Pure Captures Photography Blog » Event Photography

A few from Chicago – Holiday Train and night shots

Pure Captures — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:02:26 +0000

We went to Chicago right before Thanksgiving to see my little sister’s senior recital. I’ll be posting lots of pictures this week. Here are some of the Holiday Train and a few other cool night shots!

Here comes the Holiday Train!!!

I was pretty sure thse guys next to us were purposely waiting for the Holiday Train, which only came by at certain times and on certain days. Well….we had planned our evening around the Holiday Train, so I can’t blame them.

Dancing Guy. Note Matt pretending to pose for a picture. We were trying to be sneaky.

This guy was dancing to the music while he was on his cell. It was SO FUNNY!!! He had this look on his face like he was just totally enjoying himself and everything was normal. But he was kind of hanging onto the poles and swaying to the beat. He was my favorite. So I took a picture. Check out the lights – all red and green! And the poles and garland. And the seats, which you can’t see, were covered in Christmas upholstery. This train was seriously decked out. I didn’t want to use flaash and annoy other people, or make it obvious that I was photographing them! All that and the fact that he kept moving too fast for my shutter speed made for some interesting exposure and editing techniques…hah! But I think the grungy look to the picture fits for a subway car!

Cat watching Dancing Guy

Matt smirking about Dancing Guy

Cat & Matt laughing about Dancing Guy

Cat and the CTA Elf

The CTA Elf lady gave us little candy canes when we sat down!! How fun! I ate mine right away. Then I proceeded to watch her while she sassed at her boys, who were riding on her car for a bit. This was Cat right before we got off the train. (I believe that was leftover Uno’s deep-dish pizza in that box.) You can see Dancing Guy getting off at that station, too. There were some other people who were as excited as we were to be riding the holiday train, and they were taking pictures with their cell hpone. I felt a common bond with them and their excitement, all because of the Holiday Train. After we got off, we transferred and took another train right back to where we came from. Yes, we spent $2 apiece just to ride the train to Nowhere and Back. But it was so worth it!!

Santa on the Holiday Train!I snapped this as Santa and the Holiday Train rolled away. An open air car! Pretty cool!

Here are a few other pictures:

Natalie and Catherine after a delicious dinner in Greek Town! (By the way, check out our food blog this week on http://puretastes.wordpress.com for some restaurant reviews from Chicago!)

The view near Cat's apartment. Really cool!

Sears Tower at night

Michigan Avenue at dusk with lights!

That’s all for now! Later this week I will try to put up some ballet pictures from a class I photographed at Cat’s college, and then some people in the city shots. Meanwhile, I’ll be posting restaurant reviews over on our food blog, so you may pick up some tips for places to eat if you’re ever in Chicago!

Unlike

A few from Chicago – Holiday Train and night shots is a post from Pure Captures Photography Blog.
To see more from Pure Captures, visit our blog and website.

Photographic Thoughts

rebeccablock — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:03:00 +0000

This isn’t so much a picture post, but just some thoughts about cameras.

When I went to the Tour of Missouri the other day (photos coming soon, I promise!), I was struck by a bike. Just kidding. I was struck by the number of HUGE lenses that some of these photojournalists had. Like this one. Haha. Ok, more like these two. I felt meager and amatuerish with my 18-55 mm and 35-210mm lenses (which, notably, in any other circumstances, is not THAT small). Then I remembered two very important things. Oh yeah. I AM a professional. And it’s ok that I don’t have lenses like these people, because I don’t NEED lenses that big for what I do. Maybe we will someday if we ever wanted to get into sports photojournalism for newspapers or something. But as of now (nor in the near future), I do not own a lens that weighs more than my head and needs a monopod to support it. Hehe.

I saw a guy on a photography forum with a quote on his signature that said something like, “I have this big, beautiful camera. I just press the button.” I have to say, I completely disagree with that. It’s not what kind of camera you have. It’s what you do with it that counts. I’ve seen some cruddy shots taken with some super cameras, and some fantastic ones taken with point-and-shoots. More on this later. I have to go places.

Ok, I couldn’t resist. One photo from the Tour. Imagine a rush of wind blowing your face as these guys whiz past two feet from your face. And toes.

Unlike

Photographic Thoughts is a post from Pure Captures Photography Blog.
To see more from Pure Captures, visit our blog and website.

Japanese Fall Festival

rebeccablock — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:00:00 +0000

If you haven’t been to the Japanese Stroll Gardens in Springfield, you are missing out on the prettiest place in town. It’s worth the five bucks (now there’s something I don’t say often). Saturday they had their annual Fall Festival, and we hadn’t been in a while, so we went. It was really crowded, which was the only thing of the whole day that I didn’t like so much. I prefer quiet parks. But we had a picnic dinner, watched some drummers and a sword guy, and strolled around the gardens twice. One stroll was lit by torches and candles, which was gorgeous! It would have been very romantic if not for the gobs of people around. They also nearly defeated my goal of getting some candlelit landscape photography, although some “ghost” images look pretty interesting. Unfortunately, I had switched bags and forgot my tripod head, although I did have the tripod. That was an interesting experience. It’s too bad they don’t let you do weddings there – I would have tried to get ours there! But for future reference, it would be a great place to go for engagement or couples’ pictures, bridal portraits, romantic bride & groom pictures, or a trash-the-dress session!

Unlike

Japanese Fall Festival is a post from Pure Captures Photography Blog.
To see more from Pure Captures, visit our blog and website.

Carson’s Fireworks

rebeccablock — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:59:00 +0000

I am about to head out to Rolla for some puppy picstures. It is a surprise birthday gift for someone’s husband. I hope it doesn’t rain in Rolla like it’s raining here! I’m also getting started on a new book. I had just the right size book board left over from the last album I made to make a small gift/parent album. I’m thinking black, white, silver, and classy.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from Carson’s Late Fourth of July Extravaganza (I made that title up). Enjoy!

I like the short depth of field with all the Christmas trees lined up and the kids running around. Good job, Matt.

Honey locust flower with some nice light (Matt took this one, too):

Had to have a reeeeeally slow shutter speed on this one, but the light on their faces from the sparkler is awesome:

This looks really cool in the big version. I love the little dots all around it. It’s like glitter in the sky!

This is my favorite fireworks shot:. I like the blue sky and how the smoke is even lit up.

This was a really hard shot! People’s faces lit up from only the fireworks….oh man. What timing!

People hanging out:

Here’s Matt in the bug light. I kind of like how night-y it is, and you can tell what kind of light he’s standing by!

Unlike

Carson’s Fireworks is a post from Pure Captures Photography Blog.
To see more from Pure Captures, visit our blog and website.

Kids Against Hunger

rebeccablock — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Last week, Matt & I volunteered with our small group at Kids Against Hunger, an organization with a branch in Springfield that packages and distributes food to hungry people around the world. They send it nationally and internationally, like to places in Africa, and Haiti. It got its name because it is a volunteer thing that a lot of kids are able to do to help others out around the world. Here is what Kids Against Hunger does behind the scenes:

First, my big strong husband dumped huge bags of rice into containers.

Next, people scooped rice into baggies.

Then they added spices (top) and vitamin/mineral tablets (bottom), the essential part of the meal.

Bags were sealed (I did this! It was fun!)….

…Counted…

…Boxed…

…and packaged for shipping!

Check out the Kids Against Hunger website for the volunteer schedule.

Unlike

Kids Against Hunger is a post from Pure Captures Photography Blog.
To see more from Pure Captures, visit our blog and website.

Pure Captures Photography Blog » Event Photography

A few from Chicago – Holiday Train and night shots

Check out these as well:

Photographic Thoughts

Check out these as well:

Japanese Fall Festival

Check out these as well:

Carson’s Fireworks

Check out these as well:

Kids Against Hunger

Check out these as well: