aperturism

2011 Chicago Auto Show

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 3:35 pm posted in Auto Show, Canon 16-35mm, Cars, Chicago Auto Show

It’s the Auto Show week in Chicago. Last weekend had a beautiful weather here. And i decided to drive to the city and see the Auto Show. I decided to carry light, Just my camera with 16-35mm lens and my tripod. The Auto show crew always has a big ‘No No’ ready for tripods but i carried it for ‘Just In case’ scenario but didn’t work out.

As it was a beautiful weekend, the place was fully packed. The reasons to go visit the car show.. Cool cars and hot models. And The Chicago Auto Show did not lack in any of these reasons. Something that i did notice, there were more iPads than cars and models… I think its a cool toy to hold., isn’t that reason enough.

And here are the pictures…

This is a handheld shot. Exposure time 1 sec.

This is the LFA. The model at the display started speaking about this car’s features., featuring a 4.8L V10 engine, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer body, Carbon ceramic disk brakes, top speed 202mph, Lexus is gonna make only 500 of these. And she also mentioned that the base price starts at $375,000(Oops.. I just ran out of cheques). She also did explain what LFA stood for but i can only tell it’s “Lexus F**king Awesome”.

Mini had a very little display space, am not sure if it was little space or too many people to see the new arrival from Mini but this is the closest i could get to a Mini.

Thanks for stopping by.

posted in Auto Show, Canon 16-35mm, Cars, Chicago Auto Show Tags: Auto Show, Cars, Chicago Auto Show

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Smoke-Art

Monday, February 7, 2011 5:31 pm posted in Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L, Smoke Photography

I have seen and read a lot about pictures capturing smoke and have tried capturing it a couple of times. But those shots never made it beyond my backup Hard-disk(!). Last week i got one of my dream lenses delivered.. Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. And it was time to take this little guy for a ride. Chicago’s roads are back to normal after the recent snowmageddon we had but the sidewalks aren’t. So decided to do a little setup in my apartment and try it.

I used Incense sticks to create smoke. Capturing smoke was all fun. There is a different shape every second, you get to see a Ballet dancer shape and the very next second it turns into a Jelly fish. The shapes you get to see are limited only by your imagination.

About the lens, I could write another 2000 words to tell how it performs but to keep it short….The Lens is awesome. The auto-focus speed & Hybrid stabilization helps a lot while on handheld shots are just amazing.

Setup Info: Here is a BTS shot of my setup. Setup Shot. I used a Canon 580 EX II with a snoot which was focussed to the Incense Stick from left of the Camera. I used a Flash-zebra sync-cord to connect the flash to my camera. I pretty much dimmed all the lights in the room and used a little LED flash light to help me get focus on the Subject(Incense Stick).

Post-Processing Info: I inverted the image color using CS5 and then applied filters to get these colors. I also used Hue/Saturation to add magic.

Thanks for stopping by.

posted in Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L, Smoke Photography Tags: Canon 100mm Macro, Smoke

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Chicago snow blizzard 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011 6:22 pm posted in Blizzard 2011, Chicago, Landscapes, Nature, Snow

The snow blizzard of 2011. It was just amazing. In simple words, it was just like living the movie ‘The day after tomorrow’. Never been through a snow blizzard and i was tempted to ask uncle Google what it meant and it took 14seconds for Google to spit the answer., Here it is..

–Sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mph or greater.
–Considerable falling and/or “blowing” snow reducing visibility frequently to 1/4 mile or less.
–These conditions must last for a period of three hours or more.

So, when the sand settled or should i say after the snow settled it was time to get out and grab some pictures. All these were shot with my Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II.

Post-Processing Info: Used LightRoom 3 for Lens profile correction & White-Balance adjustment.

That’s my neighbor having fun(!) clearing the snow off her driveway.

Time for Photoshop magic.

Thanks for stopping by.

posted in Blizzard 2011, Chicago, Landscapes, Nature, Snow Tags: Blizzard 2011, Chicago, Chicago snow blizzard 2011, Snow, snow blizzard 2011

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