Shadows and highlights up, down, and around

Ramp Study

November 14, 2018 by Ming Hung in Architecture

I have seen this parking garage at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for virtually my entire life. This is the first time I have ever taken any pictures of it. O’Hare is a rather busy airport, but there was not much traffic going up and down the spiraling ramps so I was able to get a few clean shots.

I particularly like the texturing of the peeling and cracking as well as on the surface of the ramps. The garage is fairly old. I did a few different edits to change the mood a bit. The top image is very harsh. This one above is quiet.

A change of tone plus a change of angle here. The spiraling ramps remind me of the metal platter on my turntable. Too bad there were so many cars on each level. A completely empty lot would have been pretty neat and eerie.

Click images to view on black.

Solar Eclipse, August 21, 2017, Chicago

August 23, 2017 by Ming Hung in Photography, Nature, Astronomy

Chicago was not in the path of totality, and it was a cloudy day so I nixed the plan I had to photograph the event. Instead of leaving a little later for work I went on my commute as usual, leaving my tripod and longest lens at home. The following images were shot from the parking lot at work over the course of about ten minutes whenever the sun peaked through the cloud cover. The moon was already on its way away from the sun, but I got something.

I did not have eclipse glasses so I just stuck the camera out of the car window and used its LCD screen. I had an eclipse filter on my lens, but I did not use any long shutter speeds. These images were shot at ISO 3200 even though I did not need that amount of sensitivity. I felt that there would be plenty of people making great, clear, sharp pictures of totality and the different phases of the eclipse so I wanted to differentiate the images I was taking. The result was these grainy, toned, dramatic images.

I wish that I was able to catch this a bit sooner for a thinner crescent shape.

Three tones, three different moods. All of these were shot with a 150mm full-frame equivalent lens.

Click images to view on black.

Architecture Light Lines Monochrome Shadows Shapes Windows

May 01, 2017 by Ming Hung in Architecture, Black and White

I titled this blog post with a bunch of tags that I arranged in alphabetical order. That is pretty much it. I was exploring a convention center space, and the light streaming in through the large windows beautifully painted shadows and shapes on to the walls. These two images were taken on two separate weekends. It was great being able to get some images devoid of convention goers. I shot over a balcony and up into a corner to avoid including any people. I did not have a tripod with me, otherwise I might have taken some shots in the main lobby and just remove people in post.

Click images to view on black.