Illinois

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Home from Chicago and it was a fantastic trip. At one point on Saturday night while we were walking back to our hotel for the night, Andrew turned to me and said “How come all of your vacations involve a lot of walking?” LOL I’m pretty sure he was joking but not really. Because it’s true. I think when you walk around a city, you just get to know it better and there’s so much more you get to see when you’re going a little bit slower. I like it better than just driving everywhere or taking public transportation.

But my legs, feet and back are definietly feeling it right now.

This image was taken from a L train station. The light blue building in the center is the Trump International Hotel and Tower and found this to be a cool point of view with buildings framing it. Below me were some train tracks that I was taking pictures of but in between trains coming and going, I was messing around with long exposure on the buildings. I love the way it turned out and I think this is a very accurate depiction of what it feels like after exploring the city for 48 hours. I didn’t think much of it while I was taking the picture but thought it turned out really cool in the end.

Overall, I had a great weekend. I loved walking up and down the riverwalk and finding different angles to photograph the high rise buildings. I also really enjoyed eating deep dish pizza and Italian beef sandwiches. So you can say I’m a big fan of Chicago’s scenery and food 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at .4 seconds and ISO 3200 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens and my 10 stop neutral density filter.

All photos available for print and licensing >

Now for my very special news:

I’m so excited to announce my very first travel workshop! Join me and my friends at Focus on the Story for a truly memorable and exciting week long photography workshop in CHICAGO! I can already feel that it’s going to be fantastic. No matter your skill level, I will be leading you through daily photo excursions with one-on-one critiques to support group sessions that will further your skills as a photographer. By the end of it all, you’ll definietly leave the windy city with images you’ll be proud of and lots of great stories to tell.

What makes this workshop different than others is that it’s a very “Go With the Flow” mentality. That means we tailor each excursion depending on weather conditions AND what is best for the group. I’m here to help you to achieve your photography goals and it won’t happen with a cookie cutter curriculum.

The focus of the workshop will be a mix of street, landscape and architectural photo opportunities. We are limiting the amount of participants so I can make sure to focus on your needs and to create a strong shared experience among the participants. So I hope you’re as pumped as I am because I can’t wait to hang out with you for a week in one of the most exciting cities in America.

Click here for all the full information and please let me know if you have any additional questions about any of this.

The above image was captured in O’hare airport. It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Chicago and looking forward to exploring the city with you all! My camera settings for this image is F4.5 at 1/320th sec at ISO 1600 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

All photos available for print and licensing >

I heard that there are no direct flights from Washington DC to San Diego. Is that true or am I making that up?  I wasn’t sure if our search results were affected since we were traveling with a dog but that seems a bit odd…

Either way, it gave us a cool opportunity to check out Chicago’s O’Hare airport during our layover to the west coast. I had always seen this hallway on instagram and thought it was so cool. I’m so glad I got to see it while we were looking for the pet relief area for Frankie. LOL.

If you have never seen it for yourself, this is a super long hallway with rainbow colored lights connecting two different parts of the airport. Perfect for finding all different kinds of compositions and cool images. I even saw a group of girls taking some pretty cool portraits here. This image is the last visual I tried. We were on one of those moving walkway things and I figured I would try a long exposure to see what would come out. I balanced my camera on the hand rail which was a bit shaky but I thought the final result looked pretty cool. It kinda describes what it feels like traveling. Super cool but kinda hazy, am I right?

My camera settings for this image is F/14 at 2 seconds and ISO 125 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

PS, we never found the the pet relief area. It was all good though. Frankie was such a good boy on the flight, he didn’t even seem phased. He just sat on my lap the entire time. Both ways. I would love to take him on more adventures with us now that I know he is such a good traveler.