University of Chicago

While in Chicago over the holidays, I also spent a few hours at the University of Chicago. It's gotten to be a bit of a cliche I think to take photos there. There are photos of the campus all over Flickr, lots of blogs. Yet, it was still a place on my list to check out as I had never been there before.

A walkway outside Bond Chapel.

Image copyrighted by Erik Markov

   

Image copyrighted by Erik Markov

Since it was over the holidays there weren't many people on campus, which meant I had it mostly to myself. Also meant a lot of the buildings were closed. Will have to go back as there were a few other places that looked interesting which I couldn't go into.

 A bulletin board on campus with scraps

of notices and staples left over.

 Image copyrighted by Erik Markov

Bond Chapel.

 Image copyrighted by Erik Markov

Was an okay day to shoot, not the best but not the worst. It's December in Chicago so gray skies are the norm. Also why I played around with the HDR, the un-doctored images are not all that interesting. Some snow falling would have been something to play around with, Mother Nature wasn't cooperating.

 

I think this would be a cherub,

kinda hard to tell with the vines.

Image copyrighted by Erik Markov

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Comments containing off-color or hateful language may be removed.

Morton Arboretum

Been a while since my last post, hasn't been anything too exciting of late. Spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Chicago. Christmas day spent some time visiting family in the western suburbs. Was right near Morton Arboretum in Lisle, some place I've always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity to. It happened that the grounds were free for the holiday.


Shot a ton of pictures in 90 minutes, had a couple keepers of snow covered trees that were interesting. But for an arboretum it was very random. A lot of the arboretums I've been to have very planned out, orderly designs, this seemed more natural. I was looking for those tree lined roads, trees standing alone in empty fields. Maybe it was something about the winter weather that encouraged me to look for that stuff, don't know; the first few things I shot didn't overwhelm me.

That's why I was happy when I found this stand of spruce trees. Something about spruce trees, standing very straight and tall; I find them really interesting to shoot. There are so many ways to approach them.

One day I took a little side trip to Lake Catherine, which is in Palos Heights, IL. It's a man made nature preserve and education center. A man made waterfall that feeds into a small lake. It's a nice area to take a short walk, see some ducks and geese.

 

Nothing too out of the box, just a nice way to spend the holidays taking pictures and being creative. 

Back in a few days with more from Chicago.

All Images copyrighted by Erik Markov

You Are Here

Wherever you are at, that's the place to be.
Image copyright Erik Markov 2009

At the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL. shooting the NASCAR race for the second year in a row. While up on a shooting platform getting some photos of cars on the track during practice, I saw this jumble. Reminds me of the "You Are Here" on maps. Of course that never seems to help, just because one is there, doesn't mean they know where "here" is.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily

reflect those of my employer.

Comments containing off-color or hateful language may be removed.

Life Lock 400 Nascar race

Greg Biffle's pit.
You are here.
Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

Update ~ The gallery of photos I shot just went up on the Tribune's website.

Went up to the Chicagoland Speedway this past Thursday to shoot the Nascar races there this weekend. I would have posted this on the days I shot all of this, but the days were so long I just didn't have the energy after shooting all day to then write posts.

This post is a couple days late even past that reason. Over the course of the three days, I shot about 4500 images. It's the equivalent of 125 rolls of film. Makes my back hurt just thinking about carrying all that. After editing the photos over the past couple days, I ended up with 80 images to tone the color and write cutlines for. So this post got put at the bottom of the pile.

It was an interesting weekend tho. It was my first time at the track in Joliet, IL. It's a short 1.5 mile oval track which makes the racing a little different from the 2.5 mile Indy Motor Speedway I'm used to over the past five years.

The reporter and I left on Thursday and got there around noon. Lots of press conferences and media interviews to do and take photos of. Thursday was supposed to be a day for the drivers of the Nextel Cup race to get a feel for the track in practice and then qualify later in the day. Supposed to be. The track got hit with a huge rain storm later in the day.

I was down in the pit lane and all the cars were lined up for the drivers to go out and qualify. All of the sudden, the crews from the various teams started pushing cars back towards the garages. The sky got really dark and ugly, the teams got the cars into the garage about five minutes before all hell broke loose and the rained started coming down sideways.

Cars get pushed back to the garage area.

Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

All the media waited around for a few hours until the qualifications were canceled later in the evening. Not a glamorous start to what was to be the first Nascar night race at the track.

Rain falling at the track, almost looks like snow.
Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

Friday about noon I showed up back at the track with the reporter, doing our "no rain dance." A lot of the day involves just walking around the garages hoping to see a driver and snap a few photos as they sign autographs for fans or talk to their crew in the garage.

Spent part of the day walking around with the reporter, Ken de la Bastide, through the garage areas of the Nextel Cup drivers and the Busch Series drivers. The Nextel drivers are the guys like Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt jr. The big names, so to speak. The Busch Series has drivers like Dario Franchitti who came over from the Indy Racing League, Brian Vickers and Kenny Wallace; the up and coming racers. Some guys race in both series, but only a few.

Like I've said before, I'm not a gearhead. But I have found the more racing I shoot, the more I am starting to enjoy it. Being a night race and seeing how I've never shot one, I pushed to get credentials to go to this one. And I'm glad I did. Unique experience for sure.

As most know, Nascar is referred to as redneck racing. Don't know if I would put it quite like that, but the general idea gets across. More laid back than the Indy Racing League let's say. Different style of cars, different history of racing.

A Nascar driver might tell someone to "meet me in my holler in an hour." Huh? Holler is a southern word for a small valley. In this case it's used as a noun to describe their race trailer they work out of that is parked near the team garage. Like I said, more laid back.

On Friday night there was the Busch Series race, which quite a few pegged Tony Stewart to win. Which he didn't even come close to. As I heard someone in the media room say, Stewart appears to be taking the express bus to last place. Unfortunate, but true. Stewart hasn't done real well this year, sometimes coming close but never quite there.

Kyle Busch celebrates by standing on his car while in a haze of smoke.
Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

Kyle Busch ended up winning the race. Got quite a few good photos of him as he celebrated in typical Nascar fashion by doing a burnout on the track. Pretty non-eventful race, Busch had a pretty good grip on the lead for much of it.

Friday was a late night. Didn't get out til midnight. Fortunately, didn't have to be at the track again til noon the next day.

Came in on Saturday and with it being a night race, the mood is pretty relaxed. Most of the drivers didn't show up until around 4pm to start getting ready. Spent some time wandering around shooting features, just finding cool stuff that caught my eye.

Richard Petty jokes with Jeff Gordon.
Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

Around 6pm, the photographers headed out to the start finish line to shoot the driver introductions. Richard Petty was there, as this is his 50th year of being involved with the series. First as a driver starting in 1958 until his retirement in 1992, and currently as a team owner.

Before the driver intro's, Petty was introduced and honored. Then the drivers for the Nextel race came out on stage, all wearing the same signature cowboy hat Petty has always worn. Pretty funny. Then all the drivers were stopping to get their hats signed by Petty. The guy is a legend for sure, and you would have thought the drivers were all 12-years-old, the way they were acting with asking to get their hats signed.

After the intro's, I walked along the pit area for awhile, shooting drivers as they waited for the race to start, along with getting photos of people involved with their team's sponsors. P.R. stuff they have to do to make sure the money keeps rolling in.

Kyle Busch celebrates his win by smoking his tires.
Image copyright Kokomo Tribune 2008

This race didn't hold a lot of surprises either, just a few at the end. A few caution flags were dropped. With a few laps left, Kyle Busch passed Jimmie Johnson after it went from a yellow caution back to green.

Busch drove into the grass along the front stretch, partially tearing up the grass. It might have been neat, except for the rain the area got the morning of, causing the field to be a soggy mess. His crew ran out and helped push him out for a proper celebration of another burnout on the front stretch.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Comments containing off-color or hateful language may be removed.