Enter the Legend of VuTang's Reunited Chronicles 4ever: 20100409 Chicago & Skyline Project

Date: April 9-11, 2010
Travel: Flight, L
Lodging: Hilton Garden Inn
Photos: 20100409 Chicago Skyline Project

After buying a better more portable MODO tripod for my trip in DC, I decided I would put it to more work when I was back in Chicago. The best time to play with it would be at night of course. The results were fantastic, and I just like how much more portable it was then my last tripod. I had a new project in mind, one that was inspired from a book photography book I received for my Birthday. I called it the Transitional Chicago Skyline project, which essentially was capturing the Chicago skyline project through out certain times during the day and then creating an image that displayed this time transition. It was a mild sunday in the Spring, making it bearable to be outdoors into the night, but the breeze by the Lake would make it cold enough so there wasn't going to be a crowd of people. This project would utilize all the techniques that I pretty much knew of and applied it. One of the better skyline vantage

points is by the Adler Planetarium, which sticks out into Lake Michigan, and had a coastal view of the Chicago skyline. I had my Powershot with me to create a sunset timelapse while I was just in the area anyway. The essentials of this project was to make sure I find a spot where I could return later and capture the image at the same perspective. So I found a crack near a light post that I would place my tripod and camera on. Then at different times of the day I would capture multiple images of the skyline so that I would be able to stitch it again later. I also captured multiple exposures so that I was able to capture a higher dynamic range (HDR) and post process later. So around noon I had 1 capture, another one at sunset, then twilight and then finally at night. I created the multiple panoramas, and then blended the layers together to create some transitional images. For 1 transition, I had the the images of the day blended with sunset. Another I had sunset, day, and then night. And then another one I created one with just the sunset into the evening, which created a very dramatic sky.

Skyline during the day