peace like a river

Last week's photo seminar was located at the University of Chicago, and the building sat right alongside the Chicago River. There were lots of tourists down below and nonstop boat tours.

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I have always loved Chicago, but I am not too keen on heavy congestion, and traffic jams, which is why I like this view. We have skyscrapers, but we have an element of elbow room as well. We are not bumper to bumper on the river, and the tall buildings graciously yield a compromise with the horizon down below. The blues and greens have an earthy serenity that offers a mental sanctuary from the busy rush and stressful deadlines.

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I quickly snapped this photo during a brief "bio break" and hurried back to my seat, where I had to crawl over knees, camera bags and sponsor literature. (laughing) Oh well... at least I have the picture, right?

concrete and steel

The photography seminar was jam packed with information. First we took a look at our photographic roots, from the camera obscura to the Daguerreotype, and even into speculation of what the future holds.

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There was a portion covering equipment, and a large chunk of time was given to post production, but it was all using an expensive editing program that I do not have, and do not intend to purchase any time soon. It was informative, nonetheless.

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I came away from the seminar seeing that I was already using some of the techniques for better photography, but wishing that I had a fast (f 2.8) telephoto with built-in image stabilization. That fancy editing software and some of the latest hardware wouldn't hurt, too. For now, I plan to use my tripod and flash more, and look around at garage sales to see if I can buy $200,000,000 worth of Ansel Adams glass plates for $45.

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The seminar's location was downtown, on the campus of the University of Chicago. Between sessions, I hurriedly took a snapshot of this rock pigeon. I like it, because concrete and steel and pigeons are good representations of the big city... and so is hurrying. Here is one thing that I did not expect: Attendees were informed that we needed to bring our camera, then surprisingly, we did not do any hands-on camera work for the seminar. Gotta go now... lots of work to catch up on.