"Get Off Your Butt and Go Shoot" by Chris Smith

As photographers, we can't wait for the day that we can pack up the car or jump on a plane to take our next big photo adventure. But we live near one of the greatest cities in the world for photography! Chicago offers opportunities for street photography, architectural photography, and cityscape photography. You can decide at 3pm that you want to get out to shoot and you'll be shooting great stuff all evening. Here are some of my favorite places to shoot in Chicago.

The Best Interiors

Chicago's churches, museums, and universities in Chicago offer a wealth of amazing interiors.  My favorite churches are St. Mary of the Angels, Holy Name Cathedral, and Rockefeller Chapel.  The best museums to photograph are the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chicago Art Institute. The staircase at the Museum of Contemporary Art is a destination on its own. You can also have a great day shooting at either the Shedd Aquarium or the Museum of Science and Industry. Head to the University of Chicago for a day of great interiors and architecture.

Cityscapes

If you are a landscape photographer, have you tried shooting cityscapes? The techniques are the same. The equipment is the same. And you can get stunning results in Chicago. The Hancock Building and North Avenue Beach are my favorite places to shoot the city. Adler  Planetarium gives you the best view of the city, but it's not easy to get a unique shot.  Just like with landscape photography, you'll get your best shots at the edges of the day. Plan your trip to be there at dawn or dusk. I prefer to go for sunset because then I can keep shooting into the night.

Architecture

This is where Chicago beats every other city in the world. Head down to the Loop to surround yourself with fantastic buildings. Wander the Riverwalk to shoot Marina Towers, Trump Tower, and others. If you've never shot architecture, this is the place to do it. When shooting architecture, avoid photographing the entire building. This is the view that everyone has of a building. Instead, concentrate on one part of the building. Look for an interesting pattern or shape, or unique point of view. By looking at the building in a different way, you make the image your art, not just the work of the architect.

Street photography

If you are looking to photograph people in the city, the best places are the Loop, Wicker Park, and Pilsen. My favorite is the Loop because you can also shoot the phenomenal architecture while you're there. Find the perfect background and wait for your subject to walk into it!

CAPS

In my CAPS presentation, Photographing Chicago, I will go in-depth about my favorite places to shoot in Chicago and give tips for getting great shots. I am squeezing everything I know and love about photographing Chicago into one 90-minute session. I'll tell you where you can use your tripod and where security will chase you away as fast as possible. I'll also give some tips for shooting Chicago at night. I hope to see you there!

Chris Smith is the founder of Out of Chicago Photography and the Out of Chicago Photography Conference. He is the author of "The Photographer’s Guide to Chicago" and host of the Out of Chicago Podcast. Chris specializes in photographing Chicago at night. By day, Chris is a high school physics teacher and lives with his wife and two kids in the Chicago suburbs. Follow Out of Chicago at  Out of Chicago Photography | The Chicago Photo Experience (outofchicago.com)

Out of Chicago will be at the CAPS conference and is offering CAPS specials on upcoming Out of Chicago events.

To go to the CAPS website go to:  Home

To register for CAPS go to: Chicago Area Photographic School (CAPS) 2015 - RegOnline

The Grass is Always Greener? by Steve Gettle

No doubt about it most outdoor photographers love to travel to new and exciting locations to capture the subjects we love.  But truth of the matter is that most of us can’t be jetting all over the globe whenever we want.  Most outdoor photographers I know are able to take one two or maybe three major trips a year.  Sadly, I also know many photographers that only use there cameras when they are on one of these major trips.

But I would argue that those same photographers are missing one of the greatest locations available to them... there own backyard.  Most of us live within a short drive of a local park or piece of undeveloped land where we could practice our craft.  There are many benefits to working an area near your home.  One of the greatest benefits is simply being out there working, it is impossible to make great pictures if you are not in the field working.  Another important benefit of working close to home is the ability to go out on a moment’s notice, say when the lighting is really nice, or during unique weather conditions.  Also you can get to know a smaller piece of land and its inhabitants more intimately.  You can make sure you are there when the cardinals nest in that bush, or you photograph that patch of wildflowers when they are at their peak. 

Consider developing the area to suit your needs, get permission to put up some feeders and birdhouses to attract birds to the area.  Often times you can obtain permission from a developer to rescue wildflowers from an area that is going to be developed into another subdivision or strip mall.  Take these rescued flowers and transplant them onto suitable habitat where you will be able to shoot them.  Sure this is a long term prospect, but you will find these small steps payoff over the long haul with huge photographic dividends.

We all need to look at our own backyards with fresh eyes, the eyes of a traveler. Remember your backyard is very often someone else’s hot travel destination try to look at things with the eyes of a visitor, you will often be surprised by what you see.

Good Luck and Good Light!

Steve

Image: Crystal Balls, Dewdrops and Spider Web… from my backyard!

Wilderness Images

The Nature Photography of Steve Gettle

8877 River Valley Ct.

Brighton, MI 48116

Studio 810-231-8118

Fax 810-231-8119

E-mail steve@stevegettle.com

Website www.stevegettle.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/steve.gettle

Steve's photography has taken him throughout North and South America from the woods of northern Canada to the Cloud forest of Ecuador, from the coast of Maine to the high plateau of the desert southwest.  although he travels extensively, he finds much of his inspiration in the natural areas surrounding his home in Brighton, Michigan.  Steve leads photo workshops and tours all over the world.  As an instructor he has taught for such organizations as:  The North American nature Photography Association, The Rocky Mountain School of Photography, The Adirondack Photography Institute and many more.  He is a great nature photographer and will be teaching a half day class on both Saturday and Sunday, November 21st and 22nds at CAPS- Chicago Area Photographic School. Steve is being sponsored by Hunt's Photo and Video at CAPS.

To go to the CAPS website go to:  Home

To register for CAPS go to: Chicago Area Photographic School (CAPS) 2015 - RegOnline

"Flights of Fancy, Birds in the Air" by Walt Anderson

When pursuing avian flight photography there are several decisions you must make before taking a photograph.  One of the first is how you wish to show your subject and its motion.

If you wish to stop motion and show all the feather detail of a bird you will want to use a very fast shutter speed.  I would normally set my camera at 1/1000 of a second as a minimum. Often times with smaller and faster birds I will increase the shutter speed to as high as 1/2500.  When trying to photograph hummingbirds without using flash, I would go to an even higher shutter speed.  Because you want at least some depth of field, use an aperture setting of F5.6 to F8.  To achieve these fast shutter speeds and reasonable depth of field, you will need to use higher than normal ISO settings on your camera.  Luckily for us, each new generation of digital camera gives us better results at higher ISO's.  Depending on the amount of ambient light, I start at ISO 800 and increase it as needed.  I am often using ISO 1600 to 3200 to gain the shutter speeds I desire.

If you wish to show a sense of motion in your photograph of flight, you need to use a much slower shutter speed.  Start at 1/100 of a second and go slower from there depending on the size and speed of your subject.  I often find that a 1/60 or 1/50 of a second works well for me.  With this you will need to use the technique of panning with your subject. When trying to use slow shutter speeds to pan on bright days, you need to set your camera to a low ISO (100) and stop down the lens to F16 or F22 as necessary.  An alternative way to achieve slow shutter speeds is to use a neutral density filter or even a polarizing filter to block some light.  Panning with your subject to show motion while maintaining a somewhat sharp subject requires more practice than when trying to stop the birds motion.  You will need to allow yourself time to adjust to the speed and flight pattern of the bird.  I personally always try to have a least one portion of the bird in sharp focus (usually the head) when doing blurs, but that is an individual choice.

These photos were taken on the same day and location at Lock and Dam 14 on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River about twenty minutes apart.  The first was using a 1/1000 shutter speed and the second was at 1/60.

Walt Anderson is an award winning photographer/inventor specializing in wildlife, landscapes and Americana subjects.  In addition to being published in both books and magazines, he has sold prints at art shows, lead tours and workshops in North America, and is teaching photography classes at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.

Inspired by Larry West at an early 1990’s workshop, Walt started to explore the capabilities of the new TTL flash units that were just being introduced.  He founded Visual Echoes Inc. to   produce and market his products including the Flash X-tender™ (also marketed under the name “Better Beamer”) and the Panning Plate.  He has shared his knowledge of the use of flash with his Sunshine in your Pocket program for many conventions and clubs and served as a mentor for the NANPA College Student Program.

Walt will be presenting his program at CAPS- Chicago Area Photographic School on Saturday, November 21st.

To go to the CAPS website go to:  Home

To register for CAPS go to: Chicago Area Photographic School (CAPS) 2015 - RegOnline

Adjustment Order in Lightroom by Tim Grey

If you know about Tim Grey you probably have subscribed to his eNewsletter where he answers daily questions from readers about photography and Adobe software.  He has been doing this for 15 years.  Tim is one of our featured speakers at CAPS-Chicago Area Photographic School on November 21st and 22nd.  On Saturday he will be talking about workflow in Lightroom.  This will be  the full morning session on Saturday with a repeat in the afternoon.  For a full morning session on Sunday he will be talking about optimizing images in Lightroom and Photoshop.  On Sunday afternoon he will be talking about advanced adjustments in Photoshop.  Below is one of the sample questions that he gets. Today's Question:

How do adjustments in Lightroom (for blacks, whites, shadows, clarity, vibrance, etc.) affect noise? Should noise be dealt with first or last, after all other adjustments?

Tim's Quick Answer:

In general concept, you can make changes to the various adjustments within Lightroom in any order at all, since the order you apply adjustments doesn't impact the actual effect of those adjustments. That said, it is important to evaluate the impact of one adjustment on another. For example, if you brighten up shadow detail you may need to increase the strength of noise reduction.

More Detail:

Lightroom employs a non-destructive workflow for your photos, meaning that when you are working in the Develop module you aren't actually changing pixel values in your original capture, but rather creating a set of adjustment metadata that is used to adjust the appearance of your photo within Lightroom, and as the basis of the processing for the photo when you export a copy of a photo. Among other things, this means you don't need to apply your adjustments in any particular order to achieve a given result for a photo. In theory, for example, you would want to apply noise reduction before sharpening, so that the sharpening doesn't enhance the underlying noise. In the case of Lightroom (and also with Adobe Camera Raw), it doesn't matter whether you adjust the settings for noise reduction or sharpening first. All that matters is the final settings established for these controls. To be sure, if the noise reduction adjustment doesn't eliminate the noise altogether, other adjustments may make the noise more visible or more problematic. For example, sharpening can serve to emphasize noise in an image, and brightening shadows can make noise more visible in the photo. Any adjustment that enhances color or contrast, or that brightens up detail in the photo, has the potential to make noise more visible in the photo. But if the noise reduction settings you've applied cause the noise to be mitigated adequately, the effect of those other adjustments on any noise that remains will generally be relatively minor. Tim Grey is a photographer who has written more than a dozen books for photographers, has published dozens of video training courses, and has had hundreds of articles published in magazines such as Digital Photo Pro and Outdoor Photographer, among others. He also publishes the Ask Tim Grey eNewsletter, the monthly Pixology digital magazine, and a wide variety of video training courses through his GreyLearning website. Tim teaches through workshops, seminars, and appearances at major events around the world. Website: Tim Grey - Photographer, Author, Educator, Digital Imaging Expert  To go to the CAPS website go to:  Home To register for CAPS go to: Chicago Area Photographic School (CAPS) 2015 - RegOnline