4th Presbyterian Church...

I photographed this church located on Michigan Avenue a few years ago when I was just starting to take photography seriously. I was still learning my way around the camera back then and was never happy with the result that I achieved in that original shot. Since my first attempt, I have always planned to go back and try it again, but just havent made the effort to do so. Well today I decided to go back and try it again and I have to say that Im definitely much happier with this result.
Holy Name Cathedral...

I had some time to kill today waiting to pick up a few prints so I stopped by Holy Name Cathedral to grab a few photos. I figured it would be a good spot to check out since they elected the new pope today. Outside there was a ton of media trucks from all the major stations, so I worried it was going to be crazy inside. To my surprise, most of the media was still outside and the few that were in there were mostly hidden from view.
Salisbury Cathedral...

Since it rained pretty much everyday on my last trip to England and photography outdoors was miserable for 3 out of the 4 days, we headed over to Salisbury Cathedral one morning to check it out. This place is absolutely incredible on the inside! We met an older man who volunteered as a tour guide, and since he was a bit early to work, he gave us a private tour of the the main area, telling us all sorts of interesting facts and history about this historic place. Salisbury Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, and is considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture. The main body of the cathedral(nave, transepts and choir) was completed in only 38 years, from 1220 to 1258. The spire was added later in 1302, which at 404, dominated the skyline. Whilst the spire is the cathedral's most impressive feature, it has also proved to be troublesome. Together with the tower, it added 6,500 tonnes to the weight of the building. Without the addition of flying buttresses, bracing arches, and anchor irons over the succeeding centuries, it would have and fallen down. Today, Salisbury remains the tallest church spire in the UK. Even today, the large supporting pillars at the corners of the spire are seen to bend inwards under the stress. The addition of reinforcing tie beams above the crossing in 1668 halted further deformation of the pillars. Salisbury Cathedral contains the world's oldest working clock (from AD 1386) and has the best surviving of the four original copies of Magna Carta. 

The original file of this image is 44 megapixels and has a native resolution of 8775 x 5086...
English Barley Field Sunset...

Ok first off, photographing the English countryside is a royal PITA. All of the roads have these thorny bushes that extend like 10 feet high, so when you reach the top of a hill and expect to see a nice open landscape, thats just not the case 9 times out of 10. Im assuming these bushes are here for 3 reasons, first, they act as sound dampening for the roads to keep noise pollution to a minimum. Secondly, the keep cars from running off the road, and lastly, they keep people for trespassing on their land and stealing their crops. I totally understand the concept, but it makes it really difficult for taking pictures of the rolling English countryside from the roadside. Anyways, after 3 days of complete overcast on our trek through southwestern England, the sky had opened up a bit and I had a feeling that sunset would be a good one. In England at this time of year, sunset isnt till around 9:45pm, and since you are pretty far north, it last's forever and doesn't get totally dark till around 11:30pm. Armed with this knowledge and fully realizing that I was in a completely foreign country and had no idea where to go, I headed out at about 6pm. I started driving around, thinking I had plenty of time to find a workable composition that had a north western view so I could see the sunset. Boy was I wrong! I drove around for the next 3 hours, desperately searching for a view that I liked as the time slowly slipped away. At around 9:20, I started getting worried that I wasnt going to find a location I was satisfied with and time was starting to slip away. The one route that I was fully confident about took me to three military roads that all had signs saying, "Authorized Military Personnel only, Deadly force is authorized to all trespassers" or something along those lines. Definitely not going to chance that, lol. I continued on and continued west down motorway M26, thinking that all of this effort was going to be for not. It was just then that I past an opening in the thick bushes in the side of the road and this barley field came into view. I quickly grabbed the e-brake on the little stick shift Peugeot 207 rental car, skidded around while downshifting to first, then quickly turned around and parked the grass next to the opening. I grabbed my camera and hopped the fence into this field of barley, setup my tripod and relaxed a bit while I got to witness this amazing sunset.
City Methodist Church

City Methodist Church has been been abandoned for over 3 decades. It cost 1 million dollars to build back in 1926 and was a successful congregation until 1974 when poor attendance forced a committee to hold a meeting to determine the fate of the church. They decided to relocate and close the church as of January 3rd, 1975. It has sat abandoned ever since. Its future remains unknown...
City Methodist Church

City Methodist Church has been been abandoned for over 3 decades. It cost 1 million dollars to build back in 1926 and was a successful congregation until 1974 when poor attendance forced a committee to hold a meeting to determine the fate of the church. They decided to relocate and close the church as of January 3rd, 1975. It has sat abandoned ever since. Its future remains unknown...
Union Station

This train station has been abandoned since the 1950's when automobiles became affordable to the middle class family and the railroad couldnt compete. It has been abandoned ever since, to expensive and pointless to demolish. This particular station was used as an example for what could happen to a Chicago building in 50 years without humans providing maintenance and upkeep on the History Channel's Show,  Life After People.
Living Abandoned

This chair and old school television sit abandoned, forgotten in the sands of time.
City Methodist Church Main Cathedral

Here is the main Cathedral of City Methodist Church, which has been abandoned for over 3 decades.
4th Presbyterian Church...

I photographed this church located on Michigan Avenue a few years ago when I was just starting to take photography seriously. I was still learning my way around the camera back then and was never happy with the result that I achieved in that original shot. Since my first attempt, I have always planned to go back and try it again, but just havent made the effort to do so. Well today I decided to go back and try it again and I have to say that Im definitely much happier with this result.
4th Presbyterian Church...

I photographed this church located on Michigan Avenue a few years ago when I was just starting to take photography seriously. I was still learning my way around the camera back then and was never happy with the result that I achieved in that original shot. Since my first attempt, I have always planned to go back and try it again, but just havent made the effort to do so. Well today I decided to go back and try it again and I have to say that Im definitely much happier with this result.
4th Presbyterian Church...

I photographed this church located on Michigan Avenue a few years ago when I was just starting to take photography seriously. I was still learning my way around the camera back then and was never happy with the result that I achieved in that original shot. Since my first attempt, I have always planned to go back and try it again, but just havent made the effort to do so. Well today I decided to go back and try it again and I have to say that Im definitely much happier with this result.
See photo in original gallery.