Wedding in Millennium Park

Millennium Park has become a favorite location for wedding party group photographs, particularly in the AT&T Plaza with the Bean sculpture as a backdrop.

From large, formal wedding parties such as this one with the camera and video crew along to smaller gatherings, the highly reflective surface of the Cloud Gate sculpture makes for dramatic photos that can only be had in Chicago.

Photographers planning to do wedding or other photography in Millennium Park should check the rules and permit requirements here.

Cool Elevators

In 1976, a new vertical retail mall, Water Tower Place, opened on North Michigan Avenue which coincided with my freshman year at a suburban college in the Chicago area. Growing up in Springfield, Illinois, I was very familiar with horizontal malls, but with not with vertical ones. And certainly not with a vertical mall that had glass elevators in the middle of the building.

People stood in lines and waited for the opportunity to see the eight floors of shops from the inside of the elevator. Sounds sort of silly today, but the bank of elevators shown here was a tourist attraction when the mall first opened. And I confess to being one of those who waited and waited.

Bridge over Troubled Water

While the politicians and elected (did we really?) representatives of Illinois are making national headlines and getting air time in Leno's and Letterman's monologues, life goes on in the Land of Lincoln. (Is Abe rolling over?)

The Chicago River bisects the downtown area of the city in an unusual way, as the river runs east/west from Lake Michigan to Wolf Point where the three river branches converge. Then the river turns south and flows into the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. From there the water flows into the Des Plaines River and eventually reaches the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.

Legend has it that the name of the first American settlement site arose because that is where a wolf was last sighted in Chicago. Fact or fiction? Originally the river emptied into Lake Michigan, and it is fact that the flow was reversed in an engineering feat that rivaled the building of the Panama Canal.

Many movable bridges crisscross the river including the one pictured here.

Chicago's Water Tower

One of the most recognizable buildings in Chicago, the Old Water Tower presides over the north end of the Magnificent Mile and a lovely urban park. Constructed in 1869 of Joliet limestone, the Water Tower and the Pumping Station located directly across Michigan Avenue, were the only two public buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

Originally constructed to conceal a standpipe used to equalize water pressure from the Pumping Station, it is currently the home for City Gallery which features Chicago photographers and photographs. Buskers and street entertainers perform in the park surrounding the Water Tower while shoppers revive weary feet seated on benches near a fountain. Carriage horses still drink from a specially designed watering fountain on the park's west side and wait patiently for couples and families to hop aboard for a city tour.

Chicago's LaSalle Street

LaSalle Street, the heart of the financial district in Chicago, is lined with numerous imposing edifices featured in numerous movies including the The Dark Knight - and rightly so. The stately columns of the Federal Reserve Bank and the art deco Chicago Board of Trade building form the southern end of the money district and the light often bounces from one to the other in an interesting way.

It's one of the best locations to shoot in the Windy City at mid-day as the light reaches the street in the canyon of buildings. After a year of maintenance, the clock on the CBOT building has been repaired and the scaffolding removed, so it's a prime point of interest once again.

Standing Firm

By now the secret is out that night and low-light photography are two of my loves - particularly in busy cities. It could be directly related to the fact that I am not a morning person.

Something about that time of day inspires my creative juices and my adrenaline as often the peak time lasts only for 20 minutes or so after the sun has set if the sky will be included in the composition. Other opportunities, such as the man directing traffic above on Michigan Avenue in Chicago are still available when the sky has turned black.

With a sturdy Gitzo tripod and cable release, I'm armed and ready. If you spot a lady with a tripod out after dark - that could be me.

Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River Bridge

Speak the words, "Michigan Avenue" and thoughts of great shopping come to mind. From Tiffany to Nordstrom to H&M and Borders, the Magnificent Mile has them all. Several architectural landmarks such as the Water Tower, Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower are located along this thoroughfare as well.

Another highlight is the double-decker bridge over the Chicago River with the second level below street level and providing access to Lower Wacker Drive. The bi-level street was made famous in chase scenes in the "Blues Brothers" and "Batman Begins" movies.

The scene above is a view of the Chicago River bridge taken from the center median across from the Wrigley Building and looking south toward Millennium Park and the financial district.