Clouds Over Chicago by taffy

Clouds Over Chicago

Day 4 of uncomfortably hot and overcast days and Day 3 of work work work. I'm posting this image because, despite weather and work, today was a GREAT day! Why, you might wonder...(a) look closely at the sky...do you see unwanted spots? Before, I would have had to spend an hour cloning out spots, but after picking my my newly cleaned camera this morning, my photos are all spot free SOOC before processing! And, (b) despite blah weather, I do love clouds and we had plenty today!
Taken in the plaza in front of the entrance to our college (the golden grasses from the other day are behind me in this image). I'm looking east toward the Sears tower and the "Wedding Ring" building (300 Wacker is it's real name) which are almost obscured by the low-hanging clouds.
I liked the contrast of the textures of the brick against the softness of the clouds.
Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my photos of the yellow warehouse and of the jet over the medical center. I so appreciate your viewing and am going to enjoy sharing Chicago the way I was able to share Beaver Island. I'll catch up on viewing and commenting over the next few days. Tonite it's time for sleep.
Nice framing
August 29th, 2013  
this is such a nice shot, i love it!
August 29th, 2013  
cool
August 29th, 2013  
Great image
August 29th, 2013  
Fabulous clouds and brickwork Taffy! Is it HDR?
August 29th, 2013  
Just remembered you said sSOOC!
August 29th, 2013  
Love all those lines and angles of the architecture!
August 29th, 2013  
Wonderful capture! Love the drama in the sky! Excellent processing!
August 29th, 2013  
This is a really great shot!! Love the sky / fog! And the POV and composition are wonderful. SOOC FaVulous!!! FAV
August 29th, 2013  
The brick wall is so clear and the clouds like watercolor wash. The image looks like an architectural painting.
August 29th, 2013  
Fabulous pov and shot! Great angles and dramatic sky.
August 29th, 2013  
Love this image,so much to see..love the angles and the dramatic sky.So gad you are happy with your newly cleaned camera!
August 29th, 2013  
great capture Taffy, I completely understand the joy of a clean sensor having had mine cleaned recently, amazing how those pesky spots get on the sensor,
August 29th, 2013  
Wonderful contrasting shot - love the detail of the bricks against the soft fluffy sky. The tall buildings disappearing into the clouds is fab! Pleased you got your sensor sorted!
August 29th, 2013  
Beautiful clear shot, Taffy. Seems they did a good job with the lens.
August 29th, 2013  
I love this - the angles and the sky are fabulous
August 29th, 2013  
Awesome drama and shot!
August 29th, 2013  
Jo
Love the framing of the walls and the clouds look great - I am also a fan of clouds.
August 29th, 2013  
A fantastic shot, great contrast!
August 29th, 2013  
I do like your pov...it's almost like you are boxed in, dreaming of escape into a softer landscape (clouds).
August 29th, 2013  
Yay for spot-free sensors! Love the texture here
August 29th, 2013  
Like your comp and the cloudy building. Spotless!
August 29th, 2013  
Jo
Love this, especially how the pic is framed, great sky and angles.
August 29th, 2013  
Great capture. Love the perspective to cover those three brick walls . Great news that you got the camera back. Enjoy it.
August 29th, 2013  
Love this, is this HDR? Superb tones and composition. Love the frames on the edges.
August 29th, 2013  
great composition
August 29th, 2013  
Super shot,great textures on the brickwork!!
August 29th, 2013  
awesome shot! I love the colors and lines against that dramatic sky.
August 29th, 2013  
this feels a bit mysterious - which I like! Looking forward to your visual tour of Chicago. Glad you got your camera cleaned up, bet that's a relief!
August 29th, 2013  
beautiful composed and love the atmosphere! fabulous capture!
August 29th, 2013  
Love that sky. Pleased to hear your camera is sorted
August 29th, 2013  
Beautiful
August 30th, 2013  
Stunning and glad to hear the good news 'bout your toy :)
August 30th, 2013  
Ah, the unique joy of a clean sensor! Lovely capture.
August 30th, 2013  
@elaine55 Ooops...I fixed the way it was worded. It wasn't HDR, but I did process it using Color Efex, detail extractor as the main filter. That's the filter that brings out the sensor spots so much so it's a good test of whether the cleaning is successful. The camera folks said I should do this for two weeks and see if they come back. If they do, the camera has to go back to Nikon. If they don't, it's likely I'm in the clear with it. So, SOOC, it had no spots -- which means after using detail extractor, it was still fine. Before, I had to clone out each and every spot and sometimes there were dozens.
August 30th, 2013  
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Thank you all for such wonderful comments on this shot. I love having the clean sensor and not having to clone out spots, and look forward to some time this weekend to test the camera even more. For those who wondered -- or given how I originally worded it -- this was not SOOC as posted. It was only that SOOC there were no spots (I didn't have to clean it up before posting). But I did use Color Efex filters in processing -- one was detail extractor which I couldn't use before because all the spots were even worse, and the other I think was polarizing. Then I just upped the contrasts at bit.
August 30th, 2013  
excellent tones.
August 30th, 2013  
Saw a sign for Chicago just before we turned off 80 to head up to Michigan, so I waved in your direction! The clouds were pretty for our drive out and we had a good day. Glad you had a good one too- and hooray for your spot free camera! Nice shot!
August 30th, 2013  
Wow... this is awesome! the clarity is great!
August 30th, 2013  
@olivetreeann I know exactly where you were! We'll be heading up to Michigan in the morning. It was a good day today -- you picked an excellent one for travel, given what we've had since Sunday. Enjoy the weekend and thanks for the kind comments re the photo and my spot-free camera!
August 30th, 2013  
@kwind Thanks, Kim! It's so freeing not to worry about the sensor spots! That was so limiting!
August 30th, 2013  
@michaelelliott Thanks Michael, for visiting a few photos and for the fav on my sunflower sunset! I appreciate it.
August 30th, 2013  
This is cool! Love the perspective!
August 30th, 2013  
Beautiful shot!!!
August 30th, 2013  
Love how the bricks and clouds turned out with this processing!
August 31st, 2013  
Great pov and colors!
August 31st, 2013  
@orangecrush Thanks Jerry! As I return to mostly being in Chicago, I'm realizing that bricks provide an endless array of photo ops!! And with a clean camera sensor, I can use the detail filter again.
August 31st, 2013  
This is a fav as it really messes with the eye and I'm assuming because of the pov and dof--they sky goes without saying being one of my favorite parts, but the composition with the brick and the blurs here and there makes it seem more surreal.
September 1st, 2013  
A lovely capture and interesting composition.
September 1st, 2013  
gorgeous shot and spot free! :)
September 1st, 2013  
Yeah on a spot free camera. I have to take mine in at Christmas when I am back home in Australia. Too expensive to do here and my camera gets sent away which I am not comfortable with. Great clouds.
September 2nd, 2013  
@thirtysevenways @willowdragon @amrita21 @darylo
Thanks Andy, Al, Amrita, and Daryl! I appreciate that you had good things to say about this one -- it's the view is see every time I walk in or out of my building so fun to see positive responses to it as it's actually pretty mundane! I am loving not having spots, though a few are starting to creep back in. Hoping it's just dust.
September 2nd, 2013  
Nice lines and textures in the brickwork and clouds.
September 2nd, 2013  
I'm loving the way the clouds are covering one building and at the same time the other is clearly shown!
September 5th, 2013  
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