Chicago in December 250-255

I'm so happy to be out of the cornfield! I love Chicago and would move here in a heart beat except everything is so expensive and I don't think that finding a job as a Spanish teacher in Chicago would be the best move for me. I could definitely see me trying something new though, but what? I am always torn between my two loves of places to visit. I either want the biggest city with all sorts of culture and restaurants and places to go every night of the week, or...I want a beautiful beach that's sort of secluded with nothing but me, a little shack, an internet connection and a shower (or a waterfall that would serve as my shower...) If you find that place that lets me have the best of both worlds, please let me know. I also need the temp to stay between 68 and 78 degrees, year- round. Anyway, I'm in the city right now and we had quite the eventful day yesterday. First, we made it to Chicago by noon and went to Gino's East for lunch. Then, we strolled down Michigan Avenue until the kids spotted the Lego store and so we went there for a while. Then, we took a taxi over to the Briar Street Theater for the 5:00 show at Blue Man Group. We got there way too early and stopped for some hot chocolate/ coffee to take up some time, but couldn't find anywhere to sit, so we went strolling over in that area. Went to Blue Man Group, and it's such an amazing show! The kids really seemed to like it and so that was a good time. After that, we went up the Hancock tower so I could take some city shots at night. Then we went to dinner at an Irish Pub around the corner from our hotel and then we went strolling up and down Michigan Avenue again for some night shots of the Christmas lights. Here are some shots I got yesterday: The kids at the Lego Store. I asked if they wanted to go to the American Girl store, but no takers:


 Me and the kids at Blue Man--- obviously, I didn't take this one...


A shot from up in Hancock. There were so many glares on the windows it was hard to get anything too amazing.

 

Here's a wider shot.  Oh, city, how I love thee.



 An awesome {in my opinion} shot of the river. This is a bit of a long exposure, about 5 seconds, and the wind was whipping through the place, so it's not perfect, but I still like it.




Another long exposure standing in the middle of Michigan Avenue:


And one more shot of Michigan Avenue, a long exposure with a taxi that was standing still. Notice the door? A person got in the taxi, but you can't see the person because of the long exposure.


That's it for now. I still have many more pictures from today and we have a big day ahead of us!

245-249

Since I had a day where I wasn't too busy, I decided to take a few more shots.  I actually like these, especially this first one:



The next two shots show what a little white balance adjustment in RAW can do. I like the vertical shot better, and the colors are truer to real life. I didn't really adjust the white balance much in the horizontal one, so the silver kiss looks a little gold.


These are the ice cube men that my Mom bought for me about 5 years ago. I thought they were really cute! I like the way the light is reflecting off and through them.

 Here is an ornament shot. It's ok, I used 30 second exposure on this one, so the twinkle lights have the sparkle lines from them. It's an OK shot. Not particularly interesting to me.


Now, I put the same picture in black and white, played with the levels, upped the contrast and lightened the vignette around the edges. I also put a bluish tint to it. Now it looks silver-ish to me and I think it's more interesting.

Merry Christmas 229-244

Christmas has come and gone and I think it was a success. As long as my kids are happy, then I'm happy. I had a good time with my parents and my sister and her family dropped in for a little while and it was good to see them too. Unfortunately, I don't think I got any really great Christmas shots this year. Of course, I thought I got a lot last year, so I looked back at them, and I don't think I got any last year either. I'm being a tough judge on pictures anymore. Here is the tree, nice and pretty before the chaos begins. I woke up early to get ready for the big day and took this shot. The camera settings are ISO 100, 30 seconds with a shutter release cable, @f5

This is a sideways shot to include all of the presents. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the top of the tree like this because my lens was the 24-200 Tamron. I'm not sure about the settings here, but they are similar to the ones on the previous picture.

 

Here is the insane mess after the kids are finished opening up their gifts. The shot is a little soft. Oh, how I need some better lenses!!!


The following are just some random pictures of the kids opening their gifts. I was bouncing flash off of the ceiling and I think the ceiling fan cast a shadow in some. I should have been using my flash diffuser instead, but I don't know where it is right now.

 


Here are my shots of the food. These turned out ok. The ham looks pretty even though I'm not a huge fan of ham.

 


 Here are some of all of us:


 I like these shots of my parents playing with Stephen:

 And that about wraps it up. Better luck to me next year on getting the shots that I think are worthy!