Day 22 (Monday, July 3)

That's the Bean at Millennium Park.

Is it a pretty photo? Maybe. It's up to your interpretation. But let's pick in my brain and figure out why I put that photo there.

Well, the reason that photo is there is because that's where I spent a large portion of my evening. This is the angle I had for a photo idea I had for tonight's fireworks show in downtown. This is what I was "imagining" when I decided I wanted to go shoot the fireworks. I was imagining the setting you see on that photo. However, I was also seeing large balls of fire exploding in the sky and being reflected on the right side of the Bean. Imagine that. It would be a cool photo because it's the first time the Bean actually is around during the famous Chicago Independence Eve Fireworks show that drew an expected 1 million people.

Scroll up to the photo again. If you'd seen the photo w/o the above description, would you know that I only shot that photo as a practice shot?

OK, Let's look at the next photo and put the first photo into context...

The fireworks show started and from my pre-visualized angle I could not see much of the fireworks. Turns out the fireworks were blown so far away from the Bean that they weren't so visible on the mirror surface.

I had to regroup. Pick up my tripod and look for a different angle. After circling the Bean two times I could not get a clear view of the fireworks. So, I decided I would shoot photos of the people there.

If you saw the above photo w/o the context I just gave you, the photo would not make any sense. You'd think I am a bad photographer because the photo is so weak and you wouldn't know what is going on being that the fireworks are so minute on the left side and they blend in w/ the background.

So, all of a sudden photos No. 1 and No. 2 make sense because I wrote a little about what happened.

Again, the photo is weak, but I was not going to let the adversity keep me down. I picked up my tripod one more time and walked around looking for a better view.

Being that there wasn't much time remaining in the show. I had to pick something quick. I saw a few girls sitting on a shed and I figured it would be the best sort of view I could get right about then. I sure wasn't going to try to get too picky. Not when I spent the past two hours pre-visualizing the photo at of the Bean.

If you saw these photos w/o the context, you might like them. But you wouldn't understand why I shot them and how much they mean to me.

The last two photos mean so much to me because I felt good about rebounding from the fact that my idea failed. I still wish the fireworks were big enough to create a large display on the Bean. Oh well. I wasn't going to fold. I had to find a setting where I could shoot a usable photo.

It's a tough call. Should I only post photos and no journal?

I love talking about my photos. It shows that sometimes I just don't point the camera at the subject and just shoot. But is there really a point for y'all to sit through here and read every single word of nonsense that I type.

The journal is strictly to express myself and to let out some of the feelings I have during that particular day. Being that I am far away from home. All my friends are 2,805 miles away. My parents are just as far. And my cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents are about 3,500 miles away. When I go out to assignments I talk to the subjects because I must do so in order to do the job. But for the most part I am quiet. I stay quiet and become just an observer as I try to focus on what to shoot.

Yesterday - Main - Tomorrow