175th Anniversary! Oh My!
When the winter scenery is fickle, what is a nature photographer to do?! MAPS does what it does best, improvise. We went to capture the beauty of the Chicago Skyline. Imagine twilight in the big city. Crisp cold air. Blustery winds from the Northwest. Even the dolphins and Beluga whales had sense to stay indoors.
We went to the Museum Campus downtown Chicago on Sunday, March 4, 2012. In the 
suburbs, the clouds were nicely broken up to allow some sun rays to shine through. But, alas, once downtown the sky was completely filled in with thick, fast moving. Eighteen brave members and guests met at the steps of the Shedd Aquarium (1200 S Lake Shore Dr, Chgo, Ill 60605) but we quickly made our way to the Adler Planetarium to setup for the expanse of the city.
As the sun began to set the lights in the various building brightened up, revealing the number 175 in four of the old guard buildings. The tops of the tallest ones were adorned like candles. Chicago was celebrating its 175th birthday, and we were there to capture it. After the sun finally set (behind a wall of clouds that extended well across the lake) the bone chilling winds took affect, and even a flurry of snow began to fall. This was not your “stick out your tongue and capture soft fluffy flakes” kind of snow. It was the late winter, sharp-edged, stinging kind of snow. Ouch! Once that began, the crew packed it in and called it a night. Below is a smattering of the various cityscapes that our group captured.
