Long Needed Update!

Just a heads up, my blog has been moved over to my new updated site: <Christopher|F Photography Blog. Please check it out and subscribe over there if you are interested!!! Thanks!

T-minus 5 days till the wedding….

Well it has finally come. The wedding is 5 days away and we will be out of the country in 7! The blog will not be updated for a bit. Hopefully I will have some good photos from the trip to give a big update, probably will take a bit to process them all. Take it easy everyone!

Here is my version of a street shot to leave you with:

A Country Based on Corn

I am not a very political or someone who really puts out their thoughts on things on the world unless asked. But there is one thing I do know well, I have studied in some classes, and now work in the industry. That is America’s reliance on corn and corn products. I work as an engineer in the food manufacturing industry and see how much Corn Syrup, HFCS, and other ingredients go into even food that is marked as healthy. But anyways, I took two different photos of America’s heel food source:

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

85mm f1.4

What a lens!! Silky smoothness, and amazing depth of field. I can see why this lens is talked up so much. Still need to get used to using it but wanted to post two simple flower shots I took last week with it.

Fire Starters

Probably should have posted this last week, but I fell behind. A few Thursdays ago was a full moon, and tradition here in Chicago since 2004 is the Full Moon Fire Jam at Foster Beach. A unique experience, a group of friends started earlier this century, photographers and performers a like, with families and others come out to enjoy the beautiful show. As a photographer it really gives you a new learning experience and opportunity to shoot something different. This was my first time and I got to meet up for the first time with some of the members of the Chicago Area Photowalk Group.

And my favorite of the ones I took:

There is Something About Saturday Night

This past Saturday Night I went on a little photowalk before settling in down by Navy Pier for the fireworks since my Fiance was out for her Bachelorette Party. Came up with a few shots that were keepers. It was a nice night, though the heat way was starting to kick in.

Michigan Avenue on a pretty busy night:

And my night ended with a bang:

Not a bad Saturday Night in this beautiful city!

A little bit of the Natural World

Taking a break with some recent visits to my home state of Michigan, I have taken some natural landscape shots that I really loved. These were all taken near Corey Lake, Michigan.

Enjoy!

Portraits: A step in the unknown

By now you know I am not much of a portrait shooter, this does not mean I do not like them or want to shoot them. I need to start taking them more and in my attempt this past weekend when I went out to shoot the Fourth of July fireworks, a guitar player sat down next to me on the pier. I asked him if it would be alright to take a few street shots of him and he said yes. This are my two favorites that came out of it:

And this one, a monochrome:

I think they came out well. It was nice lighting out with the sun setting, so no harshness. And here is a shot of the skyline with fireworks that came later in the night:

Hope everyone had a good Fourth.

Processing: Black and White, Vintage, or None of the above?

As much as I do HDR and a have a more over the top type of post processing, I am a huge fan of Black and White, Vintage, and more soft styles of photography. I recently took an image that did not come out exactly how I had planned mostly because of the light and not having the time to wait until full blue hour hit. I will go back and redo it, but still a nice quality shot came out of it. What I want to do with this is show three different versions of this shot that I enjoy each for their different reasons.

1. The first is the basic HDR processed shot (This one is on my Flickr):

2. This is my vintage version of this shot (added a light black and white layer and an adjusted curve layer for the effect):

3. A black and white version:

What are your thoughts? I really like version two the more I think of it the best. Something about vintage shots that I love.

Hope everyone has a good week!!

I know i have been really infrequent with my posts lately. Busy with work, two months until our wedding, and just a load of other things. I have been keeping my Flickr and my Wesbite up-to-date so always check there if you are interested in my most recent photographs.

Here are two of my most recent favorites, taken the same night at very close locations which made it east to catch the sunset and blue hour within 30 minutes of each other.

First the sunset over Diversey Harbor:

And a blue hour shot from the Lakeshore Path at Fullerton (yeah have posted about 10 shots from here I know, I love it though), had to set-up the tripod in the Lake and balance carefully to compose this one:

Will try and update more often, as things calm down, though with the wedding drawing near I cannot promise anything… Stay Tuned!