It’s rare one location works well for both cityscapes and abstracts, but the Studio Gang-designed pavilion along Lincoln Park’s nature boardwalk is one of those ideal locations. Starting wide, you can use the pavilion to frame a portion of Chicago’s skyline. Either from inside the pavilion for a more fill-the-frame perspective or stepping back and showing off the curves with a bit of the sky acting as negative space.
This is also one of those locations that you must visit at all times of the year and day. Do you see how the light feels so different between the summertime shot above and the wintertime shot below (more examples of this a bit later)?
You can also include just a portion of the pavilion with the city in the background. Love the sway of the pavilion and tree mirroring each other! Like they’re making way for you to see the Hancock Building 😉
The inspiration behind the pavilion’s design was the tortoise shell. Can you see that in these next couple of shots?
There are so many great ways to create abstracts from inside the shell of the pavilion. You can either zoom in tight and eliminate the space of the translucent shell so only the wood fills the frame…
…or go a bit wider and show off how the shells and the wood play so well off each other.
Use the surrounding nature to create some contrasts…
Next up, back to showing how different this location can look depending on the time of year, with two very similarly framed shots. The first was taken during our Chicago workshop 2 years ago. Look at that amazing golden light.
The next shot was taken in the middle of summer on a somewhat overcast day.
What a difference in how each image feels, right?!
These next two images were taken during last years Chicago workshop, which took place in October. We had pretty gloomy, overcast skies but there was a short break with a bit of blue that came through. Again, amazing how different kinds of light and weather affect this location so much!
Based on the shots I’ve shared here, you can also see there are a lot of opportunities for symmetry in this location. I’ll leave you with one final shot, getting away from that symmetry and, instead, using the edge of the pavilion to create a dramatic leading line pulling you through the pavilion and its interaction with the dramatic clouds.
This will be our first location during this October’s Chicago workshop. Get all the details here and we hope you’ll join us for this and so much more!