Chicago!

I am very behind on my posts, but instead of ignoring my older photos and moving straight to the new stuff, I'm going to try to catch up. I learn from every set of photos I create, so I have to stay the course and slog through it all! :-) Back in September, I went to Chicago with some good friends. Our ultimate goal was to dine at the incomparable Alinea. But before that amazing dinner, I had a chance to roam the city for the first time. I took lots of pictures, but I learned that carrying around a DLSR and two lenses is not very fun. I'm now in the market for a point-and-shoot camera for when I'm doing lots of walking. The quality isn't as good as a full-fledged DLSR, but I'll be more likely to carry it around with me. Another thing I learned is that there is no way to shoot the amazing "Bean" in Chicago without being in the photo (see above). I learned that it is hard to a handhold a camera steady for two seconds. I learned that Chicago makes the best french dip sandwiches. I learned just how much amazing detail a 200mm (300mm on my cropped sensor) lens paired with a 12 megapixel DSLR can capture. I was on a boat floating by the Sears Tower when I shot people standing on its glass ledges. Go ahead and view the original image and zoom in. Wow. This is my favorite photo from the trip. The color is amazing. I love the way the water runs down the wall and into the pool. And since the kid's face is obscured, I don't have to get a model release form! :-) I only wish that I didn't cut off his right foot. And then there was Alinea. Ahhhh, best meal of my life. But this isn't a food blog, so let me talk briefly about the shots. Because flash was not allowed, and the room lighting was dim, I had to rely on high ISO, wide open aperture, and a relatively slow shutter speed. The autofocus was also having difficulty acquiring focus, so I manually focused most of my shots. For the food shots, this was okay. I just got real close to the food and took a series of shots while tweaking the focus minutely. I figured that one of the shots would be in focus! My people shots were out of focus and just plain bad. But I got a shot of my hero Grant Achatz serving us dessert! Lastly, I want to thank Swarup, Shraddha, and Basile for the best vacation I've had in a long while! Wait, one more thing I learned. I spent an extended weekend with these guys, and the only group shot I got was this lousy one in the elevator?!! If you'd like to see the complete set, please go here.