Photo Friday: The Bean and Me in Chicago

Chicago's massive "Bean" sculpture, the affectionate nickname for Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in the city's waterfront Millennium Park, offers endlessly fascinating photo possibilities.

I included a handful of my favorite "Bean" images in yesterday's post, Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction, where I wrote about the sculpture, its meaning, and how it draws visitors into interacting with it.

Today, I want to share a few more Cloud Gate images and thoughts about photographing it.

 

There always seems to be a crowd around the sculpture on days best suited for taking photos, so people will invariably be part of any pictures you take. Having the crowd as part of the scene will give your photos a real sense of scale and a good idea of just how big "The Bean" is in relation to its surroundings.

 

 

One of the photos I posted yesterday looked almost like a black and white photo, although I shot it in color. I'm posting an alternate copy of it here that I created as a grey scale image in Lightroom.

 

 

I shot this image from a window in a room on the upper floor of a building across the street from the park. Look closely and you can see the birds perched on top of the sculpture!

 

 

Here I am shooting a quick self-portrait of myself as reflected in the sculpture.

 

 

Some of the coolest shots I got came when I took pictures from underneath the sculpture, where the concave surface created some great abstract-like images.

 

 

One thing that surprised me about my Cloud Gate images when I started going through them was the fact that all but one of the images I posted with today's post and yesterday's post were taken with a trusty little Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot. While I enjoy using my larger Canon EOS DSLR camera, I find that the smaller camera often gives me nice images more than suitable for using with my blog posts.

Check out my story, Shooting photographs for your blog, for a few tips and thoughts about the subject and a quick review of the book Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Chicago

Comments

[moby wrap]

Wow....I'm marking this on my list in case I plant o visit Chicago. This looks amazing !

[Camels & Chocolate]

Stunning! I want to see the bean!! Is it permanent? Alas, I have not been to Chicago since 2003!!

[Dominique King]

Moby-It really is an amazing sculpture, no matter from which angle you view it.

Camels & Choc-The Bean is a permanent piece. I remember reading in one of the sources that the artist's contract said that the sculpture should last at least 1,000 years!

[PattiB66]

Hi, I went to the #blogchat tonight. I tried to follow as best I could, but ended up jotting down a few notes in a small notebook as I read the chat.

That sculpture looks great, and I am a big coffee fan. I've have to check it out next time I'm in Chicago.

[Dominique King]

Patti-Nice to meet you tonight in #blogchat. It was crazier than usual, so I'm glad they put a transcript up for it.
The sculpture is pretty amazing, especially up close. I could have stayed to take photos for hours and not end up with very many shots that were similar to each other.

[Sarah V.]

I love the bean! That last picture is particularly fun. Isn't Chicago just fantastic?!

[Dominique King]

Sarah-Yes, Chicago was pretty cool...and I'm so glad that I built a few extra days into the schedule so I could get out and do a few things. Going for a conference and leaving immediately afterward made no sense to me :)