweeping, the ground is still black with dirt, gum, and who knows what else. The people we met were polite and friendly. There seems to be an emphasis on culture and preserving the city's history and finally the city's architecture is beautiful.

I'd love to return in the near future for an extended visit. There is so much I want to see.

While taking photos in the city, I made sure to create several panoramas but the Affinity Photo software which I am using on my iPad Pro does not seem to be able to successfully stitch them. I may have to just post individual HDR merges and stitch the panoramas when I return home. 

We are currently back on an Amtrak train crossing West Virginia. Looking forward to being in Washington DC tonight.

1948 Chevrolet Fleetline and Point Fermin Lighthouse

About 6 or 7 years ago during my vacation from work, I attended a car show at the seaside town of San Pedro, California. The Legends car club was hosting their yearly big event at Point Fermin park. Roll in was scheduled for 7am but we arrived around 5am and found about 50+ cars waiting in the dark to be admitted. The organizers recognized my wife from her attending other events and they kindly granted us both early admission. We walked around the park and found the host club member's cars parked in some prime spots. One of those was this pristine 1948 Chevrolet Fleetline located right in front of the historic Point Fermin Light house. With the moon rapidly setting and the blue hour fading more and more by the minute, Kathy and I didn't waste time. We setup our tripods, cameras, remote shutter releases and started shooting. Later that morning there were thousands of people walking around the park and taking photos the way we like to take them became impossible. That was ok because by that time we were packing up and making ready to leave with several hundred photos each saved on our memory cards.

Mission Inn Grand Courtyard Overview

Here's another old vacation image from one of my visits to the historic Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside, California. This hotel is very large and consists of one main multi-story building. The architecture is California mission style as established by the Franciscan Padres from Spain who founded 21 California missions in the mid to late 1700's with a goal of "pacifying" and bringing religion to the native Indians. Instead, their European diseases decimated the tribes who had no immunity.

Sunrise at the Mission Inn

I had just left my room at the historic Mission Inn and Spa in Riverside, California when I saw the sunrise looked like it was going to be spectacular. Althought it was still quite dark, the horizon was turning more orange by the minute. I went back to my room, grabbed my camera, tripod, expodisc white balancer, and off camera shutter release. I decided to shoot an 4 image wide x 3 image high HDR panorama. Each photo consisted of 10 exposures between -5ev and +5ev for a total of 120 individual exposures. The final panorama was more than 20,000 pixels wide and the color corrected file tipped the scales at 1.4GB in size. After taking this shot, I quietly walked around the property taking more photos until one of the security guards stopped me, asking if I was a registered guest. I produced my room key and gave him my name. He radioed the front desk. Once they confirmed my identity, I was allowed to continue taking photos so long as I didn't disturb any of the other guests.

Chihuly Glass House Sunburst

It's been raining a lot along the route of the Empire Builder train making photos out the windows difficult. The scenery is still beautiful however, especially with the foliage changing colors. We have seen green hillsides with streaks of fiery red or bright yellow leaves extending for miles.

Anyway, since I can't take more photos from the train windows, I have decided to process and post some images from past vacations. This one is from the Chihuly Gardens and Glass museum in Seattle Washington. There is a rule of thumb in photography which states, don't shoot right into the sun. HDR allows me to break lots of rules including this one.

Endless Sky - Shelby Montana

This image is typical of the type of vistas passing by the windows since the Empire Builder train entered the state of Montana. What beautiful scenery! I do have to deal with the window reflection which can be present even with the use of a polarizing filter but I really don't care. Being on the train has been a great experience for me so far. I'm really enjoying myself.

Racing Along Southern California’s Coastline

This photo was taken from the observation car on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train. We were just passing through Vandenberg Air Force Base and I could clearly see the historic launch facilities now being used by SpaceX for their military payloads. This has been a great trip so far. Kathy and I are enjoying traveling by train. Taking a shower last night was a bit of an adventure since the shower stall is the size of a telephone booth. Later I was able to provide some entertainment for my wife as she watched me climb into the top bunk of our sleeping accommodations. 

How I took this photo:

This is a 3 shot HDR composite image. I brought my tripod with me on this trip but I'm sure the Amtrak employees would not appreciate me setting it up in the aisle way. Instead I held my camera steady by putting up against the side of the doorway. The train was rocking and rolling but I was able to hold it still so it was in sync with the movement. The longest exposure showed some motion blur out of the windows so I enhanced that.

MLK

Celebrate courage and change.

There Goes the Neighborhood

This is all going to end in tears, I'm sure of it. They opened up a liquor store right across the street from the Aztec temple in this striking hood mural I spotted at the Santa Fe Dam car show in Irwindale, California. Does this mean that all the Aztec dudes are going to start showing up at the human sacrifices hammered, three sheets to the wind? The skull-double headed arrow thing looks like it would hurt. The car's a Chevy, didn't catch the make.

The Toys Are Back in Town

We're ready for Christmas. Everyone's on the lookout for the man with the bag!