The Chicago Mentor Series Trek started atop the grand and historical Hotel 71 on Wacker Driver and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. If the gorgeous city view from up there wasn’t enough to get us excited and motivated to go out and shoot, Mark Alberhasky’s opening presentation did the trick. After a Camera Q&A and a little lunch break, we headed to Andy’s Jazz Club, just down the street and around the corner from the hotel.
The jazz group Evolution Quintet let us in on a private rehearsal and we were able to shoot a real jazz club and a professional piece without the usual interruption of a true audience. We were it! It was challenging to photograph inside the club but Mark gave us great shooting tips and offered good lighting suggestions and we found that the natural light, when the camera was held steady enough, provided a nice ambience to our images.
Next we headed to the Wrigley Building to get on the Chicago River and take an Architectural Tour of the great city. From the boat we were able to photograph the city’s awesome architecture and even headed out to Lake Michigan, giving us a good view of the overall skyline and of Navy Pier. Our entertaining guide provided wonderful historical information along the way and the late afternoon light provided great illumination on the various historical buildings. That evening, Mark lead a class on Digital Workflow and Editing and we had some time to download and look at all the images we had already captured in only the first day!
The next morning we headed out early to the John Hancock Observatory and were granted special private access to the deck. It was amazing to see the city from such a viewpoint. Again, Mark was continually teaching us about shooting wide angle from this vantage point, and making sure not to get reflections in our images from the glass. We all walked out of there with amazing images of Chicago from the sky.
The rain rolled in so Mark did a demonstration on flash and we spent some more time looking at our images, and talking “shop.” It was really good quality classroom time and we weren’t about to let some inclement weather put a damper on our weekend. We headed out to Millennium Park and were able to capture the unique BP Bridge. We wandered the area (loved the amazing Crown Fountain!) and tried our hands at getting reflections in the famous bean (Cloud Gate): first of ourselves, then the skyline, and eventually passers-by. From there we headed out on a downtown walking tour and were able to photograph a few famous sculptures and the well known mural by Marc Chagall.
Then the rain got us! The evening plan was stymied but not to our dismay, as we had a group dinner at Giordano’s Pizzas in downtown. Real Chicago pizza and more social time was exactly what we all needed and wanted after a busy two days of making photographs.
The next morning we headed out by bus to the unbelievably gorgeous Botanic Garden. We were able to spend some time shooting macro images and wandering the beautiful gardens. When we got back to the hotel we were able to get our images reviewed by Mark again, and see everyone’s photos in the Final Slideshow.
It was a really fun weekend, as the Mentor Series Treks always are, and it was clear that everyone walked away with some unbelievable images, lots of photo tips and new info, and of course new photo friends!
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