Last weekend friend and fellow photo club member Chris Smith and I went on a whirlwind photo adventure in the city.  What started as an excursion to scout out a potential area for a photo walk for Chris' "Out of Chicago" website, led to an all-evening tour of many of the great places to do night photography.  We went from one end of the city to the other.  Chris is a blast to shoot with; he has boundless energy and enthusiasm and he is a wonderful mentor for learning both HDR and night photography.  Chris is quickly making a name for himself in the photography world and I am so happy and honored to be learning from him.  You can tell from my photographs that it was cold out but what you don't see is how the Windy City lived up to its name.  That bitterly cold wind coming off the lake was intense, but it didn't keep us photo enthusiasts from giving up!

We started our adventure at Fullerton Beach, shooting the ice formations in the lake with the backdrop of downtown Chicago.  When we got to the beach, there was still some beautiful sunset color in the sky and we stayed until the twinkling lights appeared in the city skyline and along Lake Shore Drive.  The moon was beginning to rise in the eastern sky and every once in awhile would peak from beneath the clouds.

Next we went to Adler Planetarium and shot the city skyline at night.  Chris showed me how to do panoramas, which I haven't processed yet but will save for a future post.  This HDR is a combination of 5 exposures (as all the above images are) using Photomatix software.  I wasn't happy with the color so I converted it to black and white using Nik software Silver Efex Pro.  I also did a black and white conversion in Photoshop but thought the Nik version was cleaner and crisper. I love the way the John Hancock's light is reflected in the gap in the ice.  Thanks for pointing that out, Chris!

After a detour to the South Side and the University of Chicago campus, where Chris has a photo walk/workshop planned in March, we headed north to the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette.  Baha'i is practically in my backyard and I have wanted to photograph it at night for a long time.  Usually the temple is illuminated from within at night but for some reason I couldn't decipher from the security guard, it wasn't on this night.  We decided to photograph it anyway and I think the results are eerie and interesting, especially with the shadows of the trees on the steps and temple.  Towards midnight that full moon appeared over the temple, which was so awesome to photograph.

I'll definitely be back to shoot more of Baha'i and I can't wait for summer to include the beautiful long reflecting pool.

Thank you, Chris Smith, for a really fun photo adventure!