Hard Rock Hotel at the Carbide and Carbon Building, Chicago, USA

weekly update 004 - 2016-11-07 - Up close and personal with Chicago's Architecture

November 7, 2016

This week we are up close with the extraordinary architecture that characterises the downtown area of Chicago. With a mixture of modern steel and glass skyscrapers, stone gothic facades and wonderful art-deco details, it makes for great images for all architecture enthusiasts. The raised lines of the "L" train give a different view of the streets and buildings, by elevating us above the normal viewpoint of the buildings facade at ground level. As the picture above illustrates, this city is a must for all lovers of art-deco, with the Carbide and Carbon Building being just one of the many, beautifully preserved, examples of that style present in the city. Hope to stay there next time, and see what it looks like on the inside.

This marks my last post focused on Chicago, and next week I'll move on to show the wonders of the last leg of the USA trip of 2015, the historical city of Boston, Massachusetts. The days spent in Chicago left me with the need to come back and delve deeper into the history and architecture of the Windy City, of the three cities it was the one that inspired me the most.

I'll leave today with one of my favourite shots from those few days in Chicago, taken under a viaduct that connects to the Navy Pier. Street art and derelict spaces are always attractive and make for great subjects. Here the tricky light made it even more compelling, giving it an almost ethereal vibe to the street grime.
Until next week,
APN

Chi.Town Green Dragon & Cubs Geixa, Chicago, USA

Jay Pritzker Pavillion at the Millennium Park, Chicago, USA

Weekly update 003 - 2016-10-31 : Spring morning at Chicago's Millennium Park

October 31, 2016

This week I would like to share the sights from the Millennium Park in Chicago, captured on a crisp Spring morning in 2015. Located by Lake Michigan, just next to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Millenium Park is actually a roof-top garden, built to cover railway lines and automobile garage which were rather unpleasant to the eye on such a prime location. It is an ultra modern and interactive park with state of the art fountains, sculptures, theater and plenty of garden space to relax and enjoy in the heart of the Windy City.
One of it's most iconic attractions is the "Cloud Gate" sculpture by Anish Kapoor, also known as the Bean since it resembles a giant mercury jellybean, it is made out of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates. Spending some time looking into it from different angles offers impressive views of the city's skyline, and when standing beneath it a feeling of being inside the house of mirrors at a carnival.
The Jay Pritzker Pavillion is a must see for all architecture fans. Designed by the mythical architect Frank Gehry, it follows in his use of fluid lines and panel, with a sense of weightlessness and organic shapes. "The Pavilion stands 120-feet high, with a billowing headdress of brushed stainless steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes".
I was also fortunate enough to be there when a large sculpture installation by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa titled "Jaume Plensa: 1004 Portraits". The entire installation is comprised of four large-scale portrait sculptures of young girls positioned in the Park, the tallest of the four sculptures, "Looking Into My Dreams, Awilda," is made of resin and rises 39 feet above the ground.

On other news, I have started the selection of the photos from Boston, which is the final city from the 2015 US trip. These should start being posted in a couple of weeks, just as I finish off the posting the Chicago photos.
With Chicago and New York done, I think this is the time to do a small update to the websites galleries. Since I also got a new piece of hardware that finally allows me to consolidate all the catalogs from the past 10 years of photography, I hope to do a big refresh to the whole website and include a lot of my concert photos as well as past trips.

Until next week,
APN

Weekly update 002 - 2016-10-24 : Chicago is still Beautiful

October 24, 2016

Ferris Wheel at the Chicago Navy Pier, Chicago, USA

Continuing on from last week's Chicago dominated post, this week we have more Chicago! This time focussing on the area near the Navy Pier, once a Navy training center, these days a crowd pleaser with carnival rides, restaurants & shops. And some incredible views of the city's skyline and lake Michigan. On the way to the pier passed through some very industrial looking bridges, which clearly were not meant as pedestrian passages, but do give some moody images. Also added a couple of photos from the 'L' tour , run by the Architecture Foundation, with a view of the Trump Tower. And the inside of the Symphony Center, where the tour started and ended. If you're in Chicago and want to know more about the city, I highly recommend one of the Architecture Foundation tours.

Scroll to the end if you want a taste of Scotland...

As promised here is a sneak peak of Scotland, from this Summer lovely excursion to the Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. Taken at the Port of Ness beach on Harris Island, the north most island of the Hebridean archipelago.

Port of Ness Beach, Isle of Harris, Scotland

I'll be back next week with another batch of photos from Chicago's Millennium and Grant Parks.

APN

Quincy Station panorama, at Chicago's "L", Chicago, USA

weekly update 001 - 2016-10-17 : Chicago on my mind

October 17, 2016

First of my new weekly updates after a few months absence from the blog, and continuing with the Chicago set of photos from last years visit. Still have about 20 photos to process which I hope to get through over the next few weeks, so I can share them and also get to Boston. At the same time I also started doing the first editing pass at the images from this Summers trip through the Highlands of Scotland, next week I will include a sneak peek.

The "L" ride in Chicago was one of the highlights of the days we spent there. Although the weather was miserable it got me some very moody photos of the old stations. A day later and I was able to get beautiful blue skies with some streaky white clouds when visiting the parks by the lake.

Enter here for Chicago's "L", Chicago, USA

The Berghoff, on the streets of Chicago, Chicago, USA

Chicago skyline and the BP Pedestrian Bridge at Grant Park, Chicago, USA

#project365 year1 [day 016] going overground

June 17, 2016

The Chicago Loop is the designation for the towns central business district, it's name comes from the elevated railway loop that was built there to facilitate railway traffic bringing workers and goods to the central part of the city. Here it seems I just missed my train...

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 year1 [day 015] going underground

June 15, 2016

Thankfully not all trains run overground in Chicago, and there are some fine underground stations like the Lake station pictured here.

-- Gear 
Fujifilm X-T1 Fujifilm 
XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR 
-- Post 
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop. 
Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening. 
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 year1 [day 014] up the stairs

June 14, 2016

External fire escape stairs always fascinated me, maybe because they are such an uncommon sight in european architecture. So when I was in the US I took lots of photos of early 20th century buildings with external metal staircases. This example is from Chicago city center.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 year1 [day 013]

June 14, 2016

Common view in the Chicago city center, the raised tracks of the "Loop".

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop.
Photoshop: Clean up and sharpening.
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.

#project365 year1 [day 012] inside the Chicago Symphony Center

June 13, 2016

Starting to catchup after the holidays ended, so after 11 days of Scotland landscapes I am continuing to publish photos from last years trip to the USA. Here is the information desk on the main hall of Chicago's Symphony Center, a huge violin in the middle of the room is always a show piece.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
Fujifilm XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial tone and final crop.
Macphun AuroraHDR: HDR photomerge and toning

#project365 [day 98] N State St, Chicago

December 7, 2015

Another great example of residential architecture just outside the centre of Chicago. This building was on my way back to the hotel, and each day I tried to to get a clean photo of the whole facade without any cars parked in front. And I got lucky. This building is comprised of 9 homes with a rather high price tag, it seems to be part of a time when this was a nicer part of town.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-PRO1
Samyang 8mm f2.8 Fisheye 
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial toning and final crop
Photoshop: Sharpening, colour blending and clean up
NikCollection Color Efex Pro 4: Toning and Detail extraction.