This one (photo taken at the Adler Planetarium in downtown Chicago): Do you know the Crain Communications Building? (I call it the diamond building) I couldn’t believe how clearly I could see the lights of the city through 30 miles of quickly moving air. I zoomed in fully to 200 (400mm with the 2x) and began slowly panning through the skyline. What resulted, was a great shot that I was very pleased with! But there was more to it than originally met my eye.

360mm was the sweet spot, fitting in the entire skyline with my 7DII. He let me hook up my camera as well to get a few shots as my 70-200 is non-IS and it was quite windy. Tom decided to use his Canon 2x extender with his 70-200 (which is image stabilized) to get a closer look at the city lights. What was even more stunning was how clearly we could see the lights on the tops of the towers flashing! We began to see the lights of the skyline, and started making more photos. Suuurrfs uup duude.Īs the sun set, when you have a friend with such similar interests as you, time just flies as you talk about stuff and make photos – before we knew it, it was almost an hour after the sun had set. Here, this guy had to be 15-20 feet in the air or so. It was pretty windy, and some jumps, these guys would go 20-30 feet in the air, with several seconds of hang-time before coming back down. Even minutes after it has set, when the sky is set ablaze. The skyline just looks stunning with the Sun hanging behind it. There were some kite surfers zipping back and forth, and in my more telephoto shots of the skyline, you miss out on both the kite and the surfer – but you can see the ropes that tie the two together going up/across the frame. On the evening of July 14th, 2016 – we headed up to the Dunes to try and get some shots of the sunset and the skyline. I met him through Instagram almost a year ago, where we both shared an interest in taking photos of the Int’l Space Station, and if you enjoy watching/waving as much as we do, you’re just destined to be friends.Įarlier this summer, Tom is the one who connected me with Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, who I was fortunate enough to take photos for at the 100th Running of Indy 500, in May.

Tom and I were planning to meet up at the Dunes for a few days and after a few cloudy sunsets the past couple of nights – finally the weather was looking like it was going to be nice. Please read this post before sharing – thank you! If you would like to use as a wallpaper, in a story online, or for your Instagram feed, you may – but you must attribute it to me. I journeyed up to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore recently, with my good friend Tom Jones and happened upon an incredible view – something that truly blew my mind!Īll photos in this blog are taken by me (unless otherwise noted), and are available in the Creative Commons domain on my website.

Chicago skyline