COVID Chronicles - Empty Downtown Streets

May 24, 2020 by Ming Hung in Black and White, Chicago

Took a walk through Downtown Chicago the other day to get outside for a little bit and to snap some pictures of relatively empty spaces. The streets are not really as empty as I expected during this whole stay-at-home time. There are people everywhere! Less than before the pandemic but they are out there. I waited until people walked out of my frame to shoot.

If the man was not wearing a mask I would have removed him in post. The plazas in both of the images above are normally well-traversed areas, populated with people on break from work, skateboarding kids, tourists, and the spaces are used for farmers markets and other gatherings.

I hope someone is still guarding the money

I took this photo because I like the lettering of the neon sign. Still, we can tell that the scene is not normal. There is no valet, doormen, bellhops, etc to be seen outside waiting for guests.

I was clearly not staying home even though I can. On my days off I usually do. Like everybody I have to get outside some time. I like to take my walks downtown because it is easier to avoid other people there than it is in my own neighborhood. I live near two parks so there are always people about. There are more interesting things for me to photograph downtown so I might as well do something during my walks.

I shot most of the images in this post with my lens aperture wide open. The images are not entirely sharp and slightly dreamy as a result. I felt that if the images were slightly off that it may give the viewer a sense that something is not right.

Click images to view on black. Please follow my Instagram feed. Thank you for visiting.

Look #up . #Light and #shadow .
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#ming_monochrom #bw #bnw #bnwphoto #bnwphotography #instabw #monochrome #blackandwhite #Leica #LeicaMonochrom #Monochrom #LeicaMonochrom246 #leicagram #theleicalook #leicalove #leicacamera #leicap

Metal flower. #Blacksky .
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#ming_monochrom #bw #bnw #bnwphoto #bnwphotography #instabw #monochrome #blackandwhite #Leica #LeicaMonochrom #Monochrom #LeicaMonochrom246 #leicagram #theleicalook #leicalove #leicacamera #leicaphotography

Two #lines and an #airplane . A couple #lights around the work area.
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#ming_monochrom #bw #bnw #bnwphoto #bnwphotography #instabw #monochrome #blackandwhite #Leica #LeicaMonochrom #Monochrom #LeicaMonochrom246 #leicagram #theleical

We had a relatively mild winter without much snow or ice, and a lot of rain so the #water level of #LakeMichigan was pretty high. There was much flooding on Lake Shore Drive and some streets and homes along the #lakeshore . I haven't been to the lake

Some #architecture today. This is the #glass filled atrium of one of the convention center#buildings during C2E2. That was back when we had conventions. A whole lot of #lines #light and #shadows here. I really dig this space.
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#ming_monoch

Cherry Blossom Trees Abstract

May 08, 2020 by Ming Hung in Nature, Plant Life

There are cherry blossom trees in Jackson Park around the Columbian Basin just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. They have been there for several years now, but I have not always gone to see them, and the conditions here in Chicago have not always been great for the best blooms. Timing a visit is also a factor.

Either my timing was bad, or the blossoming was not great, as the trees did not look all that impressive on this visit. I have never gone to Japan, Washington DC, or anywhere else where people have cherry blossom tree viewing events. Chicago is not known for that so I do not have experience in this. I have seen some amazing pictures of blooms on the web, but amazing this was not.

The trees are not planted very densely. There were no pink flowers either. As the scene was not very impressive I decided to go with a monochrome look and opened the lens aperture all the way for a more abstract look. Manually focusing on a small flower moving in the wind with a rangefinder was proving difficult for my aging eyes so these images are not all that great either. But I made the trip over there so I was not leaving without a few shots. These three are the ones I like the most. None of them are very satisfactory. I will have to try again next year.

Please let me know what tips you may have on getting the most out of the annual blossoms.

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COVID Chronicles - The Non-Essentials

May 05, 2020 by Ming Hung in Black and White, Culture, Documentary

During this pandemic we have come to learn what is deemed essential and what is deemed nonessential. We need grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, banks, and some other businesses to stay open. We do not need retail stores like the ones in this post as we fight this disease. I am not saying anything about these stores or brands, but, rather, I am making an observation.

I am also stretching to come up with ideas to shoot. This post is a result of a photo walk I took a few mornings ago. I drove up to the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago to take my walk. People think of Michigan Avenue, the “Magnificent Mile,” as Chicago’s premiere destination for shopping and high-end shops. While there are some high-end shops on the Mag Mile, it is a side street at the north end of the Mile that offers the most of that experience. Oak Street is Chicago’s Rodeo Drive. Many of the luxury boutique brands have shops on this block of Oak Street between Rush Street and Michigan Avenue.

Nothing special about any of the images in this post. I was just looking to do something on a day off. But there is a little story to tie in here.

My mother used to work at a small boutique a few storefronts down from this Prada store. It was not a name brand boutique, but sold some not-so-cheap formal wear for women. The shop did not survive too long after 9/11.

When I was still in school sometimes I would have to pick up my mother from work. That was the deal made so that I could use the car. I did not mind because I could do some people watching here. There were plenty of exotic sports cars to look at. And girls. We’ll leave it at that.

Some stores have opted to leave their window displays open to view while others have boarded up. I do not blame them for their fear of theft. Who knows how long we will be staying away from businesses like these.

This storefront spoke to me because of the symmetry and asymmetry present in the scene.

Christian Louboutin, Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana are all some pretty big names. This is the old Esquire Theatre building. It was first opened in 1938. I remember seeing a handful of movies there, but by the time I was watching movies there it was one of the “cheaper” movie-going experiences, as people were becoming more drawn to the newer mega theaters offered by AMC and others.

This Louis Vuitton store is actually on Michigan Avenue. My photo walk did spill out on to the Mile for a block or so. I wonder how many of these high-end boutiques might close because of the pandemic.

There were other ads that told people that COVID-19 is not age- or race-discriminant. So why was I not staying home if I can? For the most part I do on my days off. But I must feel the sun so I chose the morning to take this walk. Even though there was no one around I wore a mask, and kept my time outside to less than an hour. In the afternoons here in Chicago, especially on nice sunny days, there are parks full of people not practicing social distancing or wearing face masks. It saddens me that some people are not taking this seriously. So I hope we can get through this sooner rather than later, although our behavior will make it the latter I am sure.

This small triangular shaped park, and its surrounding restaurants and lounges is humorously dubbed the “Viagra Triangle.” I will leave it up to you to interpret that. This iss also where many exotic luxury and sports cars and girls can be seen.

I leave you with this image. Seeing these signs was indeed hopeful. It means that there are people out there who are optimistic, which is a great thing. They balance out people like me who are less optimistic. Thank you for coming along with my on my little photo walk. Stay safe and healthy.

Click images to view on black.

April 24, 2020 by Ming Hung in Black and White, Landscape

Checking in with a short post today. Many of us are stuck at home, and we will not be able to travel for a while. When I took the image above I had intended to make it look like somewhere else. I am pretending I am somewhere along the southwest border of the United States and Mexico. This was really just a road along one of the borders of the airport where I work. those are not hills in the distance but just mounds of dirt.

I leave you with two mirror selfies I took this morning.

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Machinery in Monochrom

April 09, 2020 by Ming Hung in Black and White, Leica, Industrial

It was a slow night at work and I took the Leica M Monochrom in to the garage and explored our aircraft tow tugs. There is so much interesting detail in these machines. I did not have a tripod so I shot nearly every shot with the lens wide open at f/1.4 so there is not a single shot where everything is in focus. I chose, instead, to isolate certain details in some of the images.

The above image is my favorite of the series. In retrospect I could have closed the aperture a bit to get more of this shot in focus since there was not as big a difference in depth in subject matter here. I also did not do much to sharpen any of the images beyond the default sharpening that was applied in Lightroom. I wanted a film-like feel, but I did not add any grain to the images either, if that makes any sense.

It is funny that we refer to vehicles in the feminine. But then we might also refer to a large machine as “Big Boy/Guy.” This is one of our larger machines.

I love the way this lens renders images and depth of field. There is a three-dimensional quality. I should use my other vintage lenses more with my Fujifilm X-Pro2 more often to get qualities like this. I am not in to the razor-sharp, perfect images that modern lenses produce. They look too clinical. I like a bit of imperfection.

Click to view images on black.

A Curious Surprise

February 17, 2020 by Ming Hung in Animal Life, Black and White, Leica

I drive by this scrap metal yard several times a week, and I always thought to myself that I could get some good images with plenty of contrast in the highs and lows. It was a warm (relatively) and sunny Sunday morning yesterday so I finally made a stop. I am a creature of habit who likes symmetry and would normally square up the above image a little better. However, shooting through chain link fencing made for awkward positioning at times.

The M Monochrom (Typ 246) is getting its paces, and this was a test of its dynamic range. I am very pleased with the results. Plenty of shadow detail, as I shot most of my images slightly underexposed to preserve the highlights.

I was making my way to the right to get shots of these I-beams when—surprise—these two curious siblings emerged from their hiding spot to see just what the heck I was doing by their yard. I was looking through the rangefinder at the time, concentrating on the cat that was stepping down to the ground that I did not even notice the second one at the bottom of my frame.

The smaller one of the two was the also the shier one, preferring to keep an eye on me from a distance. I missed focus on this one, as the cat was just slightly out of range of my focus (I was at either f/5.6 or f/8).

The larger one was still unsure of me and moved around from spot to spot to watch me shoot. Here, I chose not to edit out this shot from my series, as the blurred out piece of chain link fence added an element of interest to the image.

I would have been happy with the shots of the metal in this yard alone, but having the cats in the shots made them much more interesting. There was abundant highs and lows in the images, with great textural details in the different metal materials. I will return to this spot to shoot some more soon.

Click images to view on black.