5th Annual Out of Chicago Summer Conference

5th Annual Out of Chicago Summer Conference

June 2018

https://carloscardona.myportfolio.com

Another great photography conference was held from June 21st-24th 2018 in downtown Chicago by Chris Smith’s Out of Chicago Photography Conferences. The conference, several hundred strong, was centered at The University Center of Chicago, but was also held on the streets of Chicago with many photowalks at all times of the day and night! This was one Lake Forest photographer who was ready for some great photography training and great shooting.

My conference began Friday morning, with an all day architecture lecture and photowalk led by Angie McMonigal and Michael Muraz, of Chicago and Toronto, two brilliant architectural photographer/teachers. We got some great shots in the morning at the Palmer House, and the The Chicago Cultural Center.

After lunch we got out our longer lenses and proceeded to shoot the outside of the Aqua building and then Millennium Park!

Friday night’s keynote by Scott Kelby was pretty much what I expected, after reading one of his books I knew what a hilarious and “no bull” approach he has to teaching photography. I doubt that any of the hundreds of attendees that night left without several good belly laughs about the state, and the business, of photography. Afterwards, I was happy to join legendary street photographer Steve Simon for a photo crawl to the Chicago Theatre.

Not too early on Saturday I joined Scott Kelby’s Portrait Retouching class, which was great because you can’t know too much about Photoshop. I had no idea the Liquid filter was so incredibly powerful! I also really enjoyed Jim Welninski’s class Imagination and the Fine Art Photograph, where the class members made comments that everyone, including Jim, seemed to really appreciate! Ugo Cei’s class on the Secrets of Travel Photography gave me one great tip: the perfect simplicity of only one person in the shot! Later I took a stroll over to the Buckingham Fountain to get these daylight shots.​​​

After dinner another photowalk, this time with Mr. Kelby, took us to Crown Fountain and the Bean. Scott warned us beforehand to watch out for stray elements in the edges of your frames that were only there to ruin your great shot.

I took another stroll after that to the Buckingham Fountain, where I wanted to get some night photos of the Chicago skyline behind the lighted fountains. Of course I met up with several attendees with the same idea I’d had!

The next day I enjoyed classes in Black & White Photography from Jim Welninsky, Photography Business from Michael Muraz, Macro Photography with Lou & Todd Nettlehorst, and Creative Habits with Angie McMonigal. All in all a wonderful creative and learning experience! Next year’s Summer Conference will concentrate on architecture and street photography. Thanks to Out of Chicago for an awesome learning (and fun!) experience!