Windy cityscape

schmoo · January 24, 2008

Just messing about with a skyline shot from the weekend in Chicago.

A little background: it was a high of 5F that afternoon and I have no idea what the temps actually were by this time of night (roughly 7 PM with horrendous gusts), but it was estimated to be probably -25 or -30F with the wind chill. I've seen a few shots from this vantage point but I'm sure most of them were taken under balmier conditions. I've never experienced cold like that before, and it was so bad my LCD kept icing over and I couldn't see through the viewfinder or get my tripod to open all the way. Of course, I can laugh now because I came home with all my appendages in working order. :rofl

You can see the ice floes drifting by on Lake Michigan. I tawt I taw a polar bear!

Comments and feedback welcome, as well as explaining to me what some of these buildings are. I was too cold to ask gluwater for the guided tour.

Cuong · January 24, 2008

It's a beauty. That water looks like a giant skating rink.

Cuong

Tee Why · January 24, 2008

Looks nice.

leaforte · January 24, 2008

The blue tints help add to the chill. Boy, you are a trooper. Hot cocoa (or a hot toddy) sure would have been nice after that shoot. I like those scallops cut into the shore.

David_S85 · January 24, 2008

Schmoo, nicely done! I like the Muench star treatment with the city and building lights. Incorporating part of the pier is a nice touch which grounds the image giving it more depth.
Pssst - it doesn't look that cold in the photo.

schmoo · January 24, 2008

David_S85 wrote:

Schmoo, nicely done! I like the Muench star treatment with the city and building lights. Incorporating part of the pier is a nice touch which grounds the image giving it more depth.
Pssst - it doesn't look that cold in the photo.

Heheh it never does, does it? All that suffering for nothing!

I'm glad to hear this feedback from ya. I was unsure about keeping the pier or not and at the last momet decided not to crop it out because it resulted in the usual pano-with-reflection format. Dunno really how to give a skyline photo a foreground to anchor it and spice it up, so I hoped the pier would do.

gluwater · January 24, 2008

I've been waiting to see this shot. I still haven't downloaded mine yet. I'm afraid mine is horrendously blurry from the wind. I didn't see any Polar Bears out there but now I know what one must feel like. I really like this crop. I may have to use it in the future

.

swintonphoto · January 24, 2008

Great image!

David_S85 · January 25, 2008

gluwater wrote:

... I didn't see any Polar Bears out there but now I know what one must feel like...

No polar bears, but isn't there a pack of coyotes that are often spotted around the lake area in the winter?

Tom K. · January 25, 2008

A true gem. I love it.

schmoo · January 25, 2008

gluwater wrote:

I've been waiting to see this shot. I still haven't downloaded mine yet. I'm afraid mine is horrendously blurry from the wind. I didn't see any Polar Bears out there but now I know what one must feel like. I really like this crop. I may have to use it in the future .

Hey Nick how's my WB?

You're right about the blurry. I think I lucked out with getting the shot this one time because it was only a 10 sec exposure at f/7.1 according to my EXIF. I think after this I pushed it to f/22 to blur the water... er, ice floes, but the exposure times were too long then for my tripod to be stable.

Thanks guys! Are you serious? Coyotes? Where do they den?

gubbs · January 25, 2008

schmoo wrote:

I've never experienced cold like that before, and it was so bad my LCD kept icing over and I couldn't see through the viewfinder or get my tripod to open all the way.

It was worth it

eoren1 · January 25, 2008

nice capture schmoo. for a few seconds there i thought you were talking about baltimore...skyline didn't quite look right.
great crop.
E

hawkeye978 · January 25, 2008

Love the sky color and the reflections in the lake. Nice capture.

schmoo · January 25, 2008

eoren1 wrote:

nice capture schmoo. for a few seconds there i thought you were talking about baltimore...skyline didn't quite look right.
great crop.
E

D'oh! I forgot to say in the OP that this was Chicago. Edited to add that bit.

Thanks, guys!

mANVIL · January 25, 2008

schmoo wrote:

D'oh! I forgot to say in the OP that this was Chicago. Edited to add that bit.

Thanks, guys!

Nicely done schmoo. I haven't gotten a chance to process mine as my fingers are still thawing. This was the first time in my photography career that I stopped taking pictures because I was cold.

gluwater · January 25, 2008

David_S85 wrote:

No polar bears, but isn't there a pack of coyotes that are often spotted around the lake area in the winter?

Last census there were 2000+ coyotes found in the Chicago city limits. The most famous being the one that crawled into the cooler at a Quiznos on Adams and Wabash. That is one block east of the Art Institute. The numbers even surprised the researchers doing the study.

schmoo · January 25, 2008

mANVIL wrote:

Nicely done schmoo. I haven't gotten a chance to process mine as my fingers are still thawing. This was the first time in my photography career that I stopped taking pictures because I was cold.

I don't believe you. You never stopped taking pictures you crazy bloody-knuckled yeti-man!

Now show us some pics.

schmoo · January 25, 2008

gluwater wrote:

Last census there were 2000+ coyotes found in the Chicago city limits. The most famous being the one that crawled into the cooler at a Quiznos on Adams and Wabash. That is one block east of the Art Institute. The numbers even surprised the researchers doing the study.

Poor little guy! Well I suppose if it was a choice between Quiznos and Corner Bakery, the meat eater would go for the meat.

That is a huge number of doggies in the city area. No wonder you had such good luck with the coyotes in Glacier. I bet they were just trying to communicate with their own.