Every visit to Chicago is an adventure. As a routine I get up real early and walk the streets and visit places like the Chicago Bean and bug reflective chrome sculpture before the tourists do. It’s fun having the whole place to myself and I have done a ton of cool images there. Here is one from my most recent trip. Shot on my morning iPhone expedition.
On my last trip to Chicago I did my morning walk with just an iPhone. I wanted shoot with an iPhone as it makes me see things differently. I used the Hipstamatic add to create the images you’ll see over the next few days. Seeing square is also challenging and proper framing of what you do see can make the ordinary look a bit different. This is a rather new sculpture in Chicago and it allowed for some creative angle. However, sometimes the straight on shot works best.
Having been a firefight for many years I get excited when anything firefighting wise comes up. When we were in Buffalo shooting Grain Silos we are given the option to take a ride on a Fireboat to the water intake facility in the lake. What a cool trip that was. This is an image made while we were docked at the intake facility and the firefighters decided to clean off the dock.
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. You be the judge. I at least though it was interesting. This was shot in some old abandoned screw and bolt factory. It is really is old because we found a box with cancelled checks dating all the way back to 1953. This places was downright creepy. It was huge and it smelled bad. I had a hard time finding something to shoot, so I got creative and did a double exposure. Kind of works, i think?
I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world. I have been doing photography all my life and have had a great career doing it. I have seen things, traveled to the most incredible locations and met some of the coolest people you’d ever want to know and meet. I am also a lucky guy because back in February 2015 I married my best friend Debra in Antarctica. She is a trooper and she loves photography too. Wow, how lucky could one get. She actually gets me, understand me and tolerates me with all my travels and everything photographic that I obsess about. Yes, she is definitely the woman for me and she is a darn good photographer too. She has an amazing eye and it’s fun to shoot with her because even though we are at the same locations we come back with totally different images. Here is a shot of Debra shooting away at the Methodist Church in Gary, IN.
This seems to be the year of finding some great graffiti. Gary proved no different. This was found in the abandoned Methodist Church. This place was huge and incredible to shoot in.. I could have spent a whole day just shooting at this one location. In the sanctuary I saw this graffiti on the wall and decided it worthy of a photo. Shot with the iPhone.
In addition to my big bot camera the Sony a7 II I was also shooting this past weekend with the iPhone using my favorite app Hipstamatic. This app lets you configure the camera for certain styles and then applies them to shot you take. I love it and the next three images were made using this app and doing double exposures. One particular selection in the app called Salvator actually does the double exposure thing when the camera is shot, Hope you enjoy these three images.
I published a church photo from Icelanda few days ago. This is a shot I made inside the church. Using the double exposure feature in the Hipstamatic program I played around with doing double exposures. I’d shoot one and then look at the subject and tried to envision how it would look on top of the image previously shot. I did a number of images of the pipe organ and keyboard of the organ. This is one of the shots. Made with the iPhone.
Another thing about New Orleans is the city has some amazing cemeteries. It’s funny in a way that in my travels I have photographed cemeteries in many countries. Buenos Aires, Argentina and Punta Arena, Chile have two of the most beautiful cemeteries I have ever visited. New Orleans certainly has its share of interesting cemeteries. This is a close up I found on one of the graves. I have hundreds of images I made there. Maybe I’ll show more over time. Shot with an iPhone.
In April of 2016 I’ll be hosting workshop in New Orleans. New Orleans is one of the most interesting US cities with quite an interesting history. There are so many things to photograph in New Orleans. The streets are full of interesting people. There are impromptu parades and some very interesting architecture. This image was made in the stairway of one of the older libraries in New Orleans. I like the light playing on the walls and color cast. You always have to be looking for these type of photo opportunities. Shot with an iPhone.