Here are a couple more photos from Monday's foggy night.  It was a spur of the moment late night decision to go out and take some photos, but I'm glad I did. 

Fog does strange things to light.  I'm sure if I'd paid attention in my science class, I'd know why, but it's a mystery to me, and I'm actually ok with that.  There's something magical about being in the midst of such a thick fog.  Cadence told me the other day that she really wishes we could ride on a cloud, and I guess this is close.

They were smoking outside of Berlin, a club that's been a fixture on Belmont Ave for as long as I can remember.  The mist all around was turning every vehicular headlight into an eerily moving spotlight, and these guys were huddled together discussing the merits of astrology.

I love this town...

Look how innocent you looked when we first got together! 

And here you are now, all grown up, with a bona fide beard and everything!

Here's to all your wishes coming true!

xoxo

I have a post up on Shutter Sisters today that I'm crossposting on my Presets blog.  It's more of a technical post for folks who use Adobe Lightroom, which is my post-processing arsenal of choice.  Instead of posting the same thing here, I thought I'd show another night photo from my archives using one of the the presets I developed. 

I'm one of those weird photographers who ADORE artificial light sources, such as streetlights.  There is something fascinating to me visually about the dance between light and dark and all the shadows in between.

...I'm ready for my Spring Showers now.  I don't really mind if we skip the windy prelude to April, thank you.

Truth be told, I don't take many photos of Cadence any more.  Part of it is my usual winter blahs being cooped up indoors, and part of it is that after 5 years of being in front of a lens, the novelty has worn off on Cadence.  This makes me a little sad, as so much of my body of work captures the fleeting moments of my growing little girl, and I would hate to stop doing that now. 

I guess sometimes, I have to forget about being a photographer and just be the annoying mom who keeps going click-click-click.  Someday she'll thank me, I hope...

Cadence and Rudden are actually at work here.  In exchange for some tasty watermelon flavored chewing gum, they let me take their photos.  Zane just happened to sit down in the frame right when I started shooting, and he was a perfect addition.

These kids crack me up.

Our friend Katie has been in town doing an artist residency at Berry.  She's been covering our church with little bits of beauty in unexpected places, and she finally got our craft/arts night going.  We look forward to visiting her at Worm Farm again this spring!

A hot cup of rooibos would be nice...it's cold out there today, and my legs are still thawing out.

I feel bad that I've been posting only night photos and none of Cadence lately, so here you go.  Yes, it's still a night photo, but there's Cadence poking her head in the frame wondering what the heck mommy is doing on the ground.

+++++++++++++++++

Edited to Add: That is a canopy of Christmas lights that was hanging on Chicago and Michigan Avenue.  To get this effect is very simple.  Set camera on low ISO (like 200 or less), set aperture narrow (f/10 was used in this case), set the self-timer (or on remote), place on ground facing up, and *click*.  The longer exposure combined w/ the narrower aperture create starlike flares of all the little points of light.  To get the color effects, I used a modified version of one of my night-time presets, which I will be introducing after more tweaking in about 10 days.  You can always play around w/ the white balance (I think I pushed it into the blue quite a bit) and hue/saturation to get the night sky effect YOU want.  I rather like the teal.